UT to help Mexico design urban village
By Ricardo Gándara
American-Statesman Staff
Saturday, March 24, 2001
Imagine a village of five neighborhoods separated by community gardens, where food is grown for the residents. Houses with rooftop systems collect rainwater and generate energy. A man pulls a cart carrying groceries. A couple bikes to a nearby park. People walk to church, children to school.
Now picture that on a grander scale. What if a city of half a million people can be designed following the concept of traditional neighborhoods -- not suburbs -- that are less dependent on the automobile?
The government of the state of Nuevo Len, Mexico, with help from the University of Texas, plans such a city near the Texas border at Colombia, north of Laredo along the Rio Grande. Today, Colombia is a small, century-old village of 500 residents. But by 2030, it's projected to become Mexico's next free-trade port on the NAFTA corridor and home to 500,000 people living on 40,000 acres of semi-arid land.
The city will be designed on some of the principles of New Urbanism, a movement toward compact, mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods that were the norm in the United States before World War II and are similar to the traditional northern Mexican towns developed over the years.
"It is an ambitious project, but surely feasible. There is no project of similar magnitude or significance along the U.S.-Mexico border," said Samuel Alatorre Cantú, director of planning and development for Mexico's FIDENOR, a government agency charged with overseeing the master plan for Colombia and development of the northern region of Nuevo Len.
"Colombia represents a new chance to do things right from the start and implement on a grand scale what has been demonstrated to be successful in smaller projects around the globe."
American planners are just as excited. "Politically, the stars are aligned for Colombia," said Kent Butler, an associate professor at the University of Texas School of Architecture, who has been working with the Mexican government on the Colombia project for nearly a year.
Colombia is at a premier location. It sits at the center of Nuevo Len's narrow border with the United States, just across the Colombia International Bridge, built in the mid-1990s as an alternative route to the congested bridges between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo. The bridge is easily accessible by taking Texas' only private toll road, Camino Colombia, off Interstate 35 just north of Laredo.
Despite the rapid growth projected for Colombia, Nuevo Len officials plan to guide it "in an effort to avoid squatters, traffic congestion, deficient infrastructure and other urban ills common to border towns," Cantú said.
This spring, UT is expected to become part of a nonprofit research center in Colombia that will collaborate with FIDENOR, Monterrey Tech and the Autonomous University of Nuevo Len to assist in the planning and design of the city. FIDENOR will build classroom and office space, and the research center will operate on public and private grants and contracts.
"The center will play a key role in the future planning and development of northern Nuevo Len, not just Colombia," Cantú said.
FIDENOR has the lead role in building Colombia, but in working with UT, the project becomes "richer, and development possibilities multiply," Cantú said.
The plan for Colombia is moving quickly. Four hundred people -- many of them from other towns and villages -- work at an industrial park next to the bridge. The bridge provides the focus for international trade. An international railroad bridge, an agricultural and livestock center and international trade facilities will become the initial economic base for the city. Construction of the first 100 houses and a health clinic is scheduled to begin in two months.
"This is happening at lightning speed when you consider the bridge and the rate at which FIDENOR wants this to go," Butler said. "This is a very rare and exciting opportunity for urban planning, the sort that might come along only once in a planner's career."
The vision of building Colombia into a major player for foreign trade belongs to Mexico. The dream of transforming a 3,600-acre ranch into a series of villages within Colombia belongs to the Longoria family of Nuevo Laredo.
"I've always had a dream to build and plan a village," said Eduardo Longoria, the managing partner of Habitat Suites Hotel in Austin and founder of Casa de Luz, a community educational center, Montessori school and public cafeteria.
Longoria met UT's Butler in 1999 through a friend and told him about his village ideas within the larger Colombia plan already on the Mexican government's drawing board. Butler liked the idea so much he agreed to conduct a class research project drawing on the future plans for Colombia and Longoria's dream.
"I saw his passion for building a livable, sustainable community," Butler said. "He wanted a community where you live, work, play and grow your own food. This is New Urbanism, when you think about the consumption of the natural resources and minimize impact on the environment."
Butler said the mixed-use neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Tarrytown in Austin are examples of some of the New Urbanism characteristics.
Rob Dickson, an Austin real estate developer who favors New Urbanism principles, said Colombia will offer a different way of life, not necessarily a simpler lifestyle. "New Urbanism advocates the traditional pattern of building neighborhoods. It doesn't advocate the elimination of the car. It merely allows people to have the choice of using cars or not using cars. In traditional neighborhoods, though, a family would use the car less and walk more," he said.
The Longoria family's ranch was perfect for Butler and his students to use as a model. Longoria gave UT $25,000 in January 2000 to pay for the cost of planning the new community. The family acquired the original 100,000-acre ranch in the late 1940s.
Thus far, the UT team has done a landscape assessment of the ranch to determine what areas need to be preserved, where houses can best be built and where farming can flourish. Butler and is students surveyed the ranch and generated renderings of neighborhoods on computer.
In the fall, UT will research and propose plans and designs for sustainable urban infrastructure -- water supply, delivery and reclamation, and energy collection and distribution systems.
The biggest challenge? Lack of water. It is expected Colombia will depend on underground aquifers and rainwater collection systems because Rio Grande flow rates are not reliable. Despite the many differences between Mexico and the United States, Butler said the Colombia project offers Americans an insight into how to better plan growth.
"We have much to learn from them about the protection and perpetuation of cultural identity and 'place-making' in town planning and design, given the richness of Mexican culture. They place a high level of importance on equity and efficiency in provision of urban social services, a tradition that we might learn from and emulate," Butler said.
Longoria plans to be involved every step of the way. He sees a Tuscan-like village with houses close together and no big yards. "We won't have four-car garages or freeways. It will offer a healthy, high quality of life that will also attract Americans.
"And the wealthy won't live on one side and the poor on the other. It will be integrated," he said.
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