NEWPORT — This city’s greatest asset is perhaps also one of its least utilized – Lake Memphremagog. That was the initial observation that architect James Abell, a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team (RUDAT), expressed to members of the Newport City Renaissance Corporation on Thursday night, November 13.
“This town doesn’t really face the lake,” Mr. Abell said.
Not only are buildings facing landward, the views greeting visitors arriving in Newport from the lake are less than spectacular. Greeting guests from the water is a collection of the backsides of buildings and a bleak concrete retaining wall near the Gateway Center.
“That retaining wall is, I guess, the price you pay to get some level land for parking,” Mr. Abell said.
Proposals to redevelop properties as hotels along the east side of the lake hold promise, he said.
Mr. Abell, along with his AIA partner Joel Mills, are in Newport to evaluate the city as a candidate for a potential in-depth consultation in March of 2009. The most important factor will be whether there is the will to implement and follow through on proposed strategies, Mr. Abell said.
“It’s more than street trees on Main Street and brick pavers,” Mr. Abell said. “It’s about quality of life.”
“It’s something that can only be accomplished with a great deal of success with a lot of community involvement,” Mr. Mills said.
Newport is in a peculiar situation relative to most other communities in the Northeast Kingdom, said Paul Dreher, Newport City’s zoning administrator. It is highly constrained by a limited amount of developable real estate, he said.
That land constraint plays well into a current architectural trend to mixed-use development, Mr. Abell said. Retail space at street level can be combined with office and residential space above. The mixture creates a more dynamic community, he said. America may finally have reached the point where it is moving away from single-family residential homes and toward communal living spaces, he said.
These communal spaces are often focused around a common feature, such as a park or open space, that encourage social interaction among residents, Mr. Abell said.
“It’s not about playing in your yard, it’s about playing in the community yard. If we want children to go out and play and be active we need to create these places and make them safe and inviting.”
Like other communities where land is in short supply, Newport has to consider the possibility of expanding upward, Mr. Abell said. But it is important that new development embrace and compliment the existing history, character and architecture of the community, Mr. Abell said.
Charles Elliott, chairman of the Newport City planning commission, said the height of Newport’s buildings is largely dictated by how high the fire department’s ladder can reach. Mr. Elliott asked if impact fees on developers might help pay for the necessary firefighting equipment.
Impact fees can be used to cover a variety of costs incurred by the municipality, Mr. Abell said, provided they are flexible and fair.
One Texas community he worked with allowed a developer to pay the fees on his new buildings as those homes were sold, rather than as they were built, Mr. Abell said.
Having the opportunity to be reviewed by a “blue-ribbon panel” is a special honor for the city, said Patricia Sears, CEO of the Renaissance Corporation. The AIA has conducted “RUDATs” for the past 40 years, and Newport is the first city in Vermont to receive this attention. The process also involves bringing together people within the community with the will and vision to effect meaningful changes.
“It needs to be deliberate, thoughtful and sustainable,” Ms. Sears said.
In spite of the economic challenges facing this part of the state, the city should not grant concessions simply to attract businesses, Mr. Abell said.
“This is as nice a place in America as you could find to live,” Mr. Abell said. “But I understand it is also a tough place to earn a living.”
Allowing any and all businesses to show up, slap down a low-cost, generic pre-fabricated building can only diminish the value of a community, he warned. This mentality of increasing the tax-base at all costs has allowed the American urban center to become a dismal and ugly place, Mr. Abell said.
While the RUDAT team will compile a list of recommendations at the conclusion of its visit, the onus will remain on the community to follow through, Mr. Abell said.
“We need to have some early victories to push us along,” he said. “But we also need to shoot for the moon.”
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