More than 400 professionals from across the Carolinas attended two days of education, networking and information exchange.  This landmark event: the first ever regional meeting of ULI Carolinas also launched the first of two Regional Initiative Councils, fashioned after the national Product Council of ULI.

Below are some of the highlights from the first day of the meeting:

How does the economy look?  Well the common themes were:

• Great time to be an owner of capital, whether physical, financial or intellectual. Record profits and equity values.
• Not so great if you are selling your labor into the market…jobs and earnings growth are a major drag on economic performance.

So we have a paradox. The nation is richer than it has ever been, but household budgets are squeezed. It is a time of both unprecedented opportunity and diminished expectations.

In terms of the built environment, there were two key questions:

1. How do we create places that cultivate and sustain innovation?
2. How do we square households expectations for enhanced quality of life with constrained household budgets?

In answer to the first question, there is likely no one recipe. We saw many models in our afternoon session: RTP, Kannapolis, CURI, downtown Raleigh with Citrix and Red Hat. We need to experiment with different models and be nimble. We may still make long range plans, but those plans must be under constant revision as tastes and technology change. But we also need to recognize what ties these examples together: (1) the critical role of our research universities and anchor institutions; and (2) the need for environments that reduce the segregation of work, family and leisure.

The key to answering the second question is a an idea that underlies many of the trends we heard about today, which is a new conception of human well being. It is more about health and wellness, informal socializing, and experiences…and less about house size and material goods.

The biggest household expenditures are housing and transportation, and health is up there as well.

• Keeping housing affordable means both having enough of it, and having the right kinds of housing to meet changing demand, both ownership and rental.
• Keeping transportation costs in check means having less need for it. More emphasis on proximity, and on choices to walk, bike or take transit. Car sharing, ride sharing, etc…
• Checking healthcare costs is again partly a functioning of reducing the demand for it. Enormous savings can be had though improvements to public health.

All of these trends suggest more density, more diversity, and to make these work, more design. It means upsizing the public realm even as homes, offices and retail are downsized. It links right back to the 10 Principles for Building Healthy Places that Maureen McAvey spoke about.

Healthcare is unlike other industries because technology can raise costs rather than driving them down. When new medical technologies become available, the possible becomes imperative. Knee replacements, artificial organs, save lives and improve quality of life but are expensive. Is increased spending on these new technologies a problem, or a good thing? Whichever, it means less for other types of goods.

A grab bag of potential implications for the built environment:

• People will be satisfying more of their human needs in the public places rather than the private realm. Trading private space (home, office) for public amenities. We are downsizing workplaces, retail space, and housing; but upsizing the public realm.
• Mixing it up…people starting small businesses typically start them close to home, even at home. Need better ways of mixing residential and commercial use. Going back to a fine grain of urban form. In a time when opportunities in the labor market is diminishing, is it any wonder that we are seeing people turning to small business? If you are going to be in the service industry, better to work for yourself. Pay may be low, but at least you’ll get along with your boss.
• Productivity of place outstripping costs…witness the above par growth of high-cost NJ and CA. How do we make our places more productive? Can the southeast find a magic combination of high productivity and affordability?
• Density is really a measure of productivity…the productivity of an acre of land. When we put arbitrary caps on density, we are in essence capping productivity.
• Note how these trends relate to public health. Being out and about is part of being active. A renewed emphasis in great public spaces supports healthy living.