Working to preserve natural areas and a healthy environment is a key concern for most planning commissions.
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A longstanding debate is again heating up. The debate, that is, over whether a nation, state, or community should favor job creation and economic gain over benefits such as environmental protection and public health.
As the 21st century dawns, we need to plan for our cities and towns in ways that bring people and places closer together and provide more travel choices.
“The future belongs to walkable communities,” claimed planning scholar Reid Ewing at a forum in Burlington, Vermont. A look at the growing interest in TODs and PODs.
Communities throughout the country are see growing interest in sustainable development. Some ideas on how to take sustainability into account.
These two videos focus on the construction of rain gardens. They contain some good, basic information that should help citizen planners better understand what’s involved with constructing a rain garden.
Instead of closing down its River Rouge assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan, Ford Motor Company has reinvested it — with an emphasis on energy-saving technologies, including an enormous green roof.
How Luzerne County and the City of Wilkes-Barre are integrating the riverfront with downtown, through the creation of a new riverfront park, with giant flood control portals cutting the embankment.
The practice of stormwater management is evolving beyond engineered approaches to methods that look at managing stormwater in more natural ways.
It is logical that ecology should be integral to planning. The natural environment is the community’s birthplace. Terrain, soils and tree cover, underground water, surface streams, vegetation, and wildlife all form an interdependent unity of impact and adaptation.
The benefits of sustainability have re-echoed during our nation’s history. Oftentimes, however, sustainability has been overshadowed by countervailing forces, including large-scale manufacturing and mass production of goods, and a heavy dependence on non-renewable resources.
Planning historian Laurence Gerckens provides an overview of how water has shaped the development of American cities.
Besides benefiting residents and drawing in visitors, our downtown main streets can also be good for the environment. Main Street consultant Kennedy Smith explains.
Wildfires can be catastrophic for property owners — and communities. But this risk can be lessened with effective local planning and development policies.
