smart block muncie

A hyperlocal + [partially] prescriptive approach to the 15-minute city

The Smart Block model ideates an approach to build a more resilient and sustainable Muncie while allowing for flexibility and breaking up the rigidity of normal land-grabbing necessary for development. The Smart Block concept thinks of vacant parcels as an urban patchwork to plug in different uses and typologies a specific community block needs. Different typologies of Smart Blocks would work together in adjacent or nearby parcels to accommodate the needs of residents while allowing the municipality the promise of an equitable, well-connected, and sustainable future.

What is a "smart block"?

In Rust Belt cities such as Muncie, Indiana, deindustrialization, population loss, and job dispersion has led to mass land vacancy, diminished tax revenue, and aging infrastructure.

The role of planning has for far too long been focused on reactive rather than proactive approaches to dealing with issues facing our cities. Antiquated zoning laws, typical developmental processes, and bureaucratic red tape have held back communities from making changes necessary to compete and survive in the 21st century. Euclidean zoning has done nothing to ameliorate the situation, with the strict separation of uses often coming at the expense of property tax revenue, community building, and quality of life. Separating by use often requires the usage of our car which places a disadvantage to low-income households while encouraging further sprawl, much of which is economically disadvantageous to a municipality. Over time, the cost of providing services to less-dense areas are higher than the property tax revenue generated. In a city like Muncie that is desperate for revenue sources, the astute leader must not succumb to the quick payoff of suburban growth in lieu of more economically sustainable infill. This study analyzes the possibility for this planning innovation in a study on the southwest side of Muncie abutting the Hoyt Avenue corridor.

Methodology

The Smart Block Hyperlocal Overlay Toolkit essentially solves these problems with a functional integration of socioeconomic and life-cycle uses. The overlay is written to allow several typologies of development from a set toolkit on current vacant and abandoned land in targeted areas, allowing the municipality to creatively piece together land and package them to residents and developers on a parcel by parcel basis. These parcels become possibilities for the placement of Smart Blocks, parcel typologies or components created to allow for density, self-sufficiency, power generation, food production, and economic activity on what were previously vacant lots. The Smart Block concept helps to create hyperlocal 15-minute neighborhoods where most physical and physiological human needs are met within and by the neighborhood without the typical large-scale development and land collection required by developers.