Our Programs: Place - The "Real Place" Makes Place


		At some point, people [will] simply have to start behaving as if the natural environment is our most valuable asset, not just in spiritual terms but also in hard commercial terms. Gretchen Daily and Katherine Ellison

A. Built Environment B. Historic Preservation C. Nature D. Uniqueness • CHG PLACE SERVICES •

	A strategic conservation policy that results in cleaner air and water, higher property values, improved tourism, and better economic performance,

	or a land giveaway to growth, which destroys open space forever, generates pollution, and incurs additional costs for residents.

The "Real Place" Makes Place

It doesn’t have to be a choice between the environment and jobs. That’s a false dichotomy, as we're learning from new economic schools such as "Natural Capitalism" and "Ecological Economics." Communities that protect the air and land; value open space and farms; and provide parks, greenbelts, rivers, forests, trails, and other outdoor attractions for residents and tourists can also maintain a vibrant economy. The two are not mutually exclusive.
A new generation of economists has shown that communities with strong environmental regulations produce more favorable economies. They interest "high-value visitors" (who spend more), attract emerging knowledge-base companies (that pay more), costs for clean water and other resources are lower, property values increase steadily, and public agencies that adopt "green principles" can save taxpayers money.
As new subdivisions chew up farmland, it costs. A suburban home on one acre taxes residents nearly five times as much as a farm acre. In more than a few ways it pays to save open space and farms.
Urban Growth Boundaries and similar set-aside policies protect open space and concentrate growth inward, where there’s a paid-for infrastructure of roads, utilities, and services. UGB’s prevent the leapfrogging growth-pods that create traffic congestion and pollution, costing the public economically and environmentally.
There’s such a thing as a cultural landscape. The environment is part of a community’s history and heritage. Reintroducing native plants, for instance, is one way to put heritage on display.