We just produced a brief Neighborhood Quality of Life online checklist you and others active in your organization, Chesapeake Network, can use to determine how growth has affected quality of life where you live. 

The Neighborhood Quality of Life webpage explains how growth can be managed to resolve existing impacts and prevent futur damage.  The goal is to expand public awareness of and voter support for responsible growth management. 

The first-blush checklist requires only a “yes” or “no” to simple questions regarding:

·        Neighborhood Stop Sign Delay & Safety

·        Congestion at Traffic Signals

·        Speeding on Neighborhood Streets

·        Quality of Lakes & Tidal Waters

·        Stream Quality

·        Drinking Water

·        School Overcrowding

·        Aging Schools

·        Neighborhood Parks

·        Parkland Supply & Demand

·        Walking-Biking Opportunities

·        Neighborhood Trees

·        Noise & Other Nuisances

·        Fire & Emergency Medical Services

 

Why the Neighborhood Quality of Life Webpage & Checklist?

How well are new housing projects, shopping centers and other forms of growth being managed in your area?  Is growth harming or helping quality of life for you and your neighbors?  Are those who profit directly from growth required to pay their fair share?  Are your schools, roads and other services being short-changed to accommodate more development?

 

Answering these questions can be challenging for those new to land use and environmental issues.  Newcomers lack a yardstick to assess how growth affects the factors which make a neighborhood a great place to live.  The goal of the webpage and checklist is to provide people with a simple means of judging how local growth management stacks up against best practices from around the country.  It is my hope that this awareness will lead to greater public support for responsible growth management.

 

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Richard D. Klein

Community & Environmental Defense Services

606 Freeland Road

Freeland, Maryland  21053

410-654-3021

Main CEDS Website: ceds.org

CEDS News Service: cedsnews.com