A Better Way to Plan Regionally...

‘Sprawl’ exists due to the nearly infinite decisions made by individuals over the course of time. This will continue until either, a) we run out of land or b) governments’ restrictions become so onerous as to prevent development in greenfields. It’s human nature.

A new alternative is developing... market-based regional planning via Landpooling. To see how it can work in your area, follow the steps below.

1. Fire up your GIS basemap

2. Erase parcel and political lines.

3. Perform basic economic and ecological analysis to determine planning areas.
i. Planning areas are effectively groups of properties that ‘should’ be planned as a whole according to how they act economically and ecologically
ii. Locally appropriate sizes – urban redevelopment may be an acre to 5 acres or more; rural areas landpools may be 10 to 50,000 acres or more
iii. Determine landscape carrying capacity
iv. Estimate market demands and absorption rates

4. Talk with every land/property owner in the proposed planning area. Determine specific needs and interests of property owners, looking for win-win opportunities and common interests/bonds among them. Remember, visions are not plans. Visions must be translated into plans through specific actions built upon specific information. Take the information learned from the property owners and compare it to what was learned earlier from the landscapes and markets. If the property owners needs and interests do not outstrip the opportunities and constraints presented by the market and landscape, begin talking with them about creating a specific plans. If it does overwhelm existing opportunities, tell them that as well.

Bottom line - Whatever you do, begin the conversation.

Thanks for reading....