Episode 4: Creating Sustainable Places

Original Air Date: 5/5/11, 7:30 p.m., KCPT

Watch the complete fourth episode below

The fourth episode of Imagine KC features the region's "Creating Sustainable Places" initiative. We hear from HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims, who sat down with us for a short interview following his March 24, 2011, announcement of the grant, to discuss what this opportunity means from a national perspective. Co-chairs Jan Marcason, City Council, Kansas City, Missouri, and Curt Skoog, City Council, Overland Park, Kansas, talk about how the project will unfold and who's involved. And local planning and sustainability experts describe how focusing on strategies to develop sustainable corridors and activity centers, and advance new conservation efforts will result in a region that is more vibrant, connected and green.

Viewers can gain a better understanding of how this collaborative effort among a broad network of regional partners rooted in a strong commitment to social equity, affordable housing, and moving the region from plans to transformative projects, will create a more sustainable and economically competitive region.

Guiding Principles

Creating Sustainable Places was initially guided by a coordinating committee (and since, has evolved into the Sustainable Places Policy Committee) representing a broad cross section of the region’s institutions and organizations. One of the original coordinating committee’s first tasks was to establish a set of principles to guide the initiative over it's first three years; help define what a sustainable region is; and describe the actions that make sustainability a reality. The current set of guiding principles to come from the Creating Sustainable Places initiative is available for public viewing.