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- Info
Building livable communities: Sustaining prosperity, improving quality of life, building a sense of community
| Author: |
Livable Communities |
| Date: |
2000 |
| Periodical: |
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office |
| Abstract: |
The Livable Communities Initiative's aim is to provide communities with tools, information, and resources they can use to enhance their residents' quality of life, ensure their community's economic competitiveness, and build a stronger sense of community. Our goal is to help build livable communities for the 21St century - to develop places where older neighborhoods thrive once again; where you can walk safely on the streets; where historic neighborhoods as well as farms, forests, and other green spaces are preserved; where Americans spend less time in traffic and more time with their children, spouses, and neighbors; where homes are safe and secure from nature's forces; and all can share in our prosperity. We want to develop places with good schools, clean environments, and public and private spaces that help foster a spirit of community. Federal policies can influence patterns of growth - often, inadvertently - and their possible contribution to sprawl is a matter of some debate. With the Livable Communities Initiative, the Administration seeks to ensure that the federal government works with communities to build futures that: Sustain prosperity and expand economic opportunity; enhance the quality of life; and build a stronger sense of community. The Livable Communities Initiative contains an array of existing and proposed programs and policies to help communities meet these objectives. It offers communities resources and tools they can use to revitalize urban neighborhoods, ease traffic congestion, preserve farmland and open spaces, become disaster resistant, address the distribution of environmental burdens and benefits, and achieve equitable development. Through collaboration among neighboring jurisdictions, smart growth planning, and engagement of the private sector, these programs can help improve air and water quality, clean up abandoned brownfields, and improve traffic safety. The Livable Communities Initiative recognizes the importance of investing in places and is founded on community-based solutions. It is based on the notion that communities know best. Every community is different. Decisions about how they grow are best made by the communities themselves. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the federal government to assist and to inform, not direct. As a result, the Livable Communities Initiative defines four primary roles for the federal government in building livable communities: expanding community choices by providing incentives; expanding community choices by providing information; being a good neighbor; and building partnerships. |
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