Economic changes have made true community development challenging. Prior to the 2008 recession, a number of developers worked in this field, focusing on small projects that fit with the surrounding community.
Now these projects are less common, according to Stephen Arms, a managing member at Marthasville Development in Georgia, which focuses on sustainable, mixed-use development opportunities. Developers have been slow to recover from the economic downturn, and national firms have bought up local and regional development offices to control local markets and increase their inventory of land.
External factors have also contributed to making community development a more difficult endeavour. Economic recovery has favoured places that have good school districts and where residents already have a strong sense of place, allaying the need for developers to help create these conditions. Production capacity is also limited, and developers still face stringent financing.
In the future, Mr. Arms imagines that community development will become a factor of two forces: the market working things out and industry figuring out how to better compete on the local, regional, and national levels.
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