Daily Real Estate News  |  October 29, 2005  |   Smart Growth, Social Justice Key Ingredients to Rebuilding Gulf Coast Immediate and long-term plans to rebuild the Gulf Coast Region damaged by Hurricane Katrina need to incorporate smart growth and equal opportunity and diversity principles, said panelists at the Equal Opportunity Cultural Diversity Forum held during the 2005 REALTORSŪ Conference & Expo in San Francisco. Panelists J. Danny Cooper, executive officer, Alabama Association of REALTORSŪ, and David Goldberg, communications director, Smart Growth America, voiced unanimous agreement that efforts under way to revive the hard-hit region—Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama—should include details that make each community unique and focus on what will make the Gulf Coast a better place than it was. “As the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast Region starts, everyone involved—planners, developers and Realtors--must not only recreate the supply of affordable housing that was lost, but also they must work to make it better,” said Goldberg, who recently spent eight days in Mississippi at planning sessions at the governor’s invitation. While the panelists agreed that the rebuilding process is an opportunity to reshape the devastated communities, they also urged that the process start with three essential ingredients: 1) incorporate greater public involvement; 2) build on the region’s assets—the cultural and historic identity; and 3) incorporate mixed-use development with mixed-income housing. “It will take months to rebuild, if some residents decide to rebuild at all,” said Cooper, who described the huge losses suffered by the region. Cooper predicted that after a period of grieving, the region will come back. “As REALTORSŪ, we can make the community planning process work better in our communities, so we don’t wait for a disaster to make our communities well again,” said Jim Hamilton, chair of NAR’s Smart Growth Advisory Group and 2005 president of the California Association of REALTORSŪ. More than 26,000 REALTORSŪ are attending the Conference & Expo. NAR