A shifting view of development
If we address the ecological health of cities,
a tipping point of global transformation is possible.
Transforming a community over time
OUR GOAL is to establish new and healthy patterns of development
within a community for ecological and social co-evolution. It looks to maximize the uplift in community
value that occurs from smart and strategically planned infrastructure investments (typically involving
public dollars) that sponsor a strong, constructive development response from the private sector.
OUR METHOD is to use a specialized planning practice called value planning,
which identifies the social and environmental assets of a community. It provides decision makers with
tools to organize infrastructure projects and add to the tax base rather than the tax burden.
OUR APPROACH is to unlock the wealth of place
Development projects are most successful where the communities they are situated within are thriving.
Our place-based Value Planning methodology, which was incubated at the Canadian Urban Institute, is
designed to maximize community wealth generation to ensure communities thrive and remain
sustainable.
By focusing on neighbourhoods, and operating with evidence based strategies, it focuses investments
on initiatives that foster enhanced sustainability.
Long-term benefits
Our starting point is place, not project, so the focus is the preparation of a public/private community
based investment strategy with the developers as prominent stakeholders.
The objective is to ensure the community becomes invested in supporting successful outcomes long
term. Development projects optimize their position within the cohesive public/private sector
investment strategy, and a triple bottom line return-on-investment is modeled with the uplift
response derived from analogues of success.
Our methodology places guardianship of the strategy with the community, including development
stakeholders, providing risk protection for all vested interests.
for the developer | for the community | for the municipality |
Shorter time to project approvals (ameliorates community resistance) Higher project incomes (projects leverage position within a cohesive community based investment strategy) Triple bottom line outcomes (providing ESG metrics). Lower risk (of not meeting project delivery schedule or income projections or disturbance from external unplanned events) Enhanced enterprise value | Projects that respect and Projects that respond to Projects that create Projects that promote | Investment strategies that Investment strategies that Investment strategies that |