Sustainable Land Development Today - October 2007 - (Page 8)

YOUR VOICE 2007 EDITORIAL BOARD William Curtis Archdeacon, PE, PLS Consultant Highlands Ranch, CO Brian Cullen Senior Land Development Manager Westrum Development Company Fort Washington, PA Gordon Feller CEO Urban Age Institute San Rafael, CA Lou Ann Frederick CFO/Principal Hall & Foreman, Inc. Irvine, CA Dave Garland Vice President – Acquisitions & Land Development Hansen PSC, Inc. Menlo Park, CA Rod Johnston Director of Planning and Development Mountain Air Burnsville, NC Terry Mock Sustainable Development Consultant Tree of Life Palm Beach, FL Joseph P. Nicolette Vice President and Director for Natural Resource Liability and Asset Management CH2M HILL Atlanta, GA Skip Preble President Land Analytics, LLC San Antonio, TX Leo Pierre Roy Director, Environmental and Energy Services Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. Watertown, MA Jorge Vanegas, PhD Director of the Center for Housing and Urban Development College of Architecture Texas A & M University College Station, TX George Vorsheim Vice President Environment One Niskayuna, NY Sustainable Land Development Today 275 East 10th, Suite 200 Dubuque, IA 52001 Phone: 888-388-8787 Fax: 360-343-2341 www.SLDTonline.com The Readers Respond The Truth About Sprawl September 2007 Very much enjoyed hearing your thoughts in the article in Sustainable Land Development Today. We never hear the other side these days. Hang in there. John W. Norton, PE, DEE Norton Engineering, LLC, Dayton, Ohio manage development so as not to ruin our assets is a very complex and important issue. Good luck with your part in that. Elinor Markle, RLA, ASLA DDS Engineering, PLLC Bowling Green, Kentucky I just read your article in Land Development Today. It is truly amazing how many times I have argued many of the points you made. I just never had the talent to sit down and put it all together. It seems to me that the municipal planners, planning commissions and other governing bodies are searching so hard for answers that they will accept almost anything as a solution to their “perceived” growth problems. From my perspective, the real problem is the advancement of these crazy ideas by members of our professions. These individuals are little more than modern day snake oil salesmen, jumping on the new urbanism & smart growth band wagons so that they will appear to be smarter or greener than their competitors. Mike Wooten, PE, DDC Engineers, Inc. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Poorly written; sloppy research. While I could try to look past the shoddy writing, the author of this article also has too many facts wrong to even begin to address them. If that mess represents your publication’s viewpoint, I ask that you please do not continue sending it to me. Al Salas, Lewes, DE From the author, Rick Harrison: Gentlemen – thank you for your comments. Elinor - What concerns me the most is that it seems that the entire planning community along with environmental groups, and politicians have fallen on only one concept - based upon the past. That said, the elements and theory of TND (traditional neighborhood design), New Urbanism and Smart Growth are certainly noble. In many ways we have used some of these elements in the transformation of our own design theories. When everyone stops dead at one solution (one set of rules) - how can true innovation take place? Question those within the other movements and you are suddenly attacked. Is New Urbanism joining Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as a religion? That my friend is the real danger here. I find that by writing these articles, we are not asking to drop the other methods, but just to consider questioning the “facts” that are being claimed. I hope I’ve made my point, and hope you can understand why it’s important sometimes to open some eyes. I like more of a parody note backed by numbers and facts, at least as factual as we can get in an arena of planning where fact and emotion often intermix. Pretty caustic style you have there. Glad to know YOU have all the answers and no one else does. I believe you are right that as a country we are simply spread so far apart that some of these new urbanism ideas are not going to catch on, but there are examples of re-development in neighborhoods rather than gentrification to consider. I do think that the entire country needs to step back and take a look at how we are killing our golden goose (natural beauty) when we sprawl our neighborhoods, our communities all along our existing roadways. How to Send us your 2¢! This section is dedicated to comments from our readers Reader responses to articles in Sustainable Land Development Today are encouraged and may be sent via mail or email (Editor@LandDevelopmentToday.com), or online through LandDevelopmentToday.com. Mailing address: Sustainable Land Development Today, Attention: Editor, 275 East 10th St. Suite 200, Dubuque, IA 52001 © Entire contents copyright 2007, Land Development Today, LLC. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher. Views expressed by the bylined contributors do not necessarily represent the opinion of the publisher. 8 October 2007 Sustainable Land Development Today http://LandDevelopmentToday.com http://www.SLDTonline.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sustainable Land Development Today - October 2007

Sustainable Land Development Today - October 2007 Contents Our Voice Your Voice Editorial Board Mapping the Development Process Looking at a New Dimension The Environmental Liability Continuum GPS System Makes the Grade Regulations: Reactions Mixed Trends: Communications Easements Business Management: Recycling Sustainable Practices: LEED-ND Energy: Community Propane Systems Transportation: Mountain Solutions Recommended Reading Calendar Products/Services Showcase Classifieds Advertiser Index The Last Word

Sustainable Land Development Today - October 2007

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