"What's Iconic and Supportable?"

As construction cranes dot the sky at Tysons Corner and Montgomery County redraws master plans for its more congested communities, planner Neal Payton just has one question -- who do they think they are?

New town centers' success hinges on creating an identity, said Payton, principal at the firm Torti Gallas and Partners in Los Angeles.

"What about your place is particularly compelling; why would someone come a second time?" he asked planners and developers at the Makeover Montgomery conference last week in Silver Spring.

"What's iconic and supportable?" he said. "Why live there? Why work there? You need to be able to answer these questions as a town and if you can't answer them, you're in trouble."

Part of creating that identity is creating visibility, experts said. Uri Avin, a regional growth expert at planning firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, said Columbia's town center provides a "what not to do" lesson for the planners of today.

via washingtonexaminer.com