U.S. DOE and EPA are sponsoring smart growth development at two model cities, Chattanooga, Tennessee and Mesa del Sol/Albuquerque, N. Mexico. Mesa del Sol was chosen as an opportunity to demonstrate to the nation how to successfully plan and design from the beginning and from the ground up - a large-scale new community with a projected population of 90,000 and more than 60,000 jobs. The 13,000-acre parcel is the largest tract of undeveloped land near an urban center in the U.S.
The DOE grant will support the design of a set of tools which will guide cities and regions in their search for smart growth and sustainable economic development strategies. The computer tools will foster community participation in complex decision-making processes, and provide highly visual images of future growth scenarios. These scenarios can be linked to powerful software programs which help measure fiscal impacts to local government, desired land/use transportation linkages, positive impacts of compact urban form and planned/phased development, energy and resource conservation, and econometric models for sustained balanced economic growth.
Cornell University's Work and Environment Initiative Program is working under an EPA grant to integrate eco-industrial development there. Ed Cohen-Rosenthal, Director of WEI, sees Albuquerque as a case study to evaluate how to apply Codes, Covenants and Restrictions for Eco-Industrial Development. A portion of the development, perhaps 100 acres, he said, may be devoted to eco-industrial manufacturing.
Cornell University Center for the Environment/Work and Environment Initiative Program: http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/WEI
