Summary

Salt Lake City, UT

May 29-June 1, 2013

Living Community balances the demands of physical, social, economic, and environmental values by connecting people to place and awakening in us a stewardship for our land and each other. Stewardship is tangible. It is measured by how well we care for the people around us, the places we make, and the land that hosts us. It is Living Community.

Our challenge and opportunity is to (re)discover methods for growth that will enhance regions and communities, and, in turn, the lives of all people in an age of constricting economic and natural resources and in an environment of continual change. We must cultivate places that enable our welfare today while enhancing prospects for future generations. The New Urbanism pragmatically seeks to balance these forces. Our approach will evolve as we learn together, and as we create together in a collaborative framework of policy makers, developers, designers, administrators, and community at large. Together we realize and experience the Living Community.

Utah’s approach to visioning its future illustrates this inclusive and continuously evolving approach to Living Community. Salt Lake City has embraced dynamic change. The region has the fastest growing rail transit system in the United States. The region is implementing Envision Utah’s regional plan, which received early guidance from CNU co-founder Peter Calthorpe. And development patterns are responding to the increased demand for urbanism as forecast by the University of Utah’s demographer and researcher, Chris Nelson. The city—cradled by the mountains and at the edge of vast waters and deserts—challenges us to a living community that embraces the relationship between human and natural habitats, as described by author Richard Louv.

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