What do you think about when Earth Day comes around every year? The importance of nature preserves? Endangered animals and ecosystems? Reducing plastics? All of these things and more might come to mind.
Here at RTC, Earth Day is an opportunity to reflect on how our communities are centered within these issues. The choices we make about how we grow in Southern Nevada today will impact how sustainable our region is in the future.
In 2015, our community adopted the Southern Nevada Strong Regional Policy Plan, which put forward a collaborative vision that seeks to minimize the impacts of our future growth on our urban places and natural resources. To help build a more sustainable community for future generations, Southern Nevada Strong recommends redirecting our current development trends into new investments for established neighborhoods and existing activity centers.
As the administrator of the plan, our regional planning team works daily to provide technical assistance and build our region’s capacity to bring the plan’s vision to life.
If we grow according to the plan, our future community would benefit from new, more affordable housing types, jobs and services located closer to home, lower transportation costs, and more efficiently use taxpayer dollars. For the environment, benefits include reduced carbon emissions, decreases in energy usage, better air quality, and greater conservation of natural resources like land and water.
Southern Nevada Strong put forward more than 300 strategies for creating a more sustainable community, but almost a decade after adopting the plan, more still needs to be done to move our community towards our shared vision of sustainable growth. Current growth forecasts show much of our growth will continue at the urban edges in single use subdivisions and employment centers, challenging our ability to protect natural resources and improve quality of life.
Once a year, we come together as a community to celebrate Earth, but participating in the Southern Nevada Strong effort teaches us about the value of planning for sustainability every day. We work year-round to improve regional collaboration to support implementation of the plan’s strategies, which envision stronger communities for everyone long term. Join us at our next Southern Nevada Strong Steering Committee Meeting on April 25 at 10:30a.m. at our Administrative Offices (600 S. Grand Central Parkway Ste. 350, Las Vegas, NV 89106) to learn more about our work and how you can get involved in celebrating Earth year-round!
