Laguna West, Sacramento, California

“Challenging the Status Quo in Land Use”

Challenge: Marketed 1000 acre mixed use new home community which promulgated "smart growth" concepts in site planning, land development architecture, and community. The primary target audiences -- builders and home buyers -- had never before been presented with this alternative vision to "sprawl development." Builders were opposed to the rules under which they could build, and were not inclined to buy land from the development team.

Strategy: Used media relations to successfully obtain positive coverage in more than 50 national and regional media outlets, including Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, New York Times, "ABC World News Tonight," "Good Morning America," House Beautiful, Consumer Reports, and many others. Editorial support helped obtain entitlements and convince builders to experiment. Conducted surveys of potential residents and used survey results to generate more media interest and home sales in a sluggish business climate.

Results: Was the only new home community to progress during the real estate recession, selling more homes proportionally in each price range than the competition. Won more than a dozen major national land planning, development and transit awards. Land planning and home design ideas considered unsellable became the hottest concepts implemented nationwide over the next five years.