Edward T. McMahon

Ed McMahon holds the Charles E. Fraser Chair on Sustainable Development at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C. where he is nationally known as an inspiring and thought provoking speaker and leading authority on topics related to sustainable development, land conservation, smart growth, and historic preservation. As the Senior Fellow for Sustainable Development, McMahon leads ULI’s worldwide efforts to conduct research and educational activities related to environmentally sensitive development policies and practices. Before joining the Urban Land Institute in 2004, McMahon spent 14 years as the Vice President and Director of Land Use Planning for The Conservation Fund in Arlington, Virginia where he helped to protect more than 5 million acres of land of historic or natural significance. He is also the co-founder and former President of Scenic America, a national non-profit organization devoted to protecting America’s scenic landscapes. Before that, he taught law and public policy at Georgetown University Law Center for 9 years, and served in the U.S. Army, both at home and abroad.

Since the nation is experiencing a “jobless recovery,” new office development is stagnant to nonexistent in most U.S. markets, conclude panelists at ULI’s Spring Council Forum. They agree that success in the office market will be measured submarket by submarket, and that for the immediate future, office development will mainly involve reusing and repositioning existing assets.
For the last half-century, retailers favored the strip mall—that linear pattern of businesses characterized by parking lots, big signs, boxlike buildings, and a total dependence on automobiles for access and circulation. According to ULI’s own Ed McMahon, however, the future belongs to town centers, main streets, and mixed-use development. Read what he says about the trends responsible for this.
If you can’t differentiate your community from any other community, you have no competitive advantage. Capital is footloose in a global economy. What keeps people in the community? What brings people to your community and back to your community over another? Read about the differences in communities that create a feeling of place and that also translate into capital.
Changes in demographics, income dynamics and consumer behavior all mean big changes ahead for master planned communities. This was the conclusion of panelists at a session titled “Master Planned Communities 2020” at ULI’s 2010 Fall Meeting. A panelist concluded by setting out 20 predictions for how changes in the market, the industry and the world will reshape the location and design of master planned communities.
Conservation development technologies have been around for decades, but only in the past few years have developers, conservation organizations, landowners, and local governments begun to understand the potential of these technologies to link land conservation with land development while providing meaningful protection of natural resources. Find out what conservation development is not.
Conservation development technologies have been around for decades, but only in the past few years have developers, conservation organizations, landowners, and local governments begun to understand the potential of these technologies to link land conservation with land development while providing meaningful protection of natural resources. In addition, ample evidence exists that shows homebuyers will pay premium prices to live next to nature, green space, and even certain types of agriculture.
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