More of our cities are getting serious about making a commitment to historic preservation and responsible sustainable planning. It's apparent that the time has come for a fresh approach to renewing many of America's communities that are looking for ways to capture the opportunities of today, while building the highest possible quality of life for its current and future residents. It's far too easy to simply speak about new approaches. The abiding question is: Will advancements, based on sustainable land-use planning, provide any better economic, social, or environmental results than the more traditional models of community development and land use planning?

The answer to that question is best understood when planners, local government officials, community residents, and corporate leaders acknowledge that sustainability and effective land- use planning must be understood as complementary and integrated public policy objectives. Sustainable land-use planning is not new. Regrettably, neither are the problems of economic downturn, housing stock, and infrastructure deterioration, and declining livability in America's cities. Local elected and appointed officials are all seeking answers to these and other issues of public concern. It's in the search for answers that communities across this nation are pursuing policies and practices that encourage and support sustainable land use planning.

The latest concepts for community renewal center on ways to incorporate sustainability and LEED standards. These initiatives address progressive community needs such as convenient mass transit, and renovation and restoration of buildings and infrastructure, while at the same time supporting the core values of economically driven, socially responsible and environmentally-sensitive practices. An organized approach to planning, design and implementation of town planning projects is imperative in order to properly engage and accomplish success.

REACHING FOR THE GOAL

The goals of robust civic life, economic prosperity and sustainability are not contemporary. Yet, how these goals can be attained is changing and advancing. The idea of a sustainable community now is broadly understood to incorporate the belief that a commitment to land-use patterns and a built landscape that seeks to preserve, enhance, and consistently renew the environment will help a community secure long term viability.

Moving from recognition of the value of sustainable land-use planning to design and implementation requires a systematic, data driven and comprehensive planning process. The LEED-Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) certification process provides an excellent platform upon which communities can undertake such a process and attain the desired results. LEED-ND has three broad criteria sets: 1) Smart Location and Linkage 2) Neighborhood Pattern and Design, and 3) Green Infrastructure and Building. In short, the LEED-ND process compels communities to consider where to build, what to build, and how to build within the context of sustainability.

The effective integration of LEED principles and criteria within the constructs of both analytic and design planning technologies and existing modes of practice requires planners, local government officials, and all other stakeholders to actively pursue attainment of a robust civic life, economic prosperity, and environmental sustainability not as competing interests, but as mutually supportive and complementary policy goals. Within this context, the planning process becomes a work of community renewal predicated on building and sustaining the highest possible quality of life for all people -- not merely an attempt to remedy economic or social deficits.

MODELS

Urban planning has historically attempted to assist communities create land-use decision frameworks that encourage systematic and ordered development within the context of generally accepted civic goals, and value orientations. To engage in this work, planners have employed and continue to employ a diverse set of planning models and practices in an attempt to apply rational, data driven processes to the multiple dynamics that inform and define the urban experience.

Despite the diversity of practice modalities, the task of planning consistently emanates from and is informed by a belief that communities can and indeed must adopt land-use strategies that encourage a robust civic life while providing for economic prosperity and long term environmental sustainability.

The sustainable solutions model differs from other land use models in that it is based on a neighborhood unit in contrast to an entire community. Such a refined focus may, in the estimation of some, eschew broader community issues while directing municipal resources to a limited geographic area. In response, the proponents of the sustainable solutions approach argue that authentic community renewal is only accomplished on a block by block basis given the inherent financial and implementation difficulties in community-wide plans.

The sustainable solutions model described here purposely seeks to incorporate analytic, design, and sustainability planning in a comprehensive and fully integrated planning process. Central to this model is the rigorous application of the LEED criteria for designation of a certified neighborhood development throughout all phases of the planning process. In this way, the issues of target neighborhood identification, neighborhood pattern and design, and green technology for the built environment including both infrastructure and buildings provides a focused lens through which to view, inspire, interpret, and carry forward the entire planning process.

The LEED initiative, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, was established to promote planning, design, and construction methodologies that support policies that conserve energy, protect renew ecosystems, and provide for optimum levels of environmental protection. The extension of the initiative from new construction and building restoration to the broader concept of neighborhood development provides a significant platform for the development of community defined plans that address, in very pragmatic ways, the core principles of sustainable land-use planning.

The integrated planning or sustainable solutions model has as a primary goal the entitlement of property within the target neighborhoods. While a series of steps must occur precedent to the entitlement of the subject properties, it is the formal actions that constitute entitlement that position a community to move from a set of formalized land-use strategies to the development of a built environment that reflects and embodies such strategies. The actual task of entitling property will vary dependent upon the attributes, historical development patterns, and site characteristics of specific neighborhoods. However, a normative model of entitlement includes actions related to property zoning designations, special use permits or other exceptional proceedings for issues such as density requirements, and approval of infrastructure construction, extension or connection, if necessary for the prospective development. It is important to note that entitlement benefits not only prospective developers, but, if conducted in accordance with a clear neighborhood development plan, affords a local unit of government heightened levels of control during all phases of the development process. To be certain, the entitlement of property has historically been a duty of local government.

What is distinctive about the entitlement process under an integrated model of sustainable planning is that the full entitlement process is designed to result in a unified development that reflects, to the maximum extent feasible, the design and land-use objectives set forth in a neighborhood development plan.

FORM BASED CODES

Sustainable land use planning requires not only a commitment on the part of local elected and appointed officials, but also tools that can be utilized to create the desired built environment. The development and application of zoning regulations is a key example of an area of public responsibility that requires new tools and redesigned approaches if sustainable land use planning is to become a live reality. Unfortunately, since the first attempt at governmental regulation of land use over 100 years ago, zoning based on use or Euclidian zoning has been the standard of practice in this nation. While the regulation of land use continues to be a legitimate governmental role, such regulation does little to assist in achieving the type of built environments that communities desire.

Form based zoning, an emerging approach to "place-making," transfers the emphasis of zoning from use to design. Beginning with a community driven and informed vision, form based zoning provides local units of government with a process for creating desired built environments in ways that foster robust civic life, economic prosperity, and environmental sustainability. While form based codes may be structured around diverse organizing principles, the central theme of such codes is that communities can not only legally engage in the work of "place-making," but must do so in order to achieve long term viability.

BENEFITS

In highly pragmatic terms, what benefit does the sustainable solutions model hold for communities? The model allows existing communities to target neighborhoods for integrated development initiatives based on clear criteria with a predisposition for infill or retrofit projects. Of equal importance is the fact that the model uses design technology to create visual representations of the land use strategies set forth in the neighborhood development plan. Moreover, the model is inclusive of the tasks of entitlement, developer recruitment, and project implementation in contrast to other land planning efforts that result in a comprehensive plan, but assign implementation to private developers who may function, based on market forces, in ways that contradict the neighborhood development plan.

RESULTS

The end result of the certification process is a neighborhood that has demonstrated compliance with the tenants of the LEED-ND requirements indicating a decided commitment to smart planning and sustainability. The resoling benefits of securing a community's future, reducing energy consumption, and improving infrastructure utilization, maintaining a strong economic base, and offering an enhanced quality of life for residents are clear. Moreover, the very work and mission of creating a transect based, form driven built environment will serve to create a rich legacy for a community while creating the potential for long term sustainability.