The federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities developed six livability principles to encourage more sustainable economies, environments, and social opportunities and to guide regions in their planning efforts.
Livability Principles
- Provide more transportation choices
- Promote equitable, affordable housing
- Enhance economic competitiveness
- Support existing communities
- Coordinate and leverage federal policies and investment
- Value communities and neighborhoods
Our three-year regional visioning process translated these general principles into distinct goals that make sense and are achievable for the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We identified many long-term goals that stakeholders and residents have for our region and included those objectives and recommendations in the final Plan For Opportunity document.
The Mississippi Gulf Coast Sustainable Communities Initiative was coordinated by Gulf Regional Planning Commission and led by four stakeholder committees that involved a diverse group of city and county leaders, key community and public partners and residents of the region. The four committees included an Executive Committee, a 15 member body representing city and county leadership and key community and public stakeholders. 8 members were drawn from GRPC’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) membership, and the other 7 members were partners with regional interests. They were the decision-making body for the Plan; the Sustainability Working Group was a 45+ member committee who were responsible for guiding goal, policy and content development activities for the Plan; the Regional Governments Committee had 15 members, one official from each city/county of the Gulf Coast region which kept their respective jurisdictions informed about Plan progress; and the Project Management Committee, which consisted of lead partner agencies overseeing complete development of the final document. These partners coordinated all research and outreach for the Plan. Project management partners included:
The final plan was published and made available for public use in February 2014. View and Download here: Plan for Opportunity
