Project Densification Saves How Much Farmland?

By Mark Smith In California’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley, real estate development has an insatiable appetite for … farm land. The American Farmland Trust’s report Saving Farmland, Growing Cities places aggregate population growth and farmland consumption into perspective  The population of the San Joaquin Valley, now roughly 4 million, is expected to more than double by 2050. At the same time, if the Valley keeps developing... Read More

Ideas to Attract Private-Sector Investment in Suburban Improvement Projects in an Era of Reduced Public Support

U.S. EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities recently released a compendium of research papers for the National Conversation on the Future of Our Communities.  Dr. Cowan’s paper  From Sprawlvilles to Sustainable Suburbs: Ideas to Attract Private-Sector Investment in Suburban Improvement Projects in an Era of Reduced Public Support is included.                       The compendium... Read More

Cowan Paper Published in JOSRE

The Journal of Sustainable Real Estate has published Sustainability for Suburbs by Errol Cowan, PhD. He highlights the need to address unsustainable and declining suburbs. Dr. Cowan  suggests public and private programs to compensate for the diminishing ability of government funded redevelopment.                     Share this:TwitterFacebookEmailLinkedInWhatsApp Read More

Mark Smith Discusses Planned Densification at USD

How can we expect to reduce sprawl if we don’t allow real estate in key locations to coevolve with market demand? Mark Smith recently spoke at the University of San Diego about Planned Densification. In this clip from that talk (5:28), Smith explains asynchrony as an economic cause of sprawl, and as a barrier to coevolution.   The Wedge Markets change–the evolution of market value in key locations is an important reason to pre enable... Read More

IT’S ABOUT TIME !

It’s About Time By Mark Smith Planned Densification LLC releases a video outlining some of our key considerations with Suburban Retrofit and Sprawl Repair–namely ridiculously mismatched timescales in real estate development and how so many things are ‘out of control’ in real estate development, because of the lack of functional control of the development process by developers.  Planned Densification predicts and prepares solutions... Read More

Dan Slone on “Upgrading Suburbia”

Dan Slone recently presented at the annual Greenprints Conference and Trade Show in Atlanta, in a session titled “Retrofitting and Repairing Suburban Sprawl.” Dan Slone Presents at Greenprints Conference and Trade Show   For several decades, Dan has been a leader in formulating ways to improve buildings, community and municipal plans, building products, and organizations.  At Greenprints, Dan discussed ‘seven steps for suburban upgrades,’... Read More