Laserfiche WebLink
The termm “suburban ddevelopment”” (the red linee) does not reffer to the “whhere” but to the “how,” <br />in termss of the type oof developmennt. These proojects are typiccally isolated and accessibble only <br />by drivinng to them, suuch as strip-commercial ceenters or single-use office ccomplexes. <br />In this TTeam’s experience with towwn planning, wwe are findingg that commuunities that booth (i) <br />leveragee the infrastruucture and traansportation ssystems throuugh value cappture and (ii) uuse <br />adjacency predictabillity through a de facto “maaster developeer” environmeent are realizing value <br />curves ssuch as thosee depicted forrdowntowns ((the blue line)) in the chart above. <br />“Empty-nesters” and young professsionals can bbecome key mmarket targetss for this strattegy. <br />They tennd to have moore disposablle income andd put less preessure on the costs of servving <br />communnities in termss of kids, social services, eetc.. Attractingg and maintaining empty-nesters is <br />like attraacting touristss. Empty nestters like to speend money; aand their childdren only visitt, <br />lesseninng burdens onn the local schhools. Moreovver, both emppty-nesters annd young <br />professionals like to llive in smallerr lot homes, toownhomes annd lofts. Moree dense in dessign, <br />those reesidences tend to be muchh more efficiennt in terms of community sservices such as <br />police,ffire and the mmaintenance oof utility systemms. Accordinngly, empty-neesters and yooung <br />professionals are an important target market foor any meaninngful economiic developmeent <br />strategyy. <br />Communities that attract empty-neesters and yooung professioonals are alsoo attractive locations <br />for corpoorate investmment. People like “cool” commmunities. Soo if a suburbaan communityy can use <br />good deesign and valuue capture to create great places to livee and work, thhose communnities will <br />have a ccompetitive advantage in aattracting a claass of “knowledge workerss,” such as arrtists, <br />8 <br />Forward La Porte Econoomic Developmment Strategic Plan I 2009-22013 <br /> <br />