Designing on the Edge in Southern California

As California’s population increases, pressures from traditional suburban development threaten adjacent natural environments. Even during these economic times, this state is still adding one person per minute, so there will always be a need for housing, jobs, infrastructure and continuous growth. Infill development should be stressed, but unfortunately new development in undeveloped areas will have to occur to accommodate the growing population.

The real question is: What will these developments look like and how can we minimize our footprint on the natural environment?

Last week, the Urban Land Institute of Orange County hosted a charette to explore edge development. Over 50 professionals from the development, design, and environmental fields participated to produce a new vision for future development. Discussions and topics ranged from wildlife habitat, wildfires, community agriculture, sustainable living, local production, reducing vmt (vehicle miles traveled), and social equality as the group was divided into 4 teams.

Each team was given a site on the edge of urban/suburban development and had to come up with a rational plan that considered all of these topics. The sites varied in size, terrain and context, but the results were mostly the same.

Located on our group’s site was a National Wildlife Refuge and estuary so we had to be extremely sensitive to this area. We decided to expand the wetland and create fingers of open space, which could also be used by the people living there. We were able to provide and expand habitat while still creating an urban development consisting of various residential types, village centers, high end jobs, and localized food and energy production.

While very impressed by the collaborative effort of all the different professions, I was a little concerned that the natural landscape was not really considered in a few groups. Some groups created a very nice ‘sustainable’ village, but completely disregarded the idea of the charette to blend the natural environment with the human environment and minimize our impact Below are a couple pictures of our group in action.


Image 1: begining of our group session, identifying values.



Image 2: Concept ideas for the development of our site.



A New Vision for Edge Development in Southern California
Innovations Workshop
ULI of Orange County
June 25 and 26, 2009