Gene Bressler speaks as students stand prepared to escort participants to workshops.
By Betsy Metzger
College of Architecture and Planning
The state of the state tomorrow depends on what leaders do today. Civic leaders, planners, developers, architects, engineers, landscape architects, environmentalists, educators, and students met Sept. 29 at the City of Lakewood Cultural Center to explore how Colorado can accommodate continued growth while improving livability. The conference was sponsored by the Colorado Center for Sustainable Urbanism (CCSU), a research initiative of the College of Architecture and Planning, in partnership with the Colorado District Council of the Urban Land Institute. It was designed to challenge assumptions while encouraging critical thinking about one of Colorado's most fundamental challenges: If our state's population is expected to increase by 50 percent in the next 25 years, how do we accommodate Colorado's rapid growth while improving livability for future generations?
The purpose of Colorado Tomorrow 2005 was not to find solutions, but to challenge commonly held assumptions about critical issues like livability, growth, transportation, development, and sustainability, and to initiate an ongoing community dialogue to be facilitated by the research Center as a follow-up to the conference.
The theme of "livability" was explored through the framework of transportation investment and its role as a critical supporter and driver of growth. The focus was transportation investment and associated land use along Colorado's two major corridors [home of more than 90 percent of the state's population], Interstate 25/Front Range and Interstate 70/Front Range-Western Slope. Choices made now will define the quality of our state's future.
Four distinguished authorities helped to frame the issues during the morning sessions:
Douglas R. Porter, President of The Growth Management Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland, former Director of the Public Policy Research Program at the Urban Land Institute and author of The Practice of Sustainable Development and Managing Growth in America's Communities, set a context for the concepts and practices associated with sustainable development. Will Fleissig, Boulder's former Planning Director, co-founder of Continuum Partners and current founder of Urban Villages, focused further on the transportation/sustainability nexus with a discussion of some key case studies and their implications for realizing the potential of the metro area's FasTracks investment. Transportation planning consultant Jim Charlier discussed the impact -- both positive and negative—of transportation investment on livability in Colorado. And, market-researcher Maury Giles, director of analytic solutions with GSD&M, Austin, discussed how a community can successfully connect "sustainable development values" with actions. Following lunch, participants engaged in one of six concurrent workshops designed to expand the conversation about specific and critical aspects of an integrated transportation-land use approach to a more livable future. Afternoon workshops were:
1. "Re-thinking Financial Strategies for Sustainable Development" led by Marilee Utter, President of Civicventures Associates, and Chair of ULI Colorado, Tom Clark, President of the Denver Chamber of Commerce, and Frank Gray, Director of Planning and Development services for the City of Scottsdale, Arizona.
2. "Enhancing Social Equity through Transit Investment Strategies" directed by Allan Wallis, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public Affairs at The University of Colorado Denver [UCDHSC].
3. "Mobility Strategies for Enhancing Livability in Small Towns" facilitated by Albert Melcher, recipient of Tim Wirth Chair, Distinguished Service Award, and retired chair of the Transportation Committee for the Sierra Club.
4. "Design Strategies for Bridging the Gap between Living and Livability" led by George Hoover, FAIA, professor at UCDHSC’s College of Architecture and Planning, and founding principal of AR7HooverDesmondArchitects, with a distinguished panel including Susan Barnes-Gelt, former Denver City Council Woman at Large; Deborah Ortega, Executive Director of the Denver Commission to End Homelessness; David Daniel, Senior Associate, David Owen Tryba Architects, AIA, Alan Gass, AGGA Architecture and Urban Design, AIA, and Mickey Zeppelin, founder of Zeppelin Development, and developer of TAXI.
5. "Challenging Assumptions about Green Building Strategies" led by David Adamson, leading green building consultant with Eco Build LLC.
6. "Strategies for Integrating Land-Use and Transportation Planning" with Brian Muller, Assistant Professor at UCDHSC’s College of Architecture and Planning, and Bill Johnston, the Metro Vision Planning and Implementation Manager and member of the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG).
Summaries of each workshop were presented by a panel of representatives at a closing plenary forum. The four keynote speakers wrapped up the day with a few reflections on how the day's events have advanced understanding of the issues and challenges raised, and how our community can imagine and achieve a more livable Colorado Tomorrow.