TELE-WORKSHOP FACT SHEET December 3, 2003 Preserving Our Treasured Places: GUIDELINES FOR MANAGING VISUAL QUALITY ON AMERICA’S BYWAYS™ TELE-WORKSHOP SPOTLIGHT SPEAKER Meg Maguire President, Scenic America Speaker Profile: Since 1996, Meg Maguire has served as President of Scenic America.The organization’s mission is to safeguard natural beauty and community character by building a citizen movement for scenic conservation. Currently there are eight state affiliates and 16 other state and local scenic organizations. Scenic America promotes good planning through excellence in context- sensitive highway design, sign control, franchise design, site selection for cellular towers, tree conservation, Smart Growth and other issues affecting local appearance. Scenic America has been a leader in the National Scenic Byways Program since the beginning of the concept in the late 1980s. Meg has represented citizen interests on a number of studies and panels, advancing the case for highway design and management to take into account environmental, scenic, aes- thetic, historic, community and preservation impacts of particular activities. Prior to coming to Scenic America, she served as the Deputy Director of the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service at the U.S. Department of the Interior during the Carter Administration, where she administered grant and technical assistance for recreation, urban park restoration and historic preservation. SCENIC AMERICA SUPPORTS AMERICA’S BYWAYS(TM) An early supporter of the National Scenic Byways Program, Meg Maguire readily sees the connection between her organization, Scenic America, and America’s Byways.(TM) Many of the resources that Scenic America strives to protect are similar to those identified as intrinsic qualities of nationally designated Byways-—visual resources as well as historic and cultural resources. Realizing the potential for collaborative efforts, the America’s Byways Resource Center has welcomed Meg’s expertise and enthusiasm, and her insights often appear in Vistas, the Resource Center newsletter. In addition, America’s Byways Resource Center is working on a new publication in partnership with Scenic America. Preserving Our Treasured Places: Guidelines for Managing Visual Quality on America’s Byways is expected to be released in early 2004. “The National Scenic Byways Program has exceeded our expectations,” she said.“I don’t think we expected such an enormous outpouring of time and energy by citizens along the Byways. It’s very exciting.” SAVING WHAT’S VALUED Meg explained “scenic conservation” in layman’s terms. She said,“It’s saving those visual qualities of a place that you value.” She reinforced this with a more formal definition, adding that what’s valued may be a built or unbuilt setting.“Beauty is both natural and constructed, and scenery may well include city skylines as well as small-town buildings.” Where does scenic conservation fit into the scheme of things? “Visitors expect high visual quality and good interpretation. They find the Byway that advertises these qualities through good marketing,” she said. Assessing your scenic quality begins with the corridor management plan (CMP).“Be systematic about the scenic inventory,” Meg said. Scenic America has materials to help, including guidance for determining scale, magnitude of resources, architectural character, natural environment character, and focal points-—those unique visual elements and uses that separate your setting from others. THE PRIMARY ISSUES AND APPROACHES According to Meg, there are primarily eight issues to consider when assessing the landscape, and basically six graduated methods to approach each issue, from education to regulation.The aim should be to ensure that the resource will be protected in the future. EDUCATION Education should be the cornerstone of a byway’s efforts to manage visual quality. Citizens need to understand the reasons for preserving and enhancing the visual quality of the road and the options available to do so. VOLUNTARY MEASURES Byways education encourages participation in voluntary measures that support the CMP.Voluntary measures may include easements, gifts, purchases, etc. People act because they feel it’s right, not because they must do so by law. INCORPORATION INTO MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES It is important that local, state and federal agencies incorporate the objectives of the CMP into their own management plans for the area. INCENTIVES Incentives can provide significant motivation for improving local appearance, and frequently will leverage both funds and community involvement. ACQUISITION/PURCHASE “You can best protect a resource if you can own it,” said Meg.“But that is not practical on a broad scale. Acquiring land and other intrinsic resources through easement or donation is another way of permanently managing the visual quality of the corridor.” REGULATORY MEASURES What you can’t own, but must protect, might fall into the regulatory category. Regulations might include overlay districts, sign control, design review, historic preservation, etc. Local, municipal, county, state or federal laws can all affect scenic conservation.“Know the law!” cautioned Meg. She believes that familiarity with the law and a willingness to organize to change it to meet your conservation objectives is vital in stopping visual deterioration over time. BOX: Eight Scenic Conservation Issues and Strategies 1. Design in Towns, Historic Districts, Commercial Areas and Neighborhoods 2. Trees and Vegetation 3. Natural,Working and Designed Landscape 4. Highway, Street and Bridge Design 5. On-Premise, Off-Premise and Roadway Signs 6. Wireless Telecommunications Towers and Overhead Utility Wires 7. Night Lighting 8. Views,Vistas and Open Space EXAMINING THE EIGHT ISSUES 1. DESIGN The distinctive appearance of the built environment helps to frame the Byway’s character and tell its story. On the Byway, it is important to maintain the character of towns, historic districts, commercial areas or neighborhoods through good preservation and new design.“Good design also needs to complement the landscape.” She recommended checking along your byway to identify official historic districts, business districts, neighborhoods or conservation districts. “Change is inevitable, ugliness is not,” reminded Meg, using the organization’s motto.“You can guide growth to complement character.” She suggested that Byway leaders check community plans often.“Are there design standards or guidelines? How does your community’s plan deal with aesthetic concerns?” A community may have created a local historic properties commission. Learn how the commission identifies or designates properties.“Very few communities have strong ordinances,” she commented.“But some conservation tools are probably in place.” If you can find a pro bono lawyer to evaluate the documents, you’ll understand both their strengths and weaknesses.Then you can define carefully what laws and regulations you need to enact to protect your resources. 2.TREES AND VEGETATION People understand it’s important to plant trees and vegetation -—and they are quite likely to organize tree-planting projects as a voluntary activity.The trouble is more often with tree loss.“Tree destruction during development can be damaging to visual character,” explained Meg.“It requires an enlightened developer or a strong ordinance.” Ordinances are often necessary; examine your tree ordinances, in particular. “If you don’t govern scenic conservation issues, I guarantee that greed and expedience will take precedence,” she warned, acknowledging that governance could be perceived as complicating some clear-cutting development plans. Check with existing community or statewide groups that are particularly interested in trees, such as a chapter of the National Arbor Foundation or the Sierra Club. Find out what ordinances those groups are already working toward. Other vegetation also impacts visual quality.“How does your state regard vegetation management on the roadside?” she asked. Does the city or state transportation agency use native plantings? Are they trying to cut maintenance costs from mowing by using plants that do not require mowing? Have they adopted wildflowers, proven to be popular in many states? 3.NATURAL,WORKING AND DESIGNED LANDSCAPE Locate and define the natural, undisturbed land as well as working lands such as ranches, farms and forests. Designed landscape includes areas created for particular uses. What regulations or landscape ordinances are in place? Are there height restrictions or laws against roofs with high reflectivity for better scenic zones? Can you identify particularly important viewsheds? “Really look and think about the land uses in place in your area,” Meg said.“What is there now? What is projected? What is up for grabs and what is protected?” 4. HIGHWAY, STREET AND BRIDGE DESIGN Scenic America supports “context-sensitive highway solutions,” (a term that has replaced “context-sensitive design” because it includes management of the road after it is built). Context-sensitive solutions (CSS) use common-sense principles, according to Meg, so that scenic, historic, aesthetic, recreational and natural resources are taken into consideration during the early planning stages. Under CSS, the public is involved early and continuously in the design and management of the road. At the state level, Scenic America would like to see CSS enacted by the state legislatures to cover all highway, street and bridge construction.“Legislation needn’t say how to implement CSS,” she noted, "but it should require CSS in the approach." 5. ON-PREMISE, OFF-PREMISE AND ROADWAY SIGNS City and state authorities govern these signs, determining the kinds of signs, how many in a given place, or how the wayfinding system works. Meg believes that the most difficult signage to control is outdoor advertising, or billboards. Although the law prohibits new billboards along scenic byways that are included in the National Highway System, this leaves out many byways that are state or local roads. “A volunteer or paid lawyer is extremely helpful in crafting legislation to stop new billboard construction,” Meg commented.“You can’t remedy a problem until you stop it from getting worse. Stopping new billboard construction is a critical first step in controlling visual blight.While billboards often become controversial, if you’re serious about scenic conservation, there’s no substitution for strengthening your sign control ordinances.” 6. WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS TOWERS AND OVERHEAD UTILITY WIRES Meg explained that in 1996 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decided that communities can’t ban cell towers because the national objective is to create a seamless wireless communications network.“But Congress did give communities the power to regulate where cell towers can be placed and what they look like (i.e., requiring visual integration and visual mitigation),” she said.“Some towns have done a good job; others need to get a good ordinance in place.” Scenic America offers an Action Guide on this issue. Specifically referring to overhead utility wires, Meg said these often become “long-term legacy projects.” Burying wires underground is quite expensive. Often, assessments are levied that community residents agree to pay. Another way is to plan to move wires underground during road reconstruction.“Growing public awareness of community appearance supports moving wires underground,” Meg noted.“People see the economic damage when wires cut off electric and phone service after a storm. It is important to work with your local public utility company to put a plan in place so that 25 years from now the wires won’t be there.” 7. NIGHT LIGHTING “We just over-light in this society. Lighting destroys viewing of the night sky. Astronomers especially have brought attention to this issue,” Meg said. She mentioned the International Dark Sky Association as an advocate for proper ordinances. “Don’t rely on goodwill,” she said.“Enact ordinances that make sense both for businesses that need to be identified and for protecting our view of the starry heavens.” 8. VIEWS,VISTAS AND OPEN SPACE “The landscape is often the source of tremendous pride for a community,” Meg commented. Some scenic conservation approaches include acquisition, conservation easements, transfer of development rights, overlay districts, greenbelts, viewshed ordinances, or hillside/ridgeline ordinances. WITHOUT LAW, WE’RE DOOMED BY THE LAWLESS “None of this is easy. And you can’t do it all at once,” Meg said.“You’ll find people are interested in different issues. Scenic conservation is a tough issue. But it galvanizes people.When they open their eyes,take in what is around them, inventory those resources and completely understand what governs the resources, they can become powerful advocates for protecting the resources for future generations. It’s worth the Byway planning team’s time to educate people and to draw them into your action plan.” RESOURCES: Scenic America has a very helpful Web site -– www.scenic.org –- with a number of free fact sheets available. In addition, the following in-depth books and videos are available from Scenic America: SCENIC AMERICA ACTION GUIDES • Power to the People: Strategies for Reducing the Visual Impact of Overhead Utilities. Scenic America, 2001. 20 pp. • Taming the Wireless Telecommunications Towers. Scenic America, 2001. 20 pp. • Getting It Right In the Right-of-Way: Citizen Participation in Context-Sensitive Highway Design. Scenic America, 2000. 24 pp. SCENIC AMERICA PUBLICATIONS • Fighting Billboard Blight: An Action Guide for Citizens and Public Officials. Scenic America, 1999. 85 pp. • O, Say Can You See:A Visual Awareness Tool Kit for Communities. Scenic America, SUNY - Syracuse, NPS, 1999. 75 pp. • Aesthetics, Community Character and the Law. C. Duerksen, R. M. Goebel. APA Planning Advisory Service and Scenic America, 2000. 154 pp. • Tree Conservation Ordinances: Land Use Regulations Go Green. Chris Duerksen, APA, 1993. 110 pp. SCENIC AMERICA VIDEOS • Trees Are Treasure: Sustaining the Community Forest. Scenic America, 1993. • Signs, Signs: The Economic and Environmental Benefits of Community Sign Control. Scenic America, 1992. • Scenic Solutions: Designs and Methods to Save America the Beautiful. This full-length multi-media CD-ROM includes video clips, maps, and case studies as well as a full-color, 16-page booklet outlining the project. Q & A Q. Give some examples of the first steps for byways to think about at the local level. MEG’S RESPONSE: Inventory! What places are special? What visual assets do we have? What do we want to save? What needs to be cleaned, cleared, rehabilitated or restored? What are the threats? Conduct an assessment of the byway that looks systematically at the visual environment both day and night. Q. Can you tell us more about the new book coming out? MEG’S RESPONSE: The new publication Preserving Our Treasured Places: Guidelines for Managing Visual Quality on America’s Byways from America’s Byways Resource Center describes the process of thinking about these issues and developing a Scenic Resource Conservation Plan.The publication is a guide and presents an overview but does not go into as much detail as you can find in the books and material Scenic America and other organizations offer. National Scenic Byway leaders will receive a copy of the publication in early 2004. Be knowledgeable! Study up on the issues you know will affect you. Q. Wind turbine development is an unregulated activity that has a cloak of “green-ness” to it, but is exchanging a reduction in air pollution for visual pollution.What can you recommend for tackling this issue? MEG’S RESPONSE: Unfortunately, not a lot of technical assistance is available on best practices for determining wind-energy facility sites. Wind energy is a good thing, but it needs to be carefully governed, just like wireless towers. And, you can’t come in after the fact and try to rectify something that’s gone up that you don’t like.You need to have ordinances in place ahead of time when the companies come in for their permits. I recommend reading Wind Power In View: Energy Landscapes in a Crowded World by Pasquelliti, Gipe and Righter from Academic Press. It offers ideas on the visual impact of turbines. Q. The billboard company continues to override us. We have a designated Byway on a state road. What more can we do? MEG’S RESPONSE: The billboard industry has lots of money to put pressure on your local officials, to intimidate communities and bring lawsuits against them.We need to get state DOTs to do a better job of enforcing the Highway Beautification Act and local officials to do a better job of enforcing local billboard ordinances or enacting tougher ones. Find state elected officials who understand that this is an incremental problem that quickly gets out of hand. Use photographs to illustrate your case. Show the important community characteristics and vistas to protect. Then show how billboards affect your Byway and the communities along the Byway. You can do simulation to show how it will appear if billboard proliferation continues. There are scenic byways and transportation enhancement funds available for removing billboards from byways. But, first you want an ordinance to stop new billboard con- struction in your town or county, so that when you remove them, more will not go up in their place. Check permits for billboards. Relocation might be an option. Conglomerates own the majority of billboards in the country and they do not seem much interested in negotiation. All of us must push hard and be smart about protecting our scenic heritage. Plan and organize for change.To paraphrase the late Charles Kuralt, together we can reclaim the beauty of America, place by place and mile by mile. America’s Byways Resource Center provides information, connections and expertise that help build better byways. State coordinators, local groups, volunteers and organizations with ties to nationally designated scenic Byways look to us for hands-on assistance in planning, preserving, promoting and managing scenic Byways. 2004 BYWAY LEADER TELE-WORKSHOPS Please join us for the 2004 Byway Leader Tele-Workshops! Here are some upcoming conference calls you won’t want to miss: February 4 Community Involvement Toolbox Peggy Pings, National Park Service – Rivers,Trails and Conservation Assistance Program April 7 Byway Accessibility Janet Zeller, USDA Forest Service 2003 FACT SHEETS For copies of past Byway Leader Tele-Workshop Fact Sheets, visit www.bywaysonline.org or e-mail your request to center@byways.org February 5 Byway Integrity: Preliminary Patterns and Prospects William J. Kelley, Eastern Washington University April 2 National Heritage Areas Program and How it Affects Byways Brenda Barrett, National Heritage Areas Program Daniel M. Rice, Ohio & Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor June 13 Marketing Research: Capturing Your Customer’s View: A User-Friendly Guide to Tourism Research Judy Randall, Randall Travel Marketing October 8 Messages & Materials: Planning Successful Interpretive Signs Richard F. Ostergaard, USDA Forest Service December 3 Preserving Our Treasured Places: Guidelines for Managing Visual Quality on America’s Byways Meg Maguire, Scenic America America’s Byways Resource Center 227 West First Street, Suite 610 Duluth, MN 55802 Tel: 218-625-3469 Fax: 218-625-3333 1-800-4BYWAYS (1-800-429-9297) Ext. 5 www.byways.org copyright 2004 America’s Byways Resource Center