Revisiting Sustainable Real Estate Development

It would seem there is a significant effort at the local level to redefine sustainable real estate development. For many years, this illustration outlined the three basic components of sustainability: economic, environmental and social factors.

The National Association of Home Builders restates these factors as:
Profit
Planet
People


I would like to define the above as follows:

Economic – opportunities that diversify industrial and revenue streams within a community for stability and continuity

Environmental – in land development, it is the respect of the land form in achieving the highest and best use

Social – the community environment is composed of people and where they live, work, play and shop

For years, I have been an advocate of horizontal and vertical mixed use projects to achieve real estate development sustainability. In March 2008, John Wiley & Sons published my book “Fundamentals of Land Development - A Real-World Guide to Profitable Large-Scale Development”. This book concentrates on horizontal and vertical mixed uses and the process in which to achieve entitlements and successful strategies.

Since writing this book, I have included two new factors to the sustainability definition: Energy used by real estate development projects regardless of the planned use. Natural gas, oil, and electricity are the big three. Transportation factors include existing infrastructure capacity and road standards used by municipalities for new developments.

Horizontal and vertical mixed use projects are sustainable and it doesn’t mean the single family home will disappear and everyone will live in apartments and ride a bicycle. My definition of a sustainable real estate development definition is simple:

“A sustainable real estate development project is a

Town within a Town”

Local governments continuously change their local land use ordinances, zoning, and land development codes to restrict the use of land.

Amendment V to the Constitution of the United State, says in part…….. “nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation”.

The global sustainable movement has impacted our ability to use land for its highest and best use. Over the next two weeks, I will outline how the sustainability movement has and will change our real estate development industry.