Daily Planning News

BONN, Germany - The advances made in U.N. climate talks last year appeared at risk Thursday as a rift between rich and poor countries reopened in negotiations aimed at crafting a global pact to stop the planet from overheating.

The session in Bonn was meant to build on a deal struck in Durban, South Africa, in December, but the talks were faltering heading into the penultimate day amid disputes over what, exactly, was agreed on last year.

Delegates were struggling to reach consensus on the agenda for future talks under the new Durban Platform, with China and others reluctant to close existing negotiating tracks that make clear distinctions between the responsibilities of developed and developing nations.

Kathy Bryant said last week that she would have liked to sit on her back porch and enjoy the sunshine, but as often happens in her Old Town College Park neighborhood, the University of Maryland students who live in one of the neighboring houses were throwing a loud party.

College Park officials - seeking, in part, to cut down on the number of student rental properties in the city - passed a rent-control ordinance to cap rents for rental homes in 2005, which is set to expire in September.

The looming deadline is renewing the debate between the city and landlords about how to make College Park a more livable place for both students and residents like Bryant.

May 24--A lively debate on how best to save farmland appears headed toward a final showdown July 25.

Most contentious is mitigation, or requiring that cities permanently preserve a set amount of farmland elsewhere for every acre to be developed, when requesting LAFCo permission to annex land.

The county has a similar policy when developers want to build homes in unincorporated areas.

May 24--WEST WYOMING -- Residents learned the potential pros and cons of a natural gas compressor station that could soon be coming to the borough.

Several representatives for UGI Energy Services presented their plan for a compressor station on Fire Cut Road in West Wyoming on Wednesday, and Matt Walker, community outreach coordinator for Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council, gave a presentation on some of the stations' potential negative effects.

UGI Energy Services is planning an approximately 28-mile pipeline to connect UGI Utilities' existing gas distribution system in Plains Township with a pipeline in northwestern Wyoming County that receives gas from Marcellus Shale wells.

May 24--Sacramento's Siemens manufacturing plant will build 18 of its S70 light-rail vehicles for TriMet in Portland, Ore., under a $73 million contract being announced today.

All manufacturing will be done at Siemens' facility on French Road in south Sacramento.

Michael Cahill, president of Siemens' Rail Systems Division, said the new contract will not prompt new hires locally.

May 23--On June 4, the North Dakota Department of Transportation will begin a maintenance project on the Sheyenne River Bridge west of Enderlin, N.D. During the project, N.D. Highway 46 will be closed for approximately 19 miles (from N.D. Highway 32 west of Enderlin west to N.D. Highway 1).

Construction will consist of structural rehabilitation, resurfacing, grading, abutment and guardrail work.

Westbound traffic will be detoured south in Enderlin on N.D. 32 to Lisbon, N.D., then west on N.D. Highway 27 until it meets N.D. 1, then north to N.D. 46 and west again.

May 23--More than a century ago, Sicilian immigrant Baldassare Forestiere began the painstaking task of carving himself an underground home out of the hardpan north of Fresno.

By the time he died in 1946, Forestiere's compulsive digging had expanded his subterranean labyrinth -- known today as the Forestiere Underground Gardens on Shaw Avenue between Highway 99 and Golden State Boulevard -- to more than 50 rooms connected by tunnels and encompassing about 10 acres.

Now, some of Forestiere's descendants fear that California's proposed high-speed train project could threaten his creation -- either through the vibration of heavy equipment during construction or by eliminating much of the on-street parking for the historic landmark.

May 23--Replacing and widening the Highway 101 bridges over the Petaluma River is the next major step in a billion-dollar freeway project that has proceeded in spurts over the past decade -- and is now within a few years of completion.

The state is expected Wednesday to approve $82 million for construction that could begin this fall to replace the parallel spans over the Petaluma River that are one of the bottlenecks on the highway from Windsor to Marin County.

Also this fall, two of the most critical segments long under construction should open: Replacement of the Highway 101 overpass of Wilfred Avenue in Rohnert Park at a cost of $65.4 million and the widening of the freeway from Rohnert Park Expressway south to Petaluma Boulevard North at $148.2 million.

The last stoplight on the route from Walla Walla to Seattle will be taken out of operation today as the overpass at U.S. Highway 12 and Humorist Road is opened.

The overpass is one of two bridges that have been built to eliminate intersections on Highway 12 at Humorist Road and at State Route 124.

The State Route 124 interchange became fully operational Friday, said Moe Davari, Washington state Department of Transportation project engineer.

WASHINGTON - Some tolling authorities have found a way to give local motorists a discount on tolls while charging out-of-towners a higher rate for using the same roads and bridges.

The E-ZPass electronic toll reading system used by 24 tolling agencies in 14 states in the Northeast and Midwest is able to differentiate where motorists bought their passes and apply varying prices.

Rhode Island residents with an E-ZPass can cross the Pell Bridge for 83 cents, but out-of-state passenger car drivers with E-ZPass pay $4 ($2 per axle), the same as drivers paying cash.

May 23--There are plenty of possibilities for postal-related puns, depending on the type of establishment developer Themi Sacarellos opens when he purchases the huge marble U.S. Post Office at 200 S. George St.

Sacarellos, who is best known as an owner of Round the Clock Diner and its surrounding properties, said he has struck a deal with the U.S. Postal Service to purchase the 68,000-square-foot structure built circa 1911 in York City.

The Postal Service has for more than a year been trying to unload the building so it could move to a smaller, more efficient building.

May 23--People traveling Douglas County's highway system won't find much this year in the way of construction to impede their travel.

Only County Highways B, O and M are slated for any kind of highway work, most of it is maintenance designed to extend the life of the roads for a few more years.

Because the county's budget was so tight this year, Douglas County Highway Commissioner Paul Halverson said county highway improvement or replacement projects were put on the backburner.

May 22--KNIGHTDALE -- Town Councilors here aren't crazy about a drafted mass transit plan for the Triangle, but they're willing to endorse a tax referendum on the November ballot to let voters decide if it's right for them.

Transit authorities have drafted a plan which includes bolstered bus service and new rush-hour commuter trains for Wake, Durham, and Orange counties.

Only 50.2 percent of Wake voters responding to a survey said they favored the proposed half-cent sales tax increase for transit improvements, according to findings released May 15 by the Regional Transportation Alliance, a Triangle business advocacy group.

May 23--COLUMBUS -- For the second time in less than a year, a bill regulating Lake Erie water withdrawals is headed to Gov. John Kasich's desk.

Last year, Mr. Kasich stunned fellow Republicans when he vetoed the bill after facing a barrage of criticism from gubernatorial predecessors and other states that the withdrawal thresholds were the highest of any Great Lakes state.

"It has been a long road since last July, but we worked out our differences constructively, and Lake Erie is the winner for it," Mr. Kasich said.

May 23--PARIS -- A class project intended to design a community recreational facility to promote healthy living in the Oxford Hills area was praised by the Oxford Hills School District Board of Directors Monday night.

"Fantastic job," Waterford Director Bill Hanger told the second- and third-year engineering and architectural design students at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School after they presented four designs ranging in cost from $3.7 million to $10.6 million during a 45-minute presentation to the board.

Bell said the idea was to help promote awareness for healthy habits after the results of a countywide survey last year showed discouraging health data about Oxford Hills residents.

May 23--The Modesto City Council decided Tuesday to force owners to sell their properties to make room for the rebuild of the Pelandale Avenue interchange on Highway 99.

In another action, the council awarded a $100.5 million contract for Livermore-based GSE Construction Co. to build "tertiary" treatment facilities at the Jennings Road waste- water plant west of Modesto.

The higher level of water treatment is designed to help Modesto meet tougher state standards on effluent discharges into the San Joaquin River.

May 23--A 14-year-old boy on a bicycle was struck by a bus on a residential street in the Humboldt Park neighborhood and injured, relatives of the boy and officials said.

The boy was later treated in good condition for lacerations to his leg, police said.

The child was on a bicycle when struck by a bus in the 3200 block of West Hirsch Street, she said.

May 23--The environment could get a boost, but taxpayers may not recover their $100 million investment under a new deal proposed for Palm Beach County's Mecca Farms.

The South Florida Water Management District is making a push to acquire the more than 1,900 acres of former citrus groves west of Palm Beach Gardens that the county once intended to turn into a biotech industry hub.

The county sunk more than $100 million of taxpayer money into a failed bid to turn Mecca Farms into a home for The Scripps Research Institute and spin off high-tech businesses.

May 22--Growers and their allies are gearing up for a fight against efforts to broaden protections for surface and groundwater that could potentially hike agricultural production costs.

Under proposed new regulations, growers would have to join water quality coalitions at a cost of $29 to $176 per acre per year, develop farm evaluation plans and be classified as Tier 1, 2 or 3 depending on how likely they are to pose a water contamination threat (1 meaning little or no threat and 3 being most likely to cause harm).

Agricultural interest groups are holding meetings all over the state to try to educate growers about the proposals and encourage participation in the approval process in the hope of mitigating some of the impacts.

May 22--Siler Road is going on a diet.

In a few weeks, the city of Santa Fe plans to implement the "lane diet" and change the road from a four-lane configuration to three-lane plan.

City Traffic Engineer John Romero said studies of the roadway show there's a lot of quick lane shifting by drivers trying to avoid other cars that are turning.

May 23--The government is committed to investing 1.64 trillion baht to develop 10 mass transit routes and logistics-related projects over the next seven years.

Transport Minister Jarupong Ruangsuwan yesterday proposed infrastructure and logistics development plans through 2018 to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong.

Mr Kittiratt promised to give full financial support to the projects.

May 22--CHARLESTON -- An Eastern Panhandle legislator feels he has come up with a novel approach to building roads in West Virginia, one that calls for floating bonds to lay the asphalt and using taxes from new businesses spawned to satisfy the debts.

"When you build or improve a road, it increases commerce, and increases business," Howell says.

Based on statistics by the Appalachian Regional Commission, for instance, the completion of Corridor H will translate into 8,000 new jobs, he said.

Following a successful first year, the Molson Canadian Red Leaf Project aims to restore 10 times more green spaces across the country with the help of passionate Canadians

TORONTO, May 22, 2012 /CNW/ - With more than 900 Canadians stepping up to restore 10 green spaces across Canada in 2011, the Molson Canadian Red Leaf Project is finding more ways to make our awesome land even better this summer by hosting 100 greening projects across the country - a ten-fold increase over the previous year.

"Participation in the program last year exceeded our expectations and it re-affirmed for us that Canadians care deeply about the environment and really want to make a difference," says Dave Bigioni, Senior Marketing Director, Molson Coors Canada.

May 22--WAITE PARK -- Residents will have a chance to comment this week on an area plan for transportation projects.

The St. Cloud Area Planning Organization Board will vote Thursday on its 2013-2017 Draft Transportation Improvement Program for a 30-day public review and comment period.

The plan is a multi-year program of transportation improvements with designated federal and state funding in the St. Cloud area.

A proposal to bring a dog park -- Columbia's first -- to the new Blandair Park has left local residents divided, and a county government panel involved in the decision wants to hear more feedback.

Meanwhile, a second dog park in Columbia also is being contemplated.

More than a dozen people spoke out for and against the Blandair project last week at a meeting of the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks Advisory Board.

May 21--Some on-street parking in downtown Bellingham would be removed to install 36 rain gardens, which would clean polluted stormwater flowing into Whatcom Creek, under a new project.

That's one of the projects enabled by new state stormwater funding.

Early this year, the funding outlook was dimmer for many stormwater projects by Bellingham, Whatcom County and Ferndale, because Gov. Chris Gregoire's proposed budget provided state money for only one of them.

May 21-- A splash park designed to look like a rocky riverbed and a shelter built with native stone and equipped with imaginative seating and a fireplace are just some of the conceptual ideas for a new park near the Arkansas River.

The George Kaiser Family Foundation wants to transform at least 55 acres of private property it owns east of Riverside Drive between 26th and 31st streets into a unique gathering place for the community.

"These illustrations and other concepts take into account the public commentary collected in March," said Jeff Stava, project manager for the foundation project.

The chief of the state bullet train authority said Tuesday that he hopes to obtain some type of relief from environmental laws that would eliminate a risk that the 130-mile initial construction project could be stopped by an injunction, a potentially growing prospect as agriculture interests in the Central Valley gear up for a legal fight.

At a state Senate hearing, Chairman Dan Richard also said the agency plans to spend the entire $6 billion of initial construction money within a 2017 deadline set by the federal government.

In the past, Richard has insisted the California High-Speed Rail Authority would not seek an outright exemption from state or federal environmental laws, including the California Environmental Quality Act.

Oil edged up closer to $92 a barrel Monday ahead of another round of talks over Iran's nuclear program.

In London, Brent crude for July delivery was up 78 cents at $107.92 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Iran plans to meet Wednesday in Baghdad with officials from the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany following initial discussions in April.

May 21--FARMINGTON -- Recycling in the Four Corners is about to look a whole lot prettier.

Waste Management, the company that runs Farmington's curbside recycling and sanitation service, is nearly done with its brand new recycling center and the building is enormous.

"We hope to start processing 80 to 100 tons of material in the next two years," said Shote Forrester, San Juan Regional Landfill district manager.

May 21--DURHAM -- President Obama's top environmental advisor is planning to visit Durham-based solar technology start-up company Semprius on Tuesday to highlight the administration's energy development strategy.

Nancy Sutley, the chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, is slated to tour the company's offices in Durham alongside U.S. Rep. David Price, D-4th.

In addition, the release states that the company is an example of the type of business that White House officials believe would be benefited by the president's "To-Do List" for Congress.

On a breezy September morning in 2000, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan _blankheld a news conference at the Silver Spring Metro station to present a transit hub that would serve as a mini-Union Station linking the suburbs to the District.

Nearly 12 years later, the _blankSilver Spring Transit Center still isn't finished.

The transit center would serve as _blanka capstone for a county effort to revitalize the once-blighted downtown Silver Spring, now transformed by the presence of Discovery Communications, the Fillmore, the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center and Veterans Plaza.

May 20--Seattle City Council members will get their first look this week at a federal consent decree that would govern hundreds of millions of dollars of local ratepayer spending on water-pollution control.

Four years in the making, the deal negotiated by Seattle Public Utilities, the state Department of Ecology and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would settle a lawsuit brought by the EPA against the city of Seattle for violations of the Clean Water Act.

The consent decree would for the first time allow the city to do the most beneficial pollution-control work first as it tackles the problem of combined sewer overflows, or CSOs -- small amounts of raw sewage mixed with stormwater that are discharged into local waters, particularly during heavy rain.

May 20--The energy savings achieved by Boulder's Climate Action Plan programs have been "impressive" and reasonably cost-effective, but they still leave the city far from achieving its Kyoto Protocol goal.

That was the conclusion of analysts from the Rocky Mountain Institute, who dug into the various programs funded by Boulder's Climate Action Plan tax, also known as the carbon tax, which generates about $1.8 million a year to fund energy-efficiency and renewable energy programs.

Boulder commissioned the report -- and another one from Fort Collins-based Brendle Group, which is expected in June -- as city officials prepare to ask voters to extend the CAP tax and consider whether to create a municipal utility that would get much more power from renewable sources.

May 20--When Rosemarie Rossetti moved into her new home on Friday, she effortlessly guided her wheelchair from the van through the front door of the Gahanna-area house.

The home Rossetti will share with her husband, Mark Leder, is more than just a stately prairie-style residence.

It serves double duty as the Universal Design Living Laboratory, showcasing features that make a home accessible to those with a wide variety of abilities.Rossetti, 58, and Leder, 54, came up with the idea after a tree fell on Rossetti in 1998, putting her in a wheelchair.

May 21--Communities across the metro area and beyond are putting their heads together to figure out how to handle the increases in storm water that a warmer climate is expected to bring.

Public works officials, hydrologists, water quality monitors and others have embarked on a study to find where vulnerabilities exist and devise new solutions in the face of increasing -- and increasingly intense -- rainfall that has been both documented and projected by climate analysts.

The work is funded in part by $300,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and coordinated by the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District.

As her jubilee approaches, how does the Queen's built legacy compare with that of her forebears, asks Pamela Buxton

Or perhaps an influential royal patron such as the flamboyant George IV, an enthusiastic client of John Nash?

Historians and critics are championing their nominees at the Great Royal Patron Debate, held by the RIBA this month to mark the Diamond Jubilee.

May 20--Hurricane Andrew's greatest impact on the building industry wasn't stronger nails or bigger trusses.

Florida now regulates the inspection and enforcement of building codes and requires training and licensing for building officials and contractors.

Building officials and contractors can now be disciplined for not meeting requirements -- something not done in 1992.

May 20--JUBA -- South Sudan on Saturday said it has received a grant amounting to $38 million from the World Bank, to support infrastructure projects, specifically building roads in rural areas.

South Sudan has also received financial assistance from Qatar, after it lost 98 percent of its budget when it shut down oil-production earlier this year as part of a transit fee dispute with Khartoum.

The country's Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Kosti Manibe Ngai, on Friday met with the World Bank Country Manager for South Sudan, Laura Kullenburg, and signed a grant agreement aimed at improving rural roads in South Sudan.

May 20--Fifteen people ran for mayor last year, and they all agreed on one thing: Portland was missing the boat on economic development.

A planning and permitting process that looks like a maze, a City Hall that comes across as unfriendly to business and elected and appointed officials who can't get out of each other's way are commonly held impressions that stop the city from reaching its potential.

On Wednesday, Mayor Michael Brennan kicked off his economic development campaign.

They call this place the Back of the Yards, a neighborhood in the middle of the city once filled with acres and acres of stockyards.

In their heyday, those stockyards gave Chicago a reputation as the world's meat-packing capital -- but also as an environmental and health horror brought to life in the stark images of Upton Sinclair's novel "The Jungle."

But the stockyards are long gone, replaced by an industrial park and a mind set that, from now on, Chicago will try to move past those images.

May 20--MADISON -- Kayakers, canoeists and other nonmotorized watercraft users will have improved access to 450 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline under a plan to establish a Lake Michigan Water Trail in Wisconsin.

The trail will eventually run from the Wisconsin-Illinois border north to the tip of the Door County Peninsula and south along the Green Bay shoreline to the city of Green Bay.

The Lake Michigan Water Trail was selected as one of the top 100 state projects as part of President Barack Obama's America's Great Outdoors program that encourages increasing outdoor recreation opportunities close to home.

May 20--The public outcry over tolls planned for the Downtown and Midtown tunnels has illuminated a harsh reality: The state is nearly tapped out of money to build roads.

As a result, state and local leaders are searching for solutions to a transportation funding crisis that has put Virginia on course to run out of money for new construction in five years.

At the urging of Hampton Roads mayors, the leaders of some of Virginia's largest cities will meet in a summit next month to discuss the challenges and to find a unified voice to address these issues with legislators.

May 20--SOUTH MILLS, N.C. -- Muddy and potholed paths are about to get a smooth coat of asphalt at Camden County's vacant green business park, the first phase of a much larger project planned for just south of the Chesapeake border.

But the path to those things will begin with a couple of paved roads.

Thanks to $925,000 in grants and $125,000 in local money, the county plans to begin paving the main road into the tract and a side road that would run parallel to U.S. 17.

May 19--OGDEN -- An Ogden veterinarian is seeing more cases of ringworm and is cautioning dog owners to stay away from the South Ogden Dog Park.

Eric Clough, who is employed at the Burch Creek Animal Hospital, defined ringworm as a fungal infection that causes a red, circular lesion that can be itchy.

"We've had six dogs, all of which have visited the South Ogden Dog Park," he said.

BEIJING - China's government on Friday rejected a U.S. anti-dumping ruling against its makers of solar power equipment, and Chinese manufacturers warned that possible higher tariffs might hurt efforts to promote clean energy.

The two governments have pledged to cooperate in developing renewable energy but accuse each other of violating free-trade pledges by subsidizing their own manufacturers.

"The U.S. ruling is unfair, and the Chinese side expresses its extreme dissatisfaction," a Commerce Ministry spokesman, Shen Danyang, said in a statement.

May 18--The St. Johns River Ferry will never be profitable.

Neither will the Jacksonville Transportation Authority bus system nor the downtown Skyway.

Transportation experts can't name a single major transit system that is a moneymaker in this country.

Vectren Corp. Chief Executive Officer Carl Chapman told members of the Rotary Club of Evansville on Tuesday the utility has played a "huge" role in improving air quality in the region, thanks to $410 million in investments for pollution control during the past decade.

"We don't believe we're the only reason, Alcoa was doing work, manufacturers were doing work, but we think we are certainly a significant reason for that," Chapman said after the meeting at Casino Aztar.

Earlier this month, Dona Bergman, director of the Evansville Department of Sustainability, Energy and Environmental Quality, cited a report from the American Lung Association that concluded air quality had improved in Vanderburgh County, according to information collected from 2008 through 2010.

Earlier this year, a bipartisan transportation bill passed the Senate with the overwhelming support of some of the most liberal and conservative voices in Congress.

That bill takes important steps to reduce our dependence on oil and move our transportation system into the 21st century.

Most important, it will save 2.9 million American jobs while improving our crumbling transportation infrastructure over the next two years.

Hallandale Beach commissioners recently approved a wetlands creation project, but city leaders say they won't spend money to implement it unless area residents drop their opposition to it.

"At this time, the residents do not support this project, so as far as I'm concerned, this project is dead," said Commissioner Keith London, who spearheaded the initiative.

The project, which was derailed by opposition from Golden Isles residents, would create mangrove wetlands by city-owned bridges and seawalls and public waterways, including the eastern canal system, Schaffer Canal, Chaves Lake and ponds throughout the city.