Resources

For more information, see the Local Government Commission’s Ahwahnee Water Principles and Guidebook, which were quoted extensively throughout this article.

The Ahwahnee Water Principles for Resource-Efficient Land Use are a comprehensive and integrated set of principles and policies that offer communities common sense and practical ways to address multiple water resource issues with smart planning and land-use decisions.

The Ahwahnee Water Principles: A Blueprint for Regional Sustainability describes each principle and provides model projects in communities that are already implementing the strategies. Also included is a special section on water elements that provides model general plan language gleaned from existing general plans and other planning documents adopted by communities throughout the state.

The Energy Aware Planning Guide (2011 edition) presents a menu of strategies and best management practices to help local governments improve energy efficiency, reduce energy consumption through transportation and land use, and enhance renewable sources of energy. Strategies explored include transportation and land use changes, optimizing water use and building improvements. Each strategy section contains general plan language ideas, implementation ideas, case studies and resources. It also contains supporting information and references to help local governments organize strategies into an Energy Action Plan and estimate the likely energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction impacts of their strategies.