RURAL ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING (REP) is a method used by citizens in small towns and rural areas to plan their own future. The area covered by a rural environmental plan ranges from a village of a few hundred people to a town with a population of up to ten thousand. The area may also be defined by a geographic feature—a watershed, part of a river basin, a mountain valley, or some other place where people share an interest in the sustainable use of natural and other resources for the betterment of their community. REP assumes that the primary social value of rural people is to enhance a community’s long-term viability by respecting the carrying capacity of the natural environment.
REP derives its strength from the direct participation of those people affected by a plan: they determine its goals, shape its content, and implement its components. REP reduces the cost of planning by drawing on the expertise of state universities, public agencies, not-for-profit organizations, volunteer-professionals from the private sector, and increasingly, graduates of rural planning programs—all vital resources available to rural people when they plan for their future.
Rural Environmental Planning for Sustainable Communities is intended as a guide for rural citizens, planning commissioners, small town and rural planners, and others seeking practical information on how to manage local resources and improve their community’s quality of life. It is also designed as a manual for planning professionals, state and local government officials, agency managers, and community organizers, and as a methods text for rural planning students.
The first edition of Rural Environmental Planning, by Frederic O. Sargent, professor and former director of the rural planning graduate program at the University of Vermont, was published in 1976 and reprinted in 1977 and 1980 in response to growing demand. This revised and enlarged edition is coauthored by Paul Lusk, associate professor of architecture and planning in the community and regional planning program at the University of New Mexico; José A. Rivera, associate professor of public administration and director of the Southwest Hispanic Research Institute at the University of New Mexico; Maria Varela, rural development specialist and adjunct professor at the School of Architecture and Planning, University of New Mexico, and professor Frederic O. Sargent.
There have been many changes in rural communities, in the forces that affect them, in opportunities to control their future, and in the tools available to them since the original publication of Rural Environmental Planning in 1976. This updated, enlarged text draws from over a decade of additional experience with REP in New Mexico, New England, and other regions of North America. The book retains case studies from the first edition and adds new ones from the Southwest and other areas of the United States. Two chapters have been included on planning for sustainable economic development. The text confirms the interregional nature of REP’s basic principles and practices as well as REP’s potential breadth of application and multicultural relevance.
Contributions, case studies, and results from others involved in REP are welcome. This text will be updated in accordance with changing conditions and project results. Case studies and other materials that demonstrate REP principles can be shared with the team of authors and with other interested persons by writing to one of the following addresses:
| REP Exchange | REP Exchange |
| Professors Lusk, Rivera & Varela | Professor Frederic O. Sargent |
| School of Architecture & Planning | Dept. of Resource Economics |
| University of New Mexico | University of Vermont |
| Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 | Burlington, Vermont 05401 |