Community Planning, Design & Development Services

First and foremost, Commun1ty.one is an organization that is dedicated to community building.  We believe that zoning is the DNA of our development patterns. If community-based results are desired in terms of what development generates, those deliverables must be distinguishable as part of the zoning code itself.  The deliberate sequencing of community building DNA would produce walkable, diverse, transportation abundant, mixed-use neighborhoods and districts, which are socially aware, financially durable, and environmentally sound. Today’s conventional zoning standards fall entirely short of delivering these objectives.  As in nature, the DNA of a banana is incapable of producing a platypus.

Creating community building DNA is accomplished through a carefully designed system developed and honed over multiple decades by a multitude of experts from around the United States.  The best examples of historic development patterns, from around the country and throughout the world are studied to first identify the DNA of these great places, and then how to extract it through carefully designed processes.  Within these extraction exercises our experience then allows us to calibrate the metrics and apply them to advanced zoning codes and regulations.

Commun1ty.one is also fully committed to being part of the solution when it comes to creating, building and delivering communities. We believe that a community is a comprehensive built environment that addresses all aspects of people and place. The process of assembling a community is just as attentive to the impact on the lives of its future residents as it is upon the planning and designing of places for work, worship, and recreation.

Lastly, Commun1ty.one desires to balance the necessary attention between both the short and long term aspects of community building. Short term aspects are tied to fiscal responsibility, while long term aspects are focused on creating places for people to grow. Both are important - both are required in order to ensure healthy decision making pertaining to community development.
 

The Green TrIangle

Our community planning & design services can be understood in the context of the "Green Triad" of Economics, Market and Policy:

1. Economics

Economics plays the role of governing the financial considerations that are part of the decision making pertinent to the built environment. Economics often serve as a measuring stick for whether certain decisions can be made. If a particular decision does/doesn’t “pencil” it typically is an easy decision to make as to whether to move forward or not. 

2. Market

Market is the execution of making the built environment a reality. It is the process undertaken which delivers the end results that we as human beings then have/get to experience the built world made up of streets, buildings, and civic space.

3. Policy

Policy governs the manner in which the built environment is allowed to occur from the general perspective of the health, safety, and welfare of the general public. Policy sets the rules and has a direct impact on the “output” of what and how the built environment looks and feels once it is in place.

What must be clearly understood about these governing elements is that in order to achieve the creation of the built environment Economics, Policy, and Market have to be in sync with each other. Without willing participants on all three sides of the triangle nothing happens.  If the Economics work (available money), supporting Policy is in place (zoning), but unwilling Market conditions (developers), there will be no activity. If the Economics are supportive, and a willing Market, but unwilling Policy, again there will be no activity. This arrangement works the same way if there is a supportive Market and Policy but no support with Economics.

Our work at Commun1ty.one involves ensuring the alignment of Economics, Market, and Policy.  This is done through carefully crafted work strategies, such as the following:

1. Economics

• Economic Feasibility Analysis

• Demographic Capacity Analysis

• Durable Wealth Analysis

• Neighborhood/Centers Development Analysis

• Economic Due Diligence
  

2. Market

• Development Scenario Planning

• Development Capacity Planning

• Market Intensity Analysis

• Building Type Integration

• Market Due Diligence
  

3. Policy

• Visioning

• Site Analysis & Regulatory Review

• Code Calibration / Development Metrics

• Zoning Code Analysis

• Synoptic Survey Analysis

• Community Microscale Analysis

• Urban Design Guidelines/Standards

• Development Approvals