Planning Sustainable Communities: “It’s More than Being Green”

Partial repost: http://dirt.asla.org/2009/10/29/planning-sustainable-communities-its-more-than-being-green/

The focus of this year’s American Planning Association AICP National Symposium, held at the National Building Museum, was planning sustainable communities. Beth Osborne, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Shelley Poticha, Senior Advisor for Sustainable Communities, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), two key policymakers involved in the new federal partnership on livable communities, gave presentations on federal developments. Tim Brennan, Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC), and Joseph Schilling, Professor at Virginia Tech’s Alexandria Center, and head of the Metropolitan Institute’s Green Region’s Initiative, also spoke about regional and local sustainable planning initiatives. In introducing the sessions, Paul Farmer, CEO of the APA asked: “How do we operationalize sustainable communities?” Jason Jordan, APA’s head of policy and government affairs, said “sustainability isn’t just about environmental sustainability. We have to look at the triple bottom line. Sustainability is about economic competitiveness and resilient communities as well.” One goal of the session was to examine how planning is critical to sustainable community development.

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