Friday, February 4, 2011

A Green Future for Economic Development - the Dollars and Sense of Open Space

On January 26, 2011, I was pleased to attend the one-day conference 'A Green Future for Economic Development', presented by the Research Triangle Regional Partnership.  We've come along way in the past two decades - an Economic Development Partnership sponsoring an "open space summit" would have been an absurd notion 20 years ago.  This workshop was a confirmation that the market has responded to what people really want in their communities - trees, green spaces, parks, natural areas - and paths and sidewalks to take them there.  These are the aspects of 'quality of life' that will drive growth and real estate development going forward.

RTRP has kindly uploaded the three major presentations from the conference (scroll down to "Presentations from the Event").  These slides shows, courtesy of Chuck Flink, Ed McMahon, and Michael Kirschman, are a great primer for planners and citizens to use to convey the economic value of open space, parks, greenways, and natural areas.

Kudos to RTRP, Triangle Tomorrow, and their volunteers for an exceptional production.

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