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New Urbanism Applications to Bernal Property The Phase I Specific Plan for the Bernal Property embraced New Urbanism principles with regard to the residential and commercial uses. The Phase I Specific Plan states that 'Nco-traditional' (New Urbanism) is a planning approach that: "...recalls urban development patterns and building forms of the 19th century. The Specific Plan reflects this New Urbanism philosophy by employing a variety of site planning and design strategies that de- emphasize the automobile and emphasize public places, pedestrian scale and circulation, and a strong sense of streetscape with tree-lined streets and defined building edges...The circulation plan emphasizes pedestrian movement, transit and other non-automobile circulation, and convenient movement of passenger cars." (2-t, 2-2, Executive Summary of the Phase I Specific Plan) Two recent books on New Urbanism have been reviewed during the preparation of this paper: ( I ) The New Urbanism, Toward an Architecture of Community, by Peter Katz, and (2) New Urbanism: Comprehensive Report and Best Practices Guide, by Robert Steuteville and Philip Langdon. These provide historical perspectives, project descriptions and essays from the practitioners of New Urbanism. Discussions and quotations from these writings that potentially have relevance to park and open space planning for the Bernal Property include the following: According to current New Urbanism thinking, growth boundaries that counter sprawl are more effectively defined by identifying and preserving open space and rural landscapes, rather than stopping all development to counter sprawl. "Mapping preserves, wildlife corridors and essential agricultural land is often the first order of business in the planning process." (Steuteville, Langdon) "Open space functions differeatly in a New Urban community .... In a conventional subdivision, open space is often used as a buffer between one subdivision and the next. In contrast, New Urban community open space is centrally located, in the form of squares, plazas and small parks where people can meet and mingle." (Steuteville, Langdon) Open space needs to be well defined and memorable, rather than undefined and residual. Greens, squares, plazas and other parks are to be programmable and easy to locate, so that neighborhood and community events are accessible and user-compatible. (Katz) Additional sources of planning and design relevance that have recently emerged include the 'Ahwahnee Principles' and Christopher Alexander's Pattern Language. The 'Ahwahnee Principles' are the product of a workshop held in 1990 at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, sponsored by Mike and Judy Corbett. Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk (architects of Seaside, Florida, the first new urban town), Peter Calthorpe (pioneer of pedestrian-oriented development), and Elizabeth Moule and Stefanos Polyzoides (new urbanism of "the street, the block and the building") assembled together to brainstorm how to design better communities. They identified twenty-three principles addressing community scale, regional differences and implementation. The Ahwahnee Principles were later published and distributed to the mayors of California Cities by the Local Government Commission, and have been referenced many times since. 4