Participant Guide: Sustain – Opportunities And Challenges

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:

Opportunities

  • Rebuild established communities to utilize existing infrastructure.
  • Use large tracts of undeveloped land to accommodate a balance between open space, recreation, and development.
  • Facilitate development around metro stations and other transit stops that is mixed use and pedestrian friendly (Transit Oriented Development)
  • Grow green businesses and technology to connect to research centers at universities and federal facilities.
  • Assist farms to meet demand for locally grown and organic food.
  • Design “complete streets” that are good for all users, including pedestrians, public transit, and vehicular traffic, in order to decrease automobile dependency.
  • Ensure universal access to proposed Purple Line stations and associated new development.
  • Develop green urban areas such as parks and trails to enhance quality of life, not just protect green areas in undeveloped land.
  • Develop urban agriculture and community gardens in new and existing neighborhoods to build social capital and foster community togetherness.
  • Capitalize on the existence of strong faith based organizations as resources.

Challenges

  • Inadequate public transit to some major destinations, such as National Harbor.
  • Threats to water supply for future generations.
  • Pressure for development in rural areas and on agricultural land.
  • Limited revenues from residential and commercial property tax base.
  • Threats to environment caused by future development and global climate change.
  • Varying energy costs.
  • Implementation of strategies in General Plan and master plans.
  • Developing a partnering model.

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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