Outstanding Program, Project, and Community Initiative Award

City of St. Louis Sustainable Neighborhood Initiative

In January 2013, the City of St. Louis Planning Commission formally adopted the City’s Sustainability Plan. With 260 pages of specific goals, objectives and strategies, there was considerable risk that the comprehensive nature of the Sustainability Plan would prove to be challenging -- even overwhelming – to implement. Planners and policy makers determined it was necessary to set priorities and measurable targets to achieve strategic implementation of the Sustainability Plan, while simultaneously fostering neighborhood-scale implementation. To encourage broader implementation of the Sustainability Plan, the City’s Sustainable Neighborhood Initiative was launched. Among its many goals: “Create a sustainability resource toolkit for neighborhoods.” The City’s Sustainable Neighborhood Initiative has resulted in outcomes which directly support the Sustainability Plan. Through it, neighborhood groups are inspired and empowered to make sustainable changes in their community by providing them with the tools and resources for neighborhood-scale implementation of the City of St. Louis Sustainability Plan. 
The Missouri APA Awards Review Jury was impressed with how The City of St. Louis Sustainable Neighborhood Initiative made “sustainability” relevant to neighborhoods. With concrete ideas and opportunities that community leaders can pick and choose from based on what works best for their neighborhood, this Initiative answers the “what now” question for that critical period that occurs after a plan is adopted.