Participant Guide: Sustain – Approach And Assets


The Envision Participant Guide provides an in-depth exploration of the opportunities and challenges which may shape the future of Prince George’s County. A the heart of the Participant guide and the Envision initiative in general are six Envision areas – live, work, learn, enjoy, serve, and sustain, which provide a framework to examine the parts of life in the county we hope to impact. Today we examine the Sustain Envision area:

Sustain: What is your vision for how we sustain our county, for ourselves and for future generations, especially around energy, natural resources, transportation, and development issues?

Approach

  • Work to understand how we can maintain and expand the infrastructure that supports our communities—where we live, work, learn, serve, and enjoy—in a sustainable manner. Infrastructure includes all elements of the built environment (including housing, businesses, transportation, and other public facilities) and natural environment (including green infrastructure, water resources, open space, and air quality).  
  • Discuss how to handle the pressures of future growth, the challenges of climate change and varying energy costs, and the opportunities for alternative energy sources.
  • Talk about how to best balance the needs to grow and develop as a county, while also preserving and sustaining the natural environment and open space.
  • Explore the role of agriculture in our community and the need to maintain access to a healthy and sustainable food supply. Consider some of these assets, opportunities, and challenges identified through previous public input:

Assets

  • Existing public transit: 15 Metro stations, 7 MARC stations, 1 Amtrak station, TheBus and Metrobus with high ridership on all.
  • Road network including expressways and highways: I-95, I-495, Baltimore–Washington Parkway, Intercounty Connector, US 50, US 301, Pennsylvania Avenue, Suitland Parkway, Branch Avenue, Crain Highway, Indian Head Highway, Central Avenue, and others.
  • Access to major airports, existing general aviation airports, and rail lines.
  • Extensive green infrastructure that is well protected.
  • Agricultural land in the Rural Tier of the county.  
  • General Plan has good principles for sustainable development.
  • Green Infrastructure Plan has good strategies for protecting and expanding open space and green infrastructure.
  • Three major watersheds—Anacostia, Potomac and Patuxent Rivers.

For much more background on our county, please download and review the Envision Participant Guide (note: This is a large 2MB PDF file), and look for many more Participant Guide excerpts here at the Envision blog.



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