Architecture Archaeology and Historic Preservation Planning

Growth Management Land Use Planning Green Leases and Water Quality

Your Community Plan for preserving local buildings and sites of archaeological, cultural and historic significance should:

list all archaeological, cultural and historic resources,

identify those potentially threatened by future growth,

recommend actions for safeguarding each, and

explain why the selected actions will achieve long term preservation Read

Green Leases for Properties and Communities. Green Leases promote energy efficiency by creating lease structures which equitably align the costs and benefits of efficiency investments between building owners and tenants Read

Travel Services Energy Efficiency and Water Conservation Projects

   

Growth Management and Land Use Planning. Towns Cities and Counties have plans that set forth how an area should grow i.e. shopping centers, new schools, housing projects and commercial, residential, institutional or industrial development. Your Local Area Plan shows how anticipated growth is likely to affect quality of life for current and future residents as well as visitors to the community Read

A Water Quality Plan should list all the waters and their quality condition expressed as: 

Excellent waters are fit for all human uses and can support sensitive fish and other aquatic creatures; Good waters can support a high number of game fish but not highly-sensitive organisms;

Fair waters support few game fish and are not suitable for swimming;

Poor quality waters support only the most pollution-tolerant organisms Read

Exploring the Brandywine Creek and Valley

Brandywine Creek is a tributary of the Christina River in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware. The Lower Brandywine is 20.4 miles long and is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River with several tributary streams.

Development and Conservancy Issues in the 1960s, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania in the historic Brandywine Valley, faced a possible massive industrial development that would impact a largely rural community.  Also, development plans in floodplain areas threatened to devastate water supplies for numerous communities in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware.

Residents bought endangered land and founded the Brandywine Conservancy in 1967.  The first conservation easements, protecting more than five and one-half miles along the Brandywine, were granted in 1969. 

These Experiences have placed the Brandywine Valley communities in the forefront of responsible land use, open space preservation and water protection with a focus on integrating conservation with economic development through land stewardship and local government assistance programs working with individuals, state, county and municipal governments and private organizations to permanently protect and conserve natural, cultural and scenic resources.

The Conservancy opened a museum in 1971 in the renovated Hoffman’s Mill, a former gristmill built in 1864, part of the Conservancy’s first preservation efforts.  It contains an unparalleled collection of American art with emphasis on the art of the Brandywine region, illustration, still life and landscape painting, and the work of the Wyeth family.

River Museums Microbrews and Shopping in Delaware and Southeastern PA

Professional Enrichment Tours address suburban sprawl, declining water quality, diminishing water supplies, vanishing agricultural land, loss of historic character, wildlife habitat degradation, and threatened biological resources. Learn to:

·         Protect and conserve land and water, natural, cultural and scenic resources;

·         Create and strengthen local government efforts that support resource conservation;

·         Improve site planning and design to support resource conservation;

·         Plan and conserve of natural and cultural resources;

·         Enhance awareness and knowledge of conservation approaches.

Travel to the US Mid-Atlantic

Reduce Transit Times and Travel Cost on Your Next Trip

Travel Plans     Intercity & Local Transport

On the way to the Brandywine Valley, it is worth visiting three cultural venues in Wilmington:

Rockwood Mansion & Park, an English country estate featuring unique gardens, a Rural Gothic mansion with conservatory, and a Victorian house museum with 19^thand 20^th century furnishings.

The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, located in the Wilmington Riverfront District, is a non-collecting contemporary art museum dedicated to the advancement of contemporary art. The DCCA houses seven galleries with over 30 exhibits annually, featuring the work of regional, national, and international artists.

The Delaware Art Museum founded in 1912, it offers vibrant family programs, studio art classes, a diverse collection of American art and illustration and an outdoor sculpture garden.

Explore the Brandywine Valley, Delaware and Southeastern PA

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Logistics for Business and Travel Related Services

Local Public Transport Initiatives In recent years, efficient and affordable public transit - in the form of bus rapid transit, micro transit, subways, elevated and other rail services and trolley cars – for urban, suburban and intercity service have been debated, studied and in some instances implemented. Our itineraries include major US cities with established commuter and regional service as well as communities that are implementing new transit programs.

Public Transport and Transit Oriented Development

Transportation Infrastructure is the backbone of a community. A reduced dependence on the automobile enables land use planning that reduces household transportation costs and frees up space for transit, pedestrian, and bike systems as well as rationalizing the use of existing infrastructure.

Transit Oriented Development transportation is the second-highest household expense; access to transit enhances access to the workplace and schools. TOD not only benefits new and existing residents, but also businesses, transit agencies, local governments, merchants, and developers.

Transit Solutions and Location Efficient Communities

Location Efficiency is defined as communities with walkable streets, access to transit, proximity to jobs, mixed land uses, and concentrations of retail and services achievable with policies like free transit passes and car-sharing as well as planning tools that identify land parcels under development and calculate the benefits of locating in a walkable community near existing transit facilities, allowing

Developers and Local Public Officials to identify traffic reduction strategies by location, design and the amount of parking needed in support of smart, well-located developments during the development review process as well as engage residents and contribute to future neighborhood planning.

Walking Biking and Land Use Planning

Walking and Biking nearly 20 percent of auto-related fatalities involve pedestrians and bicyclists. Walking and bicycling can be made safer at dangerous intersections, streets, sidewalks as well as for wheelchair users by utilizing existing planning tools.

Land Use Planning decisions help determine ways to reduce housing and other costs for families living in places with good public transportation and ameliorate costly and time-consuming commutes.

Ways and Means

A Platform containing Marketing and Sales Services, Project Management Systems, Community Data Bases, Training and other resources tasked with establishing and/or enhancing local capabilities in Travel and Logistics.

Benefits & Advantages include the economies of scale generated by collaborations among communities, a focus on high-end tourism clients, the application of a trade routes approach leading to groups of clients traveling to multiple locations during a business or vacation trip, redundancies generated by multiple areas of focus – logistics, travel services, energy and conservation related activities.

                                                                 

 Transit Logistics

Local Resources Directories with links to local history, museums, accommodations, itineraries, events, transport, guides, health care facilities as well as energy and conservation data featuring local projects, suppliers and management tools.

Growth Management and Land Use Planning in Your Community

Towns Cities and Counties have plans setting forth how an area should grow i.e. shopping centers, new schools, housing projects and commercial, residential, institutional or industrial development. Your Local Area Plan shows how anticipated growth is likely to affect quality of life for current and future residents as well as visitors to the community. 

A Quality of Life Growth Management Plan

What Is It public opinion surveys show that the quality of life factors people view as being most affected by poorly managed growth are: schools, traffic and various environmental resources.  Other quality of life factors potentially affected by growth include: air quality; water resources such as streams, lakes, tidal waters or wells; crime; farmland loss; flooding; historic, archaeological and cultural resources; housing affordability; jobs and a healthy economy; neighborhood street safety; open space loss; park and recreation areas; placing incompatible uses near neighborhoods; police and fire services; property value; safe places to walk and bike; scenic views; shifting cost of growth from taxpayers to developers; shopping opportunities; trees and forests; wildlife.

Quality of Life Plans preserve and enhance anticipated growth if they:

present quantifiable criteria for assessing the effect of growth on each factor affected by development;

based on criteria that show how past growth has affected each quality of life factor;

show how the effect is likely to change with anticipated growth;

propose actions that prevent a decline in quality of life and enhance existing ones, and

provide factual basis for why these actions are likely to produce the benefits claimed in the plan.

Quality of Life Growth Management Example

The following illustrates how the six components of a Quality of Life Growth Management Plan would play out with regard to schools.  The quantifiable value for assessing school impact is percent utilization - enrollment ÷ capacity. The planning area is served by four public schools.  First the plan would show current utilization at the four schools.  Enrollment is based on actual student count; capacity is based on established formulas such as 20 students per classroom times the number of classrooms in the school. 

Next, the plan shows how enrollment would change with the anticipated growth presented elsewhere in the plan.  Many developing areas see an annual population increase of about 1%.  The 2026 enrollment below is based upon this average increase.  Of course enrollment reflects birth rates when tend to follow peaks and valleys.  The following table shows that at the end of the ten-year period -2026 - overcrowding at the three schools will become far worse.

The Actions recommended in the plan for resolving this quality of life issue are: 1 build a new elementary school and 2 expand the middle school.  The table shows this resolves overcrowding.

School	2026 Enrollment	2026 Capacity	Utilization
Smith Elementary	501	535	94%
Lincoln Elementary	484	600	81%
New Elementary	515	600	89%
Washington Middle Addition of 200 seats	1055	1100	96%
Jefferson High	1140	1501	76%

A New Plan for Your Area if your current plan is about to expire or rates poorly based on the Quality of Life Growth Management system, we can assist you in carrying out the outlined steps and/or conduct a community workshop and assist you in formulating a planning strategy for your community.

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