Long before local, state, and federal regulations required mitigation for a project's environmental impacts, T&B Planning developed a unique approach to design that saves our clients significant environmental mitigation costs and minimizes impact to the natural landscape.  By using this approach, a property's topographic character, cultural resources, water resources, biological assets, and other natural features are protected or used as assets in the land use design, without sacrificing the project's economic goals.
 
Our approach, appropriately termed Mitigation By Design^TM, anticipates and creatively avoids or reduces a project's environmental impacts through sensitive and intelligent design.  Mitigation By Design^TM saves our clients time and money by reducing costly mitigation that would otherwise be required by local, state, or federal regulations, such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).  Projects using the Mitigation By Design^TM approach often achieve client-desired land use mix and density goals, while being sustainable, economically feasible, environmentally sensitive, and complementary to the surrounding community.
 
The Mitigation By Design^TM process begins with in-depth research to identify a site's environmental opportunities and constraints.  Next, a land use plan is designed that considers lotting and grading and avoids impacting the property's most significant environmental resources.  Oftentimes, a site's preserved environmental features become focal points and major place setting elements to the project.  In most cases, permitting is faster and easier, mitigation costs are reduced, and the pace of sales in the project is increased as buyers seek out a unique place where they want to live, work, and spend their time. 
 
Mitigation By Design^TM succeeds because of T&B Planning's ability to wed highly-respected, creative design with environmental compliance expertise and a commitment to building a strong community character.  Over the past thirty-five years, T&B Planning has helped private clients and public agencies design hundreds of successful projects using this approach. 
 
Project Spotlight:  SummerWind Ranch (Calimesa, California)
 
SummerWind Ranch stands out as one of T&B Planning's successful examples of Mitigation By Design^TM.  Located in Calimesa, California, SummerWind Ranch is a mixed-use master-planned community featuring over 3,500 homes in a variety of product types; a commercial retail district with retail shops, restaurants, and offices; potential civic uses; three school sites; a fire station; and active and passive recreational amenities, including parks, athletic fields, and hiking and equestrian trails. 
 
T&B Planning's Mitigation By Design^TM provided an attractive balance of development and natural open space, protecting near-vertical slope faces within alluvial canyons, natural drainages, and sensitive biological resources.  As a result of our careful planning efforts, a majority of the site's oak trees were preserved in open space areas, including one 300 year-old tree.  The project also integrates wildlife corridors into the site plan, protecting contiguous connections for many animals.
 
T&B Planning also prepared the project's Specific Plan Amendment, which included detailed design guidelines, hillside development regulations, zoning standards, and an oak tree protection program.  SummerWind Ranch was praised by the National Audubon Society as an example of how to design a project in response to a site's ecosystem and sensitive environmental resources.
 
Summary of Services
 
Mitigation By Design^TM can be provided alone or in conjunction with our environmental, planning, design, and graphic services.  To learn more, visit the Services page of our website.