304 Gathering the pieces
resources of importance to the town. These included protected open space, public
trail systems, proposed regional trails, commuter rail lines, major roads, state-
certified vernal pools, rare species habitat, and so forth.
Also the sources of cross-boundary effects were mapped to provide insight into
where boundary problems are concentrated, that is, where things just outside
theboundary affect the town, and things just inside the boundary affect an
adjoining town. The regional maps and the cross-boundary-effects map thus put
thepreceding town-wide patterns in a broader spatial context, which clarified
and strengthened the open-space planning priorities.
This regional approach, which did not threaten local control, also capitalized
on a state requirement for developing open-space plans every five years. The 2004
Concord plan with maps and with databases identified was distributed to the
surrounding towns, with the expectation that they will use many of the same
regional databases in their planning. Within a few years most of the surrounding
towns may well be thinking, and increasingly collaborating, regionally.
The third tough issue for local communities is the presence of a regional
transportation route, in this town’s case a bisectingmajor highwaywith con-
siderable traffic. The 2004 planning effort highlighted the highway because its
effect ramifies through so much of the land and the community -- traffic noise in
nearby residential areas, clogged adjoining roads, accidents, road salt, pedestrian
crossing hazards, hazard to bicyclists, traffic noise degrading avian communities,
and barrier to wildlife crossing. A range of partial solutions was proposed for
each issue. Two years later the state had completed construction in Concord
of its first four wildlife underpasses. Tracking studies of animals preceded con-
struction, and diverse wildlife species quickly began using the underpasses that
connected the two halves of the town.
Finally, the largepatches-and-corridors framework for this suburban town
closely parallels the multiple habitat conservation program for protecting biodi-
versity across the San Diego Region (Chapter2), as well as the emerald network
forarange of nature-and-people values in the Barcelona Region (Chapter 10 ).
The locality-centered-region model should apply well in towns, parishes, shires,
municipalities, local-government-areas, small cities, and counties. Perhaps with
appropriate nudging, it could rapidly spread right across an urban region with
widespread visible benefits.Good, bad, and interesting patterns in urban regions
Imagine arriving at a party where the hostess has you reach into a
paper bag with three types of squishy balls, feel around, and pull one out. You
are delighted with the one you choose and will use it tomorrow. Alas, your