Pt. I Sustainable Neighborhoods & Communities

What are Sustainable Communities?

May be defined as a city, town, or neighborhood that is built in such a way that it meet the needs of the present without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development as been described as the integration of "The three E's"

ENVIRONMENT

ECONOMY

EQUITY

A sustainable community adopts and pursues policies to address all three pillars of sustainability

Evidence of the need for sustainable communities abounds. According to the Global Footprint Network, humans surpassed the to world's ecological carrying capacity sometime in the late 1980's.

Humanity current ecological footprint is higher than it has ever been. This means that humans currently require the resource equivalent of about 1.2 planets to provide their food, timber, and fiber, and to absorb their waste and emissions.

By exceeding global ecological carrying capacity , humans are depleting the planets ecological capitals, as evidence by various forms of ecological degradation, including climate change. In this context, local policies for conservation of energy and resource use are of global importance and will be increasingly relevant and valuable in the long-term planning horizon.

Planning Sustainability

Interest in developing sustainable communities has arisen in the last couple of decades in response to growing concerns about environmental degradation and a growing awareness among policy makers and citizens groups that communities built with a single purpose such as- Bedroom community or office park- are not economically, socially, or environmental viable over the long term. In recent years, research has provided strong evidence to support these concerns.

Consequences of Sprawling Development Patterns

There are significance environmental consequences of the conventional development pattern. Global climate change is a serious threat to our nation's security and prosperity. chemicals in the environment- from, most notably the chemical industry, with its origins in modern warfare, and the the development of plastics and pesticides have contributed to overall environmental degradation. Land is also being converted to suburban development patterns at a alarming rate. Critical habitats are lost daily and thousand of species face extinction or are imperiled.

There are also economic and social cost as of 2005, Americans spend more than 100 hours commuting to work each year, exceeding the two weeks of vacation time frequently taken by workers over the course of a year.

The rising cost of oil, and consequently of gasoline, has made long commutes extremely costly.

Urban Sprawl is also a burden on local government, because it forces limited resources to be spent on building new infrastructure rather than an on maintaining existing infrastructure. As sprawl encourages population to move outside of older established communities, the tax base of these communities is diminished, requiring a reduction of services to the remaining population.

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