Trying their hand at development
“Sustainable development” got a test drive by the 80 students attending last week’s 11th annual Miami County Environmental Leadership Council.
Their task was to design a development on 200 acres. Steeped in environmental education since elementary school, the junior high and high school students got a crash course in the environmental footprint concept before they started their designs.
What is sustainable development?
It’s development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” according to the United Nations’ World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987.
The intent of sustainable development is to balance economic, social and environmental needs in such a way that none suffer: That environmental concerns are not sacrificed for economic concerns, for instance. Or that decent wages are not sacrificed for social concerns.
Local experts used the concept of an environmental footprint to illustrate the tensions involved in sustainable development.
And an environmental footprint is?
It is a calculation of how much land is necessary to support a particular lifestyle for one person.
For instance, one calculation found it takes 24 acres of productive land to support the average American. That includes food, shelter, fuel, products and services.
The same calculation showed worldwide there are only 4 acres of productive land for each person.
That stunned some students.
“We gave them too much information on purpose,” said Deb Oexmann of the Brukner Nature Center, one of the program’s sponsors. “We wanted to push them out of the box.”
The results
The students concentrated on the interplay of economics and the environment on their designs, as well as the land-use tensions between rural, suburban and rural lifestyles.
The two Piqua teams each had plans for high-density housing with the emphasis on leaving one-half to one-fourth of their developments in green space or farmland.
The Miami East team used the land as a rustic resort with a large farmers market, horse trails, 15 cabins and a petting zoo.
The Tipp team chose to design a ranching community of 20 homes with the rest of the development as a stable, riding trails, farmers market and farmland to support the market and the stable.
The Bethel group went the recreation route with a sportsplex of soccer fields and indoor facilities, as well as a 9-hole golf course with condominiums. Nearly 45 percent of the 200 acres was not developed.
Each group fulfilled Oexmann’s goal of creativity. Each group also ran into problems — deal-breakers in the real world — with zoning, financial and stormwater concerns.
“At least they’re thinking about the problems their generation will have to face,” said Caroline Maslowski, a retired teacher and one of the facilitators.
For an environmental footprint quiz, go to www.myfootprint.org
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