Adjusted Development: Saving the World with Sustainable Growth

By Amy Linn, 6-09-09

Why should towns in the West change the way they grow? And why should planners design healthier, greener communities?

Because if they don’t, they’ll suffer and fail.

Dire as that answer sounds, it has sparked something worth celebrating: a planning revolution and a move to sustainability across the West, according to land-use and green planning expert Christopher Duerksen.

Duerksen, the managing director of Clarion Associates, a Denver-based land-use consulting firm, says growing numbers of people realize that the environment is in desperate trouble—and that greener growth plans are a solution.

“I first started to realize this years ago, when I was reading some award-winning development code. There wasn’t one word in it about sustainability, or solar power, or water conservation or climate change,” says Duerksen, who will be the keynote speaker at NewWest.Net’s new Planning in the West conference, June 17-18 in Boise. At the time, Duerksen also happened to be reading Plan B by Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute, a book about the global environmental crisis and looming shortages of food, clean water, fossil fuels and more. “It’s a very depressing book,” Duerksen allows.

But development plans have to address environmental reality, he realized. Communities, businesses and citizens need to embrace sustainable policies for the health and survival of all.

The notion has a growing audience, among liberals and conservatives alike. “In Utah, officials are saying ‘let’s pursue alternative energy because it’ll help national security,’ and ‘let’s use renewable energy because it’s cost effective,’” Duerksen says. “The cost issue resonates with everyone. So does the health issue, and things like urban agriculture. People want chickens in the backyard and vegetable gardens to grow healthy foods.”

Even in oil country, people are demanding a greener future. More than 940 mayors to date have signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, Duerksen notes. “One of the signers was the mayor of Tulsa, a place where the baseball team is named the Drillers.”

Duerksen has spent years creating strategies and development codes to help conserve natural resources, protect scenic areas and make towns more sustainable. Along the way, he’s crafted growth plans for local governments, nonprofits and businesses.

“The times are changing,” he says. And not a moment too soon.

Christopher Duerksen’s keynote speech, Saving the World Through Zoning: Green Development Codes and the Path to Sustainability, takes place June 18 in Boise as part of Planning in the West, a conference produced by NewWest.net in partnership with Boise State University.

For more details about Planning in the West—featuring leading planners, policy-makers, architects, developers, and landscape architects—click here.