Session Proposals
The Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute
18th Annual Land Use Conference
“Sustainability: Beyond the Platitudes”
Denver, Colorado, March 5 & 6, 2009
Please read this before submitting your online proposal »
Preamble
Sustainability must not be another fad or movement that will eventually run its course. Moving beyond the platitudes will require a paradigm shift in societal attitudes, laws, governing structures, and the tools used by professionals. The Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute is exploring planning and regulatory frameworks that will promote and sustain the necessary paradigm shift.
What We Are Looking For
Priority will be given to sessions that respond to the theme and supporting tracks:
- Climate Change: Adaption and Mitigation:
Successful adaptation to global climate change at national, regional, and local levels will require a re-orientation of planning and regulatory goals and objectives. The role of planning and regulating in mitigating our contributions to the production of greenhouse gases (GHG) is critical for our long term survival. Sessions may address either or both adaptation and mitigation. The subtopics listed below are suggestive not exclusive.- Adaptation
- Natural disaster planning
- Coastal zone management
- Floodplain management and regulation
- Wildfire mitigation
- Water management and regulation
- Drought adaptation strategies
- European Union initiatives
- Urban heat island effect
- Mitigation
- Climate protection plans, policies and regulations
- Planning policies and regulations to reduce GHG
- National and international case studies
- Critical discussion and analysis of carbon footprints
- Cap and trade systems and the possible role of cities
- Adaptation
- Green Urbanism:
The goals of green urbanism are the conservation of resources and energy with respect to buildings, neighborhoods, and cities. Additionally, the Institute is incorporating the concept of food security, and production within this category. Discussion of case studies, planning approaches, and regulatory tools may be highlighted. Possible session topics include:- Green roofs
- Green streets
- Green building requirements such as:
- Maximum energy consumption per square foot/meter
- Minimum renewable energy use or production
- Use of recycled materials
- Maximum residential dwelling size
- Maximum lot size
- Accessory dwelling or apartments
- Solar orientation
- Landscaping
- Tree planting requirements
- Drought tolerant landscaping, rain gardens
- “Low Impact Development” and permeable drainage
- Food Security and production
- Urban agriculture
- Protective agriculture-only zone districts
- Urban husbandry—e.g., chickens
- Housing in the 21st Century — Problems, Prospects and Prognostications:
The mortgage meltdown in the housing market coupled with continuing affordable housing challenges has placed housing at the top of national, state, and local agendas. Possible session topics may include:- Demand and demographics
- Green housing (low to zero energy)
- Car-free housing
- Transit oriented housing
- Affordable housing
- Inclusionary zoning
- Housing diversity (universal access, elderly, family friendly)
- Historic preservation
- Regulatory impacts on housing supply and costs
- Housing preference and location in an age of $10+/gallon gasoline (the Dutch are paying the equivalent of $9/gal)
- Implications of the mortgage meltdown on neighborhood stability
- Accessory dwelling units
- The density challenge
- Lessons from Europe
- Transportation and Mobility
The transportation sector consumes 27% of all energy in the USA. Significant barriers remain for satisfactory levels of mobility of children, the elderly, the poor and the handicapped. Vehicle miles traveled continue to rise at an unsustainable rate. Possible session topics:- The transportation and land use equation
- Strategies for mobility
- Limited auto parking
- Auto parking fees—the inconvenient truth about free parking
- Auto restricted developments
- Auto calmed streets
- Auto free zones and streets
- Pedestrian and bicycle transit facilities
- “Complete streets”
- Investment in inter-modal transit options
- TODs, transit centered communities
- Multi-modal transportation planning
- Public health connection
- The land use connection: density and mixed use
- Traffic modeling, level of service (LOS) for pedestrians and bicycles
- Lessons from Europe
- Bicycling lessons from the Dutch or others who have mastered cycling transportation systems
Additionally, we are particularly interested in sessions that accomplish any or all of the following:
- are thought provoking
- are forward thinking
- explore current trends
- synthesize information from various disciplines
- are accompanied by written papers or articles
- suggest real world solutions and practical implementation steps