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1 Prologue We are not dealing with a luxury problem affecting only the leisure class and lake lovers. We are dealing with a web of issues that we cannot afford to ignore. Failing to design our lakeshore places and to leverage the system changes that we will later identify will jeopardize existing lakeshore qualities and values, and we may miss the opportunities to create new qualities for lakes. Our lakeshore living needs reinvention. We believe in a better way of composing our lakeshore places. We believe in some basic, timeless principles that promote healthier shoreland places, friendlier neighborhoods, and sustainable communities. How we live on the land is one of the most important environmental issues of our time. Where we live and how we are distributed defines sustainability, energy use, and quality of life. Are you happy with the development around a lake you love? Are you happy with the quality of your neighborhood? What about your downtown? These questions often return answers indicating that things could be better. Lakes are being degraded, and we are depleting natural resources at a time when our ecological and social systems are less resilient. Increasing energy costs will create other challenges. Maintaining healthy lake ecosystems in the face of these changes demands a call to accelerate the advancement of design for lakeshore developments. In this book, we present a renewed perspective on designing our lakeshore living, or, in fact, living near the water. This perspective is inspired by timeless principles. And these principles , we will show, were appreciated by generations of our most cherished environmental writers and conservationists. Why is living near the water so important? Because water itself is important. It is a resource for humans, it flows and connects everything in socio-ecological systems, and it structures an astonishing ecological diversity in networks of lakes, streams, wetlands, and invisible aquifers. Yet, before going to solutions, let’s take a look at the main issues. What’s going on? POOR PLANNING AND NO DESIGNING The planning regulations in North America are, on the one hand, a product of complex legal and political battles, changing with every new battle; on the other hand, they are traditional in scope, a set of minimum requirements designed to avoid substantial environmental damage. Designing places with sustainable new qualities cannot be deduced from these rules. Different analyses and different planning skills are needed. In the case of lakeshore living, many communities are planned and zoned in a very loose way, often with little enforcement, and with considerable tensions between the local rules and state/provincial rules. Even environmental laws and policies, which have a significant bearing on the possibilities for lakeshore redevelopment , cannot prescribe good design. 2| Prologue Before embarking on a lakeshore project, it is advisable to talk to local, county, and state/ provincial officials to determine applicable rules. Those same conversations can help in understanding the ideology behind those rules and policies, as well as potential tensions and ability for negotiations. The political culture of the community will strongly influence the attitude toward planning in general, and particularly toward planning and environmental regulations. Still, in most communities, there is a strong awareness that things need to change, that the environment is declining, and that new development somehow needs to take into account environmental quality. On the developer side, there is also a growing awareness that the traditional “piano-key,” where a series of long narrow lots ring the lake, or “lot-and-block” shoreland developments, with a maximum amount of parcels directly on the lake, are not the best use of space and not the most profitable. Developers and local officials are also aware that designs need to comply with the goals set at the regional level and that bending some of the newer and stricter environmental regulations will only be accepted when the design they propose does embody some of those goals. Planning and design is a negotiation, a give and take. The main problem with the governance of shoreland development is that the outcome of a series of developments rarely meets the community’s expectation. Paradoxically, development proceeds in a fashion inconsistent with local comprehensive plans. Vibrant development appears constrained by developments for automobiles (car habitat) rather than humans (people habitat). Conventional lot-and-block developments, or conventional subdivisions, are not preserving the lakeshore assets. Shoreland is often fragmented, with homes and docks every 100, 150, or 200 feet regardless of vulnerable or unique natural features or conditions. Conventional subdivisions essentially produce only...

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