New Community Design and Community Based Planning and Design

Purpose & goals:  

• To educate and inform people about an effective way to define community designs which are consistent with sustainability and smart growth principles.          
• To provide an overview of the benefits of new community designs and examples of them in various settings: urban, suburban and rural.          
• To instruct people on how to use the NGA checklist for evaluating places, projects, and communities for their consistency with smart growth principles.          
• To discuss the modern tools for effectively doing community based planning and design, such as visual preference surveys.          
• To inform people about the problems faced by developers interested in creating sustainable communities.          
• To present an overview of policy and institutional obstacles to new community design places and the means to overcome them.

Desired Outcomes:

Attendees will become more informed, enthusiastic and empowered to support and advocate practical approaches to creating more sustainable communities in various geographic settings that support a higher quality of life without compromising economic growth.

Potential presenters:

• Joel Hirschhorn, NGA       
• Richard Heapes, Principal, Street-Works   

Session Format:

A combination of presenters and lively Q&A from attendees, together with a small application of the visual preference survey where attendees are shown various images and asked to vote/score them, as a demonstration of how community based planning and design can be executed.

Background Materials:

"New Community Design to the Rescue" NGA Report

Session Organizer:

Joel S. Hirschhorn, Director
Natural Resources Policy Studies
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices

Questions? conference@NCSEonline.org