How Do Conventional Master Planning Processes Facilitate or Constrain Sustainable Urbanism? An Environmental Management Perspective

Planners have proposed more environmentally sustainable design alternatives to sprawl, which are often implemented through the same master planning process as the conventional subdivision development they seek to replace. This research examines the capacity to implement design alternatives using conventional development processes by asking whether and how four institutional frameworks linked to sustainable environmental management—collaboration, learning, flexibility, and leadership—influence plan implementation. Interviews with leaders from three flagship developments in the United States reveal that trusting collaborations, learning from environmental monitoring, flexible land use regulations, and leaders’ skills created favorable conditions to implement designs. Collaboration with financial-sector actors and transfer of management responsibilities to residents emerged as unique challenges in master planning sustainable urbanism. These results underscore the importance of the processes through which designs are implemented and the relevance of environmental management insights to the urban planning context.