Sustainable Land Development Today - March 2008 - (Page 17) on the environmental benefits and positive long-term effects the new changes would incur. Project teams can also look to local conservation groups for support. The Sierra Club and others may be willing to help the project team review environmental goals and philosophies and endorse the project. Bill Daleure in Charlotte has found such collaborations beneficial. He credits a local building association for especially helping him work with regulators and officials on environmental issues. The Real Estate Building Industry Coalition (REBIC) is a group of Charlotte-area home builders, developers, engineers, contractors, bankers, and other related professionals with an organized staff specifically dedicated to local regulatory issues. They can explain the costs or market effects of a proposed rule change to officials, lobby for regulatory changes, advise developers on the parameters of new regulations—in short, they serve as a liaison between the building community and the government. “The REBIC has made a huge difference for us in Charlotte,” Daleure says. “The difference between developing in a city like Los Angeles and in Charlotte is just that.” ©2007 Transoft Solutions Inc. All rights reserved. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. THINK IT. DESIGN IT. TEST IT. Our solutions make it so much easier. Get your community, park, streetscape, urban planning jobs done right, on time and under budget. Our easy to use roadway and parking layout design software works effortlessly within AutoCAD® to ensure quality and functionality. AutoTURN - analyze and confirm all types of vehicle maneuvering capabilities by simply dragging it through a path. Test different site plan scenarios right up to your final design for road access and loading situations. Comes complete with vehicle libraries or add your own user-defined vehicles. ParkCAD - create parking lots in a fraction of time compared to traditional methods. Easily layout and change rows, stalls and other parking design elements with powerful editing tools. Draft and check a variety of parking lot configurations with local guidelines or customized standard. Making Progress While buyers and the development community alike still have a long way to go to fully embrace sustainability, projects like The Vineyards demonstrate that you can include sustainable design in building projects without necessarily sacrificing your profits. They also serve as a testament to the success of compromise between developers and regulators. “We always try to work with elected officials to evaluate the costs and benefits of changing a regulation,” said Daleure. “If another change adds a good quality-of-life benefit with reasonable cost, we’ll promote that.” SLDT About the author: Richard Keagy, PE, is a vice president in the Urban Land Engineering division of Stantec. Easier. Faster. Smarter. To learn more visit us at www.transoftsolutions.com/LDToday or call us toll-free: 1.888.244.8387. Driving productivity through innovation Circle 189 • or www.SLDTonline.com/webcard www.SLDTonline.com 17 http://www.transoftsolutions.com/LDToday http://www.transoftsolutions.com/LDToday http://www.SLDTonline.com/webcard http://www.SLDTonline.com
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