(Primary Author
Carlos
Macedo Rodrigues, AICP, PP, Charter Member Congress for the New
Urbanism)
Campbell's Soup Controversy:
“New
Economics of Downtowns.” Modern Downtowns
are experiencing a metamorphosis from commercial centers to 24-hour mixed-use
urban cores where people reside, work and play."
Princeton
University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy
Martin Luther King vs. Corporate America. Integration
vs. Disintegration.
Will Camden Sell Out to Campbell's Soup? PATCO CAMDEN HIGH SPEED RAIL
By Michael McAteer TheCampbell's
Soup Project,is a component of the larger "Gateway Neighborhood"
Planned Redevelopment *(Who in the world ever heard of a 110 acre Class A
business park as part of a "neighborhood" plan? ) (Official
City Plan, .pdf ) (Like most things the Plan looks good on paper,) but
the Campbell's project as proposed has little chance of being a catalyst for
area neighborhoods, as indicated by the only developed area in Camden, the
Waterfront. Walt Whitman's House sits on the middle of Mickle Blvd., the main
thoroughfare to the redeveloped waterfront. There is no neighborhood better
positioned to receive the ancillary benefits of redevelopment. Whitman's House is exactly three
blocks from the RAND Transportation Center and three blocks from the main
attractions on the waterfront. Yet Whitman's neighborhood has continued to reach an unconscionable
level of decay and blight, the nearby development having no effect whatsoever on
residential area's at all. Here is the proof.
The Campbell Soup's project is a terribly designed suburban-style
component of the Gateway Neighborhood Redevelopment, which ignores
transportation assets. The PATCO
Hi-Speedline and River LINE skirt the edge.
( Photos of
passenger line proximity. )
The only way Campbell's development will have any effect on
residential areas and small businesses in Camden, is to mix in and build residencies
and small business shops within the new Campbell's complex simultaneously. If
one thinks that office buildings, residences and shops cannot be mixed together
successfully, then one has probably never been to downtown Philadelphia, Manhattan,
Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington D.C, San Fran.... The Camden
Planning Board should take a look at Martin Luther Kings play book for integration,
rather than Campbell's book for segregation. Segregation of downtown
Camden district's functions not only destroys urban form, but segregates people
into "types." The "types" of people Campbell's wants is
non-city resident commuters who will work in the complex Mon.-Fri, 9-5.
So
as Martin Luther King Jr. and an army of civil rights workers led the social
transition from obvious forms of segregation, so too do modern urban designers,
architects and city planning boards lead the transition from less obvious forms
of segregation.
The
Campbells Complex, hailed as the new "Gateway" to the city, will be a lifeless "dead zone" from 5:00 PM until
9:00 AM the next day, completely dead on the weekends and holidays! (Is that a
welcoming first impression "Gateway" or " neighborhood?") The new Campbell Soup complex will have no effect
beyond the edges of its own composition. It is a design and project turned
totally inward, away from the city and its transportation assets. All and everything
in the design is for Campbell's corporate
functions, suburban employees and shareholder's. ( Only 3% of Campbell Soups
employees at its Camden HQ are Camden residents.) Camden has an urban
form, not a suburban form. The urban form cannot reach its full potential when
single use zoning triumphs over mixed use zoning. It boils down to a question of
integration or dis-integration for the city.
( See a real city
neighborhood
"Gateway", active 24/ 7, including holidays and weekends)
The outlying parking
lots (hopefully near a new PATCO station) could service the complex by a people
mover or jitney. On a nice day, it would be a pleasant five-minute walk from the
rail stations parking lots if one were to choose. This would give employees and others the
option of walking to work, rather than driving. Every car eliminated as a family
expense saves, on average, $685 per month and reduces traffic congestion and
environmental stress.A new PATCO
station would serve the UMDNJ area also, uniting two vital downtown areas in
seamless, pedestrian friendly, contiguous development.
One piece of evidence for New Urbanist
(Transportation Oriented Development) "comes from Harvard's Robert
Putnam’s analysis showing how a longer commute reduces civic engagement.
Putnam found thatthe car and the commute . . . are demonstrably bad
for community life. In round numbers the evidence suggests that
each additional ten minutes in daily commuting time cuts involvement in
community affairs by 10 percent—fewer
public meetings attended, fewer committees chaired, fewer petitions signed,
fewer church services attended, less volunteering, and so on. In fact, although
commuting time is not quite as powerful an influence on civic involvement as
education, it is more important than almost any other demographic factor. And
time diary studies suggest that there is a similarly strong negative effect of
commuting time on informal social interaction." (
Harvard Social Capital and New Urbanismresearcher
Thomas H. Sander)
Environmental Building News rigorous
research shows that the biggest factor in a building's environmental footprint
usually isn't the building itself, but its location and how much driving users do
to reach it. Campbell's Soup's new development LEED certification for "green-ness"
is more than cancelled out by the fact of its intentional disconnect from nearby
commuter train stations. ( Rethinking Green: Blockbuster Report in
Environmental Building News Measures Impact of "Driving to Green Buildings"
)
In modern, present day
Planning and Urban Design, citizen inclusive and equitable processes are recognized
as the ideal. A 3 - 7 day Charrette,
a process of citizen-based participatory planning and design, with professional
assistance in urban design workshops, are the favored tools for achieving this
goal in todays development and redevelopment environment. Together, Campbell
Soup and Gov. Corzine announced the final design as a surprise through the media
with no chance for prior citizen input.
The City of Camden
should value urban design and lead the way in showing what can be achieved and
work together with Campbell Soup and the Office of Smart Growth to "ensure
that these assets are used to promote urban renaissance as well as fulfilling
their own operational requirements." Camden has suffered from poor quality
development in the past. We need a new culture in City Hall, which values design
and recognizes that any district in the city is part of the public realm, and
effects the senses of anyone utilizing or passing through a district. The design
should be an inviting one that provides a pleasant stroll for any person or
family living or visiting the city, available and lively seven days per week
into the night. Campbell's base's and defends its design purely on economic
considerations, without any regard for users other than clients and employees.
What goes on in those buildings is Campbell Soups business. But the landscaping,
building exteriors, their placement and positioning seriously effect the realm
owned by the public. If nothing else, the buildings should be pulled up to
face the sidewalk, with pedestrian friendly facades and parking hidden out of
sight.
The
city of Camden is eager for the new complex, not for its aesthetic or quality of
life benefits for its citizens, since there are none in this cold single use
office setting, but strictly for the cash Campbell's has offered the city and
local charities. This a groveling, beggarly attitude, shows no pride and a
less than flattering image for the city. The Campbell Soup project was presented
to the city under threat and fait accompli - after all chances were past for criticism or
design testing to a compliant planning board that failed to apply diligent and
effective scrutiny, under a demanding deadline for approval set by Campbell
Soup. The city planning board could regain a semblance of dignity by showing
some backbone in the face of this corporate giant by making approval of the
project conditional on an adjustment to the site plan that allows for the
possibility of a mixed use community in the future.
Whatever
design results, the city will be stuck with it for 50 - 60 years, a great danger
of single use design if the situation at Campbells should change. Any design
should be adaptable, and take into account "social variability and the
reality that the boundaries of situations, opportunities and problems change
over time, viewpoints are flexible and people grow. Cultural, stylistic,
ecological, sociological, psychological and built environment influenced
behaviors are just a few concerns addressed by design." Mixed use
zoning takes this into account while still accommodating the needs of companies
like Campbell Soup.
At
the moment, for a variety of reasons, very few areas of the city are in a
position to be regenerated now. Every square inch that is developed represents a
rare opportunity, and should be maximized with a high density variety of
amenities that will attract people from inside and outside of the city to enjoy
and utilize.
In addition, the common law offers ample precedent for imposing
procedural requirements on private
parties under certain circumstances. Historically, private parties performing
“public
functions” could not derogate from the public interest. The public function that
Campbell’s Soup is implicitly performing by incorporating into it's private
complex and assuming control of
70 public acres is the Redevelopment of the City of Camden
under the states Redevelopment laws, and the compliance and advancement of laws
relating to Smart Growth policy, under the neighborhoods designation as an urban
center
in need of redevelopment. The issue is whether the design of it’s office campus
is appropriate to the requirements of the Smart Growth and Redevelopment laws or
needs modification, and whether Campbell’s received any direct or ancillary
funding
set aside for these policies, and whether Campbells, as Master Redeveloper for
the
area is carrying out it’s legal duties to act in the public interest as an
implied
designated policy agent in this area. Public funds, under agreement
between the
State of New Jersey and Campbell’s have been set aside for this purpose. The
state
has so far insinuated itself into a position of interdependence with a private
actor,
(Campbell Soup) that it must be recognized as a joint participant in the
challenged
activity. Camden’s trend of viewing public policy through an economic lens
rather
than a public interest lens has proven increasingly deleterious over time. The
profit
motive ( PILOT payments, charity payments) is simply incompatible with the
public
interest and policy goals of Smart Growth and Redevelopment. A question and
doctrinal
test arises as to whether state and local funds were appropriated properly in
the
public interest, and Campbell’s role as policy agent.
Since
the Campbell's Soup complex will be the first new multi-building development in
the city, and not in a "star" setting like the waterfront but an area
analogous to other parts of Camden, and consume so much land, it is imperative
that it's design either sets or relates to the organizing architectural principle
that will guide and connect subsequent developments throughout the city, a
principle yet to be articulated.
If Campbell's Soup sticks to its plan, there could be a national consumer
backlash amongst progressive minded individuals against Campbell's Soup (
As indicated in a Sunday New York Times Editorial: "We
would urge Campbell's to think again before risking its reputation for good
citizenship... ") Campbell's Soup
stock may take a hit.
( Campbell's Soup's "gun to the head of
the city approach" is already being
discussed in the media hub of Los Angeles. ) It also boils down to whether the Camden
Planning Board, City Council and Gov. Corzines office, can be bought by
Campbell's meager $1.4 million annual ( in lieu of taxes ) offering in exchange for shredding the urban form, or if
Corzine, his appointee's and the
City of Camden can show some integrity, and insist on retaining both Campbell's
and the integrity of
Camden's priceless urban
form.
For
the city to be great again, it must learn to avoid expedient development, that
is, that any development is good development. The city has lived to regret this
philosophy too many times. Corzine and Camden COO Theodore Z. Davis can retain their integrity, and shape up Campbell's Soup's plan,
by asking that the Office of Smart Growth
(OSG) review the plan as it should have. The public has no idea if the
plan conforms to the NJ State Smart Code until OSG does a review. The OSG has
some great ideas for the Campbell Soup area plans, and is eager to comment
through an official review. However, the OSG cannot do a review unless it is
asked to by a government agency at the state, county or local level. So far,
Corzine refuses to allow any agency to ask the OSG to review the plans, Camden
County has not asked for a review and neither has the city. All these entities
refuse to seek review, and one can only assume the reason is, on the face of it,
at a glance, anyone can see the plan would fail to be approved in its current
form by OSG, nor does it conform to the New
Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan legislation. The OSG is
not antagonistic to the plan, but stands by willing to help improve it for the
sake of the city, the region and Campbell Soup.
Also, while mindful of Campbell's importance, Corzine should respectfully have the city and Campbell's sit down for a presentation of
alternative approaches by the Office of Smart Growth. The Congress for the New Urbanism could be
consulted also. (
CNU.org) Campbell's
has a chance to create a bit of architecturally stunning urban
design that when associated
with its brand can only enhance it, and enhance the
national reputation of the city, or stay the course with its anti-urban, cold
shoulder to the city and lack of
creativity.
To
quote and paraphrase Edmund N. Bacon, "great city design expresses the concept, lines of
progression from one place to another, interwoven into a total city fabric. To
this, have added points of conjunction, nodes connecting one section of the city
to the next, of flowering and enrichment and places of repose. These are
important too, and they also call upon the highest expression of architecture,
but they can only be understood only in relation to the movement to arrive there
and the anticipation of the movement away.
Together
these two elements, the architecture of movement and the architecture of repose,
make up the city as a work of art, and this is the peoples art. The product of
city - design can be experienced by anyone, without qualification, on an equal
basis. It could be a great democratic statement of the life we share in
common.
The
test of our achievement is whether we are able to break away from our fragmented
approach to this problem and begin to see the city as a whole, dealing with
it as a complete organism.Thus
we must not only plan but, as suggested in the words of Lewis Mumford, we must
design in such a way that the finest of our accumulated experience in
city-building is brought to every neighborhood in every part of the city."
To quote NAACP Interim president
Dennis Courtland Hayes: "Some compromises are just too costly."
ContactMichael McAteer
to send comments.
You may also send your protests or comments to:
Camden,
NJ Department of Development & Planning
Phone: 856-757-7600
Fax: 856-964-2262
Campbell Soup Company
1 Campbell Place
Camden, NJ 08103-1799
NJ Tel. 856-342-4800
Toll Free 800-257-8443
Fax 856-342-3878 CONTACT:
Anthony Sanzio (Campbell's
Media)
(856) 968-4390
Leonard F. Griehs
( Campbells Soup CO. Investor Relations/ Analysts)
(856) 342-6428
Gov. Corzines office phone is
609-292-6000
Fax: 609-292-3454
NJ Office of Smart Growth
To send a brief message e-mail comments to DCA
Feedback.
Commissioner's
Office at 609-292-6420. For press inquiries, please contact the Office
of Communications and Policy at 609-292-6055.
FAX.
609-984-6696
Corzine's Contradiction:
Campbell's Soup $100 Million Single Use Office Campus
PlanAvailable Online(you will need to disable your Pop-Up Blocker temporarily) Enlarge Vision plan a little. White
"X," W/NW corner of map, is where PATCO High Speed Commuter rail from
NJ to Philadelphia submerges from elevated train to subway. Just north of that
spot you will find The Riverline, a brand new commuter line that runs from
Trenton to Camden's waterfront attractions. This sweet spot marked "X"
is less than a 5 minute walk from Campbell's proposed new world HQ campus, yet
there are no plans to utilize this intersection of commuter rail.
A station stop
here would put a mixed use NU development in line with the 5 minute walk principle.
The ride from here to Center City Philadelphia is a ten minute ride on
ultra-modern, clean and efficient train, far superior to any train or subway in
Philadelphia. The parking lots on the plan should be put outside the complex,
and housing plans in outlying neighborhoods should be built where parking is
designated. This would give Campbell's employees and other users of the complex
the option of walking to work, rather than drive or commute. Every car
eliminated as a family expense saves on average $685.00 per month in ownership,
operating and maintenance costs. Every car trip not taken reduces stress of
traffic congestion and stress on the environment. The outlying
parking lots (hopefully near a new PATCO station) could service the complex by a people mover or Jitney. On a nice
day, it would be a pleasant 5 minute walk from the parking lots if one were to
choose. A PATCO station near "X" would serve UMDNJ area also, uniting
two vital downtown areas in seamless, contiguous development, and could
eliminate another thousand motor vehicle trips per day in the region.
Campbell's Soup
Type: Public
On the web: http://www.campbellsoup.com
Employees: 24,000
Controls 70% of worlds processed soups business.
Soup means M'm! M'm! Money! for the Campbell Soup Company. The company is the
world's biggest soup maker; its almost 70% share in the US is led by Campbell's
chicken noodle, tomato, and cream of mushroom soups. The company also makes meal
kits, Franco-American sauces and canned pasta, Godiva chocolates, Pace picante
sauce, Pepperidge Farm baked goods (yes, the goldfish crackers you sneak at
midnight), and V8 beverages. Its Australian division produces snack foods and
its popular "down-under" Arnott's biscuit brand.
Key numbers for fiscal year ending July, 2006: Officers:
Chairman: Harvey Golub
President, CEO, and Director: Douglas R. Conant
SVP and CFO: Robert A. Schiffner Sales:
$7,343.0M One year growth: (2.7%)
Net income: $766.0M Income growth: 8.3%
Competitors:
General Mills
Heinz
Kraft Foods
The Smart Growth Locator
provides eligibility information for State loan and subsidy programs. This
information can be used to determine whether an address is eligible for a number
of State programs. Real Estate development in Smart Growth area entitled to
subsidies. To use this tool, type in an address with the city or zip code.
FOR EXAMPLE, TYPE INTO
LOCATOR:
1 Campbell Place
Camden, NJ
08103-1799 locator
(Address is Campbell's Soups World Headquarters, A Fortune 500 Company)
The map will display the address
you entered and the results will indicate whether it is in a smart growth area.
For more information about Smart Growth, contact the Office of Smart Growth.
Campbell's Soup World Headquarters'
Controversy Gov. Corzine
609-292-6000 Fax: 609-292-3454
Campbell Soup
Company
1 Campbell Place
Camden, NJ 08103-1799
NJ Tel. 856-342-4800
Toll Free 800-257-8443
Fax 856-342-3878 CONTACT:
Anthony Sanzio (Campbell's Media)
(856) 968-4390
6/09/07
Campbell's Soup Project is a
component of Larger "Gateway Neighborhood" Planned Redevelopment
(Official City Plan, .pdf) (Like many things the Plan looks good on
paper, but the Campbell's project has little chance of being a catalyst for area
neighborhoods, as indicated by the only developed area in Camden, the
Waterfront. Walt Whitman's House sits on the middle of Mickle Blvd., the main
thoroughfare to the redeveloped waterfront. Whitman's House is exactly three
blocks from the RAND Transportation Center and three blocks from the main
attractions on the waterfront. Whitman's neighborhood has continued to reach an
unconscionable level of decay and blight, the nearby development having no
effect on residential area's at all. Here is
the proof. The only way Campbell's development will have any effect on
residential areas and small businesses in Camden, is to mix in and build
residencies and small business shops within the new Campbell's complex
simultaneously. If one thinks that office buildings, residences and shops cannot
be mixed together successfully, then that person has probably never been to
Philadelphia or Manhattan.
Space Wasting Suburban Campus design in heart of urban center ignores commuter rail assets.
( River Line and PATCO intersect here.) PR
from Campbell's Soup and NJ Economic Development
Authority (if it is located by itself in a sea of parking on an arterial
roadway not served by transit, and its employees and customers all must drive from a 30- or
40-mile radius to get there, is it truly green?)
5/30/07
New Urbanism Designers Can Take What
Campbell's Soup Wants To Build Anyway, And By Reconfiguring The
Plans According
To A Set of Existing Principles, Add Amenities to the Site and Increase Value To
Campbell's Shareholders Without Increasing The Amount of Campbell's Soup
Investment. Before Breaking Ground, Campbell's Should Visit the CNU Website, and
Consultants Such As Strategiceconomics ,
Freedman, Tung and Bottomley,
or Westrum.
It is through the marriage of tradition and ecology that New Urbanists link
past, present, and future generations. We believe in tradition as a living
thing, beginning with what has worked well in the past and evolving it to
confront and respond to the problems of the present day. "...but one of the
first things we ought to learn is that the tools and techniques for creating
sustainable communities may be cross-cultural, and the principles of walkable,
mixed-use communities and legible beautiful places may be universal. Truly
sustainable places are derived from a connection with local identity, building
culture, climate, ecology, and materials, and from culture." -Ditmar
Camden is a gap in the maintained traditional architectural and cultural cohesion
and continuum of the region, ( Along with Westmont) between Rittenhouse Square
and Haddonfield, all connected by PATCO. South Jersey can be a major attraction
for new businesses and residents if it fills in its architectural gaps with
"Placemaking" along the PATCO line. The new Campbell's Soup World
Headquarters complex could be a major step in this direction, and could become
an attraction itself, promoting the Campbell's Soup brand while
contributing to state of the art urban development. Janine Bauer, a
transportation project attorney in Philadelphia, said transit-oriented
development is the wave of the future
Is the new Campbell's Soup World
Headquarters Plan "Green?"
Little attention seems to be paid
to the question of whether steel-and-glass-curtain-wall buildings can ever truly
be sustainable no matter how many CHP [combined heat and power] plants or wind
turbines are stuck on them.
The State Plan Policy Map serves as
the underlying land use planning and management framework that directs
funding, infrastructure improvements, and preservation for programs
throughout New Jersey. The
Smart Growth Locator provides an answer to the question: Is this address
in a Smart Growth Area? By inputting a street address, the user will be
told whether the address is in a Smart Growth location or not. This
information can be used to determine whether an address is eligible for
a number of State programs. Specific information about program
eligibility can be found in the Program Eligibility section of the
NJHMFA Locator. To learn more about Smart Growth
or the areas that are included in the Smart Growth Area, click the links. For
additional information about Smart Growth, contact the Office of
Smart Growth. For more information about the tool,
contact Mary Uschak at 609-278-7408.
The
Smart Growth Locator provides eligibility information for State loan and
subsidy programs. This information can be used to determine whether an
address is eligible for a number of State programs. Real Estate
development in Smart Growth area entitled to subsidies. To use this
tool, type in an address with the city or zip code.
FOR EXAMPLE, TYPE INTO LOCATOR:
1 Campbell
Place
Camden, NJ
08103-1799 locator
(Address is Campbell's Soups World Headquarters)
The map will display the
address you entered and the results will indicate whether it is in a
smart growth area. For more information about Smart Growth, contact the
Office of Smart Growth.
