There are rhizomatic problems that cross networks of organizations and involve both transorganizational development and Emery-Participative Democracy situations.  Here we will focus upon Green Initiatives.

Tuber Overview - There are green problems that are holon in nature, with contexts within contexts, systems within systems, and regions within regions. Emery participative design models have been applied one community at a time in New Mexico and other states to develop community-based land use policies.  The problm is one of leapfrogging as business and home real estate speculation and development moves to areas that have not developed land use policies.  Similarly, TD solutions that bring together multiple organizational stakeholders to develop change beyond local regions gets bogged down in jurisdictional claims.  Finally, there are Network change approaches that focus on the chaos and complexity dynamics of large systems. For example, a development plan achieved in one community can set off predatory action in other communities as speculative interests migrate to gobble up the land in non-organized communities.  Here, I am interested in ways to work across Emery-TD-Network initiatives can work toward planning more greenfield or greenbelt sites bounding the edges of our metropolitan and regional areas.

DEFINING THE PROBLEM:

Each year, approximately 400,000 acres of  farmland are consumed by  sprawl in the United States alone.

Sierra Club Stop Sprawl Campaign (press here) "Poorly planned development is threatening our  environment, our health, and our quality of life. In communities across America "sprawl" - scattered development that increases traffic, saps local resources and destroys open space - is taking a serious toll. But runaway growth is not inevitable. Hundreds of urban, suburban and rural neighborhoods are choosing to manage sprawl with smart growth solutions." 1999 Sprawl Report      Livable Communities    Sprawl Factsheet

• MOVING BEYOND LOCAL COMMUNITY PARTICIPATIVE DESIGN - "In 1997, Maryland's General Assembly passed the "Smart Growth and Neighborhood Conservation" initiative to save the state's remaining natural resources, funnel state resources into existing communities to support development where the infrastructure is already in place, and save taxpayers the millions of dollars usually spent in building the infrastructure required to support sprawl."
• There is no reason why a Participative Design, TD, and Network approach could not coalesce from community to more regional design. For example " Portland-area voters also established Portland Metro, the country's first elected regional government, which has planning control over the entire area encompassed by the boundary."
• Asia Solutions - "In crowded Manila, Filinvest Alabang Inc. (FAI) is constructing 610-acre Filinvest Corporate City, a virtually self-contained new town. The offices and condominiums are located in high-rise towers, enabling the developer to set aside large amounts of land for parks and open space.  With everything they need around them, residents and  workers don't have to leave their community and struggle  through Manila's traffic jams."
 

Sprawl is Not Inevitiable report finds, ENN October 8, 1999  By Margot Higgins (press here). "The Sierra Club's second annual sprawl report, entitled "Solving Sprawl," shows that states and communities across the nation are using innovative programs and tools to manage poorly planned growth." Look at Solutions (press here) - excerpts follow:
• Open Space Protection:Twenty-five states have taken steps toward protecting farms and 20 states have agricultural  conservation easement programs. These programs compensate property owners for giving up the right to future development. Overall, open-space protection enjoys extremely broad public  support. Yet few states have preserved enough land to protect our wild places and keep them in good health.
•  Land Use Planning: Only 11 states have passed comprehensive statewide growth-management acts. These law mandate or encourage comprehensive local planning according to statewide standards and enable the use of tools such as impact fees and urban growth boundaries.
• Community Revitalization: Twenty-eight states now have brownfields redevelopment programs to clean up abandoned and often polluted industrial sites. These programs are a big step in the right direction as long as, in implementation, environmental and public health standards are not watered down.
• Smart growth provides a range of solutions to the problem of sprawl. Smart growth means planning our communities so that our streets will be safer, our neighborhoods will be nicer places to live, our air and water will be less polluted, and our parks, farms and open space will be protected (press here).

• Sprawl Watch (press here). Washington D. C.
• The Smart Growth Network (press here) helps create national, regional and local coalitions to encourage development that is environmentally, fiscally, and economically.
• The Pioneer Press published a six-day series on urban sprawl in the Twin Cities from Nov. 18 to Nov. 23 1996 (press here).
• National Sprawl News Index (press here).
• Planners Web  (press here).
• Participative Economics (press here).