Future Community Development Sustainability/Strategy

Communities of the future will be very different from the ones we live in today. These communities will need to be different because, as we move through the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, we face a whole new set of socioeconomic, technological, and global forces that are unlike those that brought us to where we are today. The renaissance fueled by these forces will dwarf any we have experienced until now. It will alter dramatically the way we live in our communities, their form and function, and, most critically, the way we plan and develop them. At stake is the quality of life, not only for ourselves but also for our children and grandchildren. Local governments will need to understand these forces and to move one step ahead, using this knowledge to maximize the planning and development process and to improve the places in which we live.

Only by applying this knowledge can we sustain our communities and derive benefit from an increasingly complex future. The challenges that we as a nation face--economic viability, deteriorating infrastructure, natural disasters, environmental pollution, social disintegration, loss of community, crime and violence, urban blight, and unmanaged growth--can be viewed either as our shared doom or as our common call to action, a universal opportunity to change, improve, and optimize. Sustainable communities are nothing less than the key to optimizing our future.

What are sustainable communities? Why are they important? What benefits do they bring? How can we create them? How have communities successfully applied the principles of sustainable development? This article will address these questions and provide local governments with a framework of knowledge that they can use to sustain their communities through the planning and development of the built environment. Its objectives are, first, to demystify and "practicalize" the concept of sustainability and, second, to explain how local governments can apply the important tools of this process to achieving sustainable communities.


Benefits of Sustainability
Sustainability is good business from the social, economic, and environmental perspectives. When tied to a community's vision, sustainable development can resolve successfully many key issues faced by communities today. Within the context of the built environment, sustainable development is especially effective and in a tangible way.

For example, a park can be a sustainable component of the ecology and a community focal point when it is planned not as a parcel but as a system supportive of and accessible to all kinds of living things. It can be a catch basin for stormwater runoff, a means to mitigate flooding and pollution, a centerpiece for economic development initiatives, a place of serene beauty and contemplation, and a showcase and habitat for local plant and animal species.

Across the country, sustainable development has offered practical solutions to common problems. Seattle based its highly effective recycling and waste reduction program on sustainable themes and now applies the concept in its efforts to curb sprawl, to preserve the landscape of the Cascade foothills, and to enlarge the public's role in the planning process. Boulder, Colorado, created urban growth boundaries and improved transportation options to sustain its quality of life and scenic edge. Austin, Texas, established a Green Builder Program to encourage the use of energy-conserving building practices. Portland, Oregon, launched an initiative for carbon dioxide reduction based on sustainable changes to the built environment. And, Valmeyer, Illinois, used sustainable planning practices to relocate outside the Mississippi floodplain and to mitigate future flood damage.

These communities and others demonstrate the multiple goals of sustainable development. Sustainable development can enhance a sense of place, reduce crime, mitigate natural hazards, conserve energy and resources, preserve culture and heritage, improve traffic circulation, and reduce waste. It can attract more viable economic development as competition among communities for high-quality businesses becomes more intense. Perhaps most important, it can help relate and integrate the many components of a community to achieve a synergistic whole.