A mixed-use environment creates a sustainable and diverse neighborhood by integrating both residential and commercial uses into one building or neighborhood; they also place a variety of shops, services, and amenities within walking distance of neighborhood residents and each other. This reduces car trips and facilitates walking, which

contributes to health and fitness. A sustainable neighborhood also offers public facilities and services for residents and visitors in various stages of life. These can include schools, libraries, civic buildings, community centers, places of worship, recreation facilities, and community gardens. Amenities like these are critical to meeting a community’s cultural, social, spiritual, and physical needs.

The benefits of compact development over sprawl are clear and well-documented. Compact development creates the underlying foundation for a variety of types of vibrant, healthy, and walkable communities—the types of communities that improve quality of life. Adding to this advantage, compact development is a recognized strategy to reduce public infrastructure costs, protect environmentally sensitive lands, and enable a variety of transportation choices. It also helps protect families from increasing household costs, especially those of transportation and utilities, which are directly tied to the price of fuel and energy.

Low-carbon city planning should develop an efficient community layout that places schools, shops, and other services close to homes and businesses, making it easy to get to places without driving and offering attractive bicycle and walking paths. This can greatly reduce vehicle miles traveled and thus offers significant energy savings. Following guidelines will provide effective and efficient urban design.

• Achieve compact, high densities, mixed-use developments. One such example is that of the Big Darby Accord. The Big Darby Accord Watershed Master Plan is an effort to achieve the common goal of protecting, restoring, and conserving the Big Darby and its watershed in Franklin County, OH. The case study has been provided below.

• Develop a land-use plan incorporating renewable energy preferential areas and siting options, based on a realistic picture of available potentials.

• Locate residential projects within half a kilometer of at least two, or within one kilometer of at least four community and retail facilities.

• Locate residential and commercial developments within a one-kilometer radius of adequate public transit service.

• The issue of transportation costs generated by the building’s location vis-a-vis other land uses must be considered with high priority. For instance, a green building far from transit will use up any energy savings of the extra demand for auto trips to get there and back.

• Provide effective networks of sidewalks and bike lanes linking residential and commercial developments to public spaces, open spaces, adjacent developments, and public transit.

• Do not locate new developments within 30 meters of wetlands, critical slope areas, land identified as habitat for a threatened or endangered species; or with elevation at or below the 100-year floodplain. Natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy show how vulnerable cities can be. New York City was severely affected by Hurricane Sandy in the year 2012. The public transit system stopped functioning for a few days, for days after the storms residents were without access to electricity and heat, and several houses near the coast were destroyed. Assess the tree coverage of the city, make a detailed plan for 30% reforestation in five years and 50% reforestation in ten years

• Public transit systems are also more likely to be successful in compact neighborhoods because there are more potential riders near each station and, even when people do drive, they tend to drive less. Finally, compact development requires fewer infrastructures such as water, sewer, and electricity facilities—to serve the same number of people, saving economic resources.