Hokkaido, Japan

Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, is famous for it's ski season. Just a few kilometers away are the well known ski regions of Sapporo and Furano, the site of the 1991 World Ski Champion-ships. Geographically, this area is as far north as Minneapolis and Montreal, so the snow season can be quite long and heavy.

In addition to the fabulous winter season is the equally popular flower season in the summer. It has been estimated that about 19,000,000 people visit this northern island annually. This two season destination has caused the government of Japan to designate the Furano area as a major tourist area, which gives the area special privileges and funding opportunities.

I was invited by my good friend Haruto Kobayashi to participate with him in the planning of a new resort in Nakafurano, a suburb of Furano. Mr. Kobayashi is the President of Tokyo Landscape Architects (TLA) which is perhaps the largest landscape architectural firm in Japan and one of the largest in the world. The project portfolio in the TLA office is world-wide. In turn I invited Barry Carpenter of Strategic Land Planning in Alexandria to work with us in the planning and graphic requirements. Barry is a good friend and sounding board during these conceptual efforts.

Our client, WADO Development and Investment Co., led by Mr. Takeo Oguri, had already assembled considerable property with the aspiration of developing a large resort catering to tourists, business people and families visiting the area from all over the world.

The proposed uses ranged from a major tourist center, catering to the flower attractions, to a village complete with hotels, Japanese style inns, noodle shops, and artist colony. Other uses would be those that related to a private resort atmosphere with a golf course, world class equestrian center and several villages of different housing styles. The overall site would range from 400-600 hectares depending upon the plan needs and availability of property. Tying all of this together would be a variety of auto and pedestrian circulation features throughout the site.

One crucial element of the project was the redesign and relocation of a popular public park that existed on the site. The town fathers were willing to consider moving this park at the expense of the developer in order to secure the development of this resort.

The site itself is on a hillside overlooking the village of Nakafurano and looking Southwest across the valley to the mountain range. A portion of the site was already planted as a lavender farm. Workers are raising several hectares of two varieties of lavender. This planting is significant for both the public visitation, during the growing season, and the harvesting for resale throughout Japan.

The region, primarily a farming community, is experiencing an increased introduction of tourism. Although many local farms have been passed from generation to generation, many of the current generation find themselves owning a farm property planted with trees (mostly Linden) that will not be ready for harvest for another 20-30 years. Many of these farmers welcome the opportunity to sell their property and move on to other occupations.

As with land development techniques in the United States, there are problems with assembling land and gaining the necessary approvals from the local government.

Our* role was to provide the conceptual design and the land planning efforts. The initial site analysis was completed by TLA (it was in Japanese). We met with WADO to find out in more detail how the project would be staged, what implementation and sales techniques would be employed and what development products would be required. This aspect of programming was vital to the planning strategy of the project. Mr. Oguri talked at length of his goals and high aspirations. We watched video tapes and looked at pictures of models. Mr. Oguri is a brilliant man and had done considerable personal research on this area.

Our first trip to the site, in April of 1991 (in 12 inches of snow), was fascinating. We walked the entire site and toured all day to experience the flavor of the local community. Our planning sessions with TLA were identical (except for a few language difficulties) to those we would have in the U.S. The exchange of ideas with the staff of TLA was extra-ordinarily interesting.

When we returned home to work on the first conceptual plans, we were filled with new ideas of the Japanese culture and how the land could be transformed into a successful resort and tourist area. We had completed the initial land plan for the site, prepared a rezoning package, and at this point the project was halted.

We had been involved in the planning of many resorts in the U.S. and the Caribbean, but this was a new experience.

• Japanese people love to walk. Convenient access to the golf course was not an issue.

• It is not typical to place housing units on the golf course - they should be separated.

• The roads would not be sized for the maximum site population in August. Instead, they would be closed.

• The project was expected to generate massive grading since it is a mountainous area. It is not uncommon for 100-200 foot cuts and fill in this terrain. We attempted to minimize this as much as possible.

The sales price of the new housing units was staggering. The purchase of a small house (about 1200 sq ft.) and a membership in the golf course would cost several million dollars.

At the time of this writing, the project, like most projects around the world, is on hold. I met with Mr. Oguri in Tokyo last August to discuss the future of the project. He is now looking for new funding sources, but is still confident that the project will proceed. (Does this sound familiar?)

Working in another country is an interesting experience. Once you overcome the language and the metric scale approach, procedures, goals and objectives are similar to traditional work in this country. The American approach to planning projects may be more comprehensive. The after hours discussions of professional practice, education and projects is a valuable time for us all. The lesson here is that we are more alike than we might think. The main similarity in our work here and abroad is that we are now looking for that special phone call that will reactivate the project and get us into the next phase - which is planning for the first construction phase.

* Mr. Mortensen was responsible for this project while a principal in the firm of Mortensen, Lewis & Scully, Inc. -* Rendering by Barry Carpenter.