The first element of the 79th Street Corridor Sustainable Development Plan is a process of visioning and planning that determines what the community wants to achieve, supported by an information system that will identify measures of success and reports back to the community periodically on progress to date.

Visioning and planning needs to engage large numbers of people in the community in a process that breaks out of "taken-for-granted" mind sets and defines a new and better future. This challenge is particularly difficult in the arena of sustainable development, because many of the methods, technologies, and financial mechanisms are still being invented.

Community planning of this sort entails a risk, because it is an exercise in hope. There is never an assurance that even the most wonderful community plan will actually be accomplished. By conventional wisdom, the more ambitious the dream, the more difficult it is to achieve. In contrast, this planning process assumes that that a comprehensive sustainable development strategy will identify efficiencies and synergies graphic of projectthat will make large-scale development less expensive and more feasible than small scale, incremental improvements.

Information is the feedback loop that tells the community whether it is achieving the goals outlined in the Plan. Feedback of this sort requires that the community first come to consensus on its goals and priorities; then those goals and priorities have to be translated into measurable objectives. Once this has been accomplished, it is then possible periodically to issue a scorecard on the redevelopment process. How are we doing? Are we on track? Do we need to adjust our plans to adapt to changing circumstances?

This information component acknowledges that even the best plan will miss its mark to some extent and will require modifications. A scorecard approach permits the entire community to keep track of progress, and both own the successes and readjust to respond to the failures.

Action 1: Organize Strategic Visioning Workshop.

In the spring of 1999, the project will hold a Strategic Visioning Workshop for the Strategic Partners and Steering Committee which will:

* Develop a preliminary vision for the project and its major elements;

* Clarify the functional relationships between the elements of the project; and

* Convey an initial visual expression of what the community will look and feel like at the end of the development process.

Action 2: Convene a Community Advisory Committee.

The Steering Committee will convene a broad based Community Advisory Committee (see above).

Action 3: Organize a Community Design Workshop.

In the spring and summer of 1999, the Steering Committee and Community Advisory Committee will organize a Community Design Workshop. This intensive workshop will engage many community residents in envisioning a sustainable community. It will repeat the exercise described under Action #1, but with much more information.

Action 4: Develop a Detailed Sustainable Development Plan.

The two workshops, together with the ongoing planning for key development projects, will provide the basis for a Sustainable Development Plan that will integrate all of the sustainability elements - from land use to green infrastructure to jobs - into a coherent plan, with projections of capital and organizational requirements.

Action 5: Design and Implement a Community Information and Communication System.

The sustainability goals for the community identified in visioning and design workshops and incorporated in the Sustainable Development Plan will be turned Car ownershipinto a scorecard or "instrument panel" that will permit every community resident to track the project's progress. Periodic reporting on these progress indicators will enhance the ability of community residents to participate in the development process.

Action 6: Inventory Ownership and Status of Properties in the Targeted Area.

The project will create a data base of key properties, with as much information about them as can be identified from the public record. This data base will anchor a Graphic Information System (GIS) capacity to map current and potential land uses.