Community Planning and the Natural Environment

Abstract

Although our relationship with the natural environment has changed as a result of modernization, growth, and development, the natural environment in areas of “open space” continues to provide communities with many economic, environmental, and social benefits that have been well documented (Albrecht, 1993;Center for the Study of Law and Politics, 1991;Dwyer et al.1991;National Park Service, 1992). In addition to these well-known benefits, the planned use of open space helps communities absorb change by creating special places and preserving structured and shared symbols such as historic landscapes (Greider and Garkovich, 1994). By providing a framework for communities, the local autonomy of a community is defined and reinforced through the planned use of open space, increasing the psychological identification with a locale and making people feel more comfortable and at-home (Bender, 1978;Hawley, 1950; Warren, 1972). Frederick Law Olmstead wrote that parks and open space are benign magnets for social democratization and recreation (Wilson, 1989). The green infrastructure of open space provides opportunities for people to generalize across interest lines and helps create a sense of community, one characterized by shared spatial experiences. It creates an element of social equality because as an equalizer open space offers people regardless of background or social and economic status the same opportunities. Open space improves the quality of life and environment and contributes to economic and social life and is an important factor in the development of healthy and sustainable communities. In order to increase the quality of life and environment in our communities, it is important that the costs and benefits provided by the natural environment through open space be understood and considered through a comprehensive land use planning process. But what is a human community?