By Ted Fischer
June 19, 2006

Sustainable Development Task Force Chair Redmond (WA) Mayor Rosemarie Ives convened a meeting of the Task Force June 5 at the Conference of Mayors 74th Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. Ives welcomed more then 20 mayors in attendance, and had speakers from Metrovation and SustainLane on hand to discuss national sustainable city rankings and viable design options and best practices when building a sustainable community.

Ron Sher, Northwest Managing Partner of Metrovation and a Redmond native, spoke on why great places are the key to sustainability. Sher admitted that he is not a typical builder, because he challenges cities with the creation of space that unites communities. Sher said, “We all need to look differently at land use, and we need to live our lives in the future not in the here and now. Every builder needs to look at their design as a legacy, and have a building block that is community-oriented.”

Sher is well known in the Pacific Northwest for designing communities that not only have home and workplace accommodations but also take into account a “third place” where the community can bond. “We have all been trained to be suspect about everything in our lives; this third place gives us the opportunity to retrain our perception of a community,” Sher said. He gave examples of third places such as retail areas, coffee shops within community libraries, farmers markets, book stores, and community centers. “Sustainable communities need to be more then just attractive and friendly; they need to be moveable for folks to easily get around,” he said.

Warren Karlenzig, Chief Strategy Officer of SustainLane spoke on the 2006 US City Rankings, a nationwide study that measures the 50 largest cities in America on essential quality-of-life and economic factors that affect sustainability. “Through the collection of data, we have learned that there are inspiring citizen groups, city governments, and mayors around the country promoting innovative solutions that are improving people’s lives,” Karlenzig said. “Rising oil prices, quality of life concerns, natural disasters and political risk are all factors in the changing outlook on sustainable communities.” Karlenzig also stressed the use of regional transportation and cities needing to make options available for their communities to be sustainable. “The survey weighted public transportation heavily and most communities that scored low were affected by the little or lack of transportation options.”

For more information and presentations from the Sustainable Development Taskforce, please be sure to visit or website at usmayors.org.