Planetizen, the planning, design and development network, publishes a weekly newswire. This week there is a link to an article on the, "Whistling past the Graveyard," blog (WPTG) regarding cemeteries and planning. I have not thought much about planning and cemeteries, but someone has to do it, right?
In the interview WPTG asks author James Howard Kunstler:
"There seem to be nearly as many zoning designations for cemeteries as there are communities. In my town, Winslow Township, NJ, they're a 'non-conforming use.' Two towns up the highway, they have specs down to lot size, frontage, percent of paved surface, and the like. So what's the best way to include cemeteries in master plans and the like? Is there a need for some uniformity?"
Kunstler answers:
"You may find this answer impertinent, but I genuinely believe that the disorders of "The Long Emergency" will be such that planning departments will be dismantled for lack of government funding and the public will ignore the zoning laws as the motoring experience and all its niggling demands shrinks into history."
In the article Kunstler defines The Long Emergency as the decades ahead where resources are scarce and people continue to die from starvation, disease, hardship and war.
With less dependence on the automobile, people are expected to migrate back into cities around the globe and Mr. Kunstler predicts the end of the proliferation of suburbia as we know it in his speeches and writings. It is difficult to imagine such occurring what with many developing countries adding new cars to their roads daily, but it is a possibility I suppose years from now.
Could it be as Northampton's Planning Department and Board respectively continue with the introduction of, "smart growth," policies like infill, zero lot lines, roundabouts and bicycle trails that they are also inadvertently planning their own decline as public agencies? Could it be that thousands of planning employees and students across the nation could one day find themselves out of work due to a contracting global economy and lack of funding? That's beyond me to say, but one thing is certain, Northampton's formal planners have left their mark on the city, for better or worse, and even if they go the way of the automobile and become civic relics of the past the impacts of their actions will be felt for decades if not centuries to come.
As with most public entities the Planning Department's legacy will be written by future generations who will have the benefit of hindsight and after-the-fact policy analysis. Perhaps a hundred years from now our relatives will know if those pesky landfill liners leaked further contaminating a water supply and whether Hospital Hill turned into a slum in the wake of Old Main's demise. Perhaps sooner we'll know if the BID was a good idea to go along with Smith College expansion and the elimination of Green Street. Perhaps we will even learn of the impacts of a crumbling water and sewer system on the quality of our lives. Perhaps.
