The challenge of the 79th Street Corridor Sustainable Development Project is more one of ingenuity than of dollars. The South Florida Region is growing rapidly with enormous sums of money to be invested over the next 20 years.

The South Florida Water Management District: This government agency expects to spend as much as $50 billion dollars over the next 50 years to build and rebuild South Florida's water infrastructure alone.

Fannie Mae: The nation's largest home mortgage underwriter has allocated $14 billion for home mortgages in South Florida over the next 5 years.

Housing Construction: The region's anticipated population growth will require nearly 30,000 new dwelling units per year at an estimated total cost of $70 billion.

Federal Transportation Investments: Florida will receive an estimated $1.2 billion per year in federal transportation funding between 1998 and 2003 from the newly authorized Transportation and Equity Act for the 21st Century.

As these examples show, enormous amounts of both public and private money will be invested in South Florida in the coming years. The challenge is to spend these dollars wisely.

From the perspective of the 79th Street Corridor, this challenge is also an opportunity to secure the resources needed to enhance the health and vitality of the community. This will only be possible if this community gets its equitable share of the public and private resources flowing in the region as a whole.

This Planning Prospectus outlines a one year process that will set the stage for securing these needed resources through the development of

* A broad consensus within the community about its future,

* Innovative public/private partnerships,

* Innovative new technologies, and

* New financing mechanisms.

79th Street can be the laboratory for community-scale sustainable development strategies for the entire South Florida region, thereby expanding the range of opportunities for other communities throughout the region.