This year’s NCI Best Practices Report focuses on Sustainable Community Charrettes. In the summer of 2008, NCI hosted a curriculum development summit in Chicago at the offices of Farr Associates. The purpose of the summit was to critique and revise the NCI Charrette System to address the unique requirements of sustainable community planning. Participating were sustainable charrette veterans Bob Berkebile, Sandy Wiggins, Dan Slone, Doug Farr, Jennifer Rezeli, Steve Coyle, and Bill Lennertz. The 2009 NCI Best Practices Report contains an overview of the sustainable charrette summit revisions to the NCI Charrette System in addition to articles by members of the summit group and other sustainable charrette practitioners. Topics include:

• The legal framework for sustainable plans
• Charrettes for limited budgets
• Changing community mindsets about sustainability
• The charrette for the post disaster recovery plan for Greensburg, Kansas
• A true bottom-up sustainable planning process for Omaha.

This report is available to all NCI members. Become a NCI member at any level and receive your copy of these latest writings on charrettes for sustainable planning.