Creating Sustainable Places

A Regional Plan for Sustainable Development in Greater Kansas City

Creating Sustainable Places is a compilation of key regional plans and strategies with common goals and themes that together constitutes our regional plan for sustainable development. While the plans and strategies cover many different elements and locations in our community, they blend into a single vision of a community that is economically prosperous, provides our residents and future generations with a high quality of life, values our natural and historic assets, and creates opportunities and choices for all of our residents.

Implementation Guidebook

One of the primary goals of Creating Sustainable Places is to move beyond planning to implementation — spurring decisions that create real change in real places.

The Implementation Guidebook is intended to serve as a resource for local governments and community partners who are ready to take the next step toward sustainability. It will also be used to:

  • Guide sustainable projects toward implementation in each of six designated corridors. These projects will demonstrate the benefits and feasibility of sustainable development and illustrate the processes, approaches and tools needed to make it work.
  • Establish a framework for replicable, multi-jurisdictional planning and implementation processes based on the “triple bottom line” of social, economic and environmental interests. This requires new approaches to planning and implementation that recognize the interdependence of communities in our region, especially along shared corridors, and the importance of holistically addressing the multiple dimensions of sustainability.
  • Offer a variety of realistic strategies for successful planning and implementation. Sustainability is not one-size-fits-all, and different communities may take different paths to achieve their goals.
  • The Implementation Guidebook offers tools, indicators, templates and best practices that will not only be used in six key corridors, as part of the three-year Creating Sustainable Places initiative but can also be used by any community to create more sustainable places.