Curt Johansen is the Development Director of Triad Development, a diversified real estate development company and a leader in sustainability with communities that strike a balance between the often-competing objectives of economic prosperity, environmental preservation, and social responsibility. Triad has properties throughout the country and offices in Washington and Northern California.

What inspired the vision behind Lagoon Valley, and what problem or gap did you see in the traditional models of mixed-use development that you wanted to solve?

The inspiration for Lagoon Valley owes much to my visits over the years to observe conservation communities, internationally and in the U.S. I gleaned ideas from small ecovillages to mid-sized co-housing neighborhoods, right up to Ebenezer Howard’s larger live-work-play garden cities in the U.K. The commonality these places share is a commitment to balancing sustainable ecologies. Traditional development is what I was originally trained to do, but while those project models can be executed to succeed aesthetically and financially, they are typically derived from single-bottom-line formulae. The sole pursuit of economically successful development, without integrating environmental and social balance, has never really interested me.

During my travels, I’ve had the good fortune to discuss sustainable development – and various principles which help guide that philosophy – with many erudite leaders in the field, including triple-bottom-line ways of thinking with John Elkington and with Curitiba’s former mayor Jaime Lerner on what it means to have courage to be sustainable, and stay the course, when surrounded by rear view mirror thinking.

Lagoon Valley has been described as a model for sustainable development – what specific innovations or practices are you most proud of that set it apart from similar communities?

Sustainable development was broadly defined in 1987 as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. When applied as an overarching theme to community creation, it translates logically into principles of resource conservation. In Lagoon Valley we are guided by sustainable principles, including the preservation of adjacent and accessible public open space as a priority, with community supported agriculture, designing for climate resiliency, emphasizing the protection and enhancement of wildlife habitat, with a diversity of housing and socially beneficial placemaking.

I am most pleased that protecting and enhancing 85% of our Specific Plan Area for open space and recreation takes precedence over everything, which enables residential and commercial components to sit lightly in the valley with reduced carbon footprints. We set out to mitigate our environmental impacts on site, which has resulted in the creation of Lagoon Valley’s Wetland Preserve, a 71-acre protected site that has been recognized by experts as one of California’s most successful created preserves.

How did you approach balancing large-scale development with preserving over 1,300 acres of open space and creating a true nature-integrated community?

Embarking on sustainable community development is analogous to constructing a LEED Platinum building. It costs more to build at that high level of sustainability, but the long-term value is embedded in the design and execution. As with a LEED Platinum building, investors must be patient with returns on capital and understand the importance of modeling conservation at a scale that becomes a beacon for others to follow.

I am very fortunate to have long-time business partners that support what I do and trust that it’s possible to do well while doing good. All human life owes its existence to protecting the natural world that endows us. Isolating human settlement from nature, as is common with conventional development, merely exacerbates the problem of nature deficit disorder. When consummate respect for the connection between human and non-human ecologies underwrites human activity, eco literacy flourishes and that becomes the goal for what we create.

What kind of economic impact do you anticipate Lagoon Valley having on Vacaville and the broader Solano County area in terms of jobs, business attraction, and tax base?

More than one political leader has referred to Lagoon Valley as a game-changer for the City of Vacaville. As we progress with its creation, it is obvious to all who visit and live there that much about it is different than conventional development. Homebuyers consistently attribute increased long-term property appreciation – resulting from extensive conservation in conjunction with immediate access to open space trails – as their most-desired community amenity. Property values, some of the highest in the region, are testament to this. Increased tax base then flows to Vacaville.

As a live-work-play community, we have plans for a mixed-use Town Center with neighborhood-serving retail shops and a grocery. We’ve also created a Business Village to attract businesses and new jobs to the commercial areas, which is always a high priority for cities. Solano County also benefits from the tax base, but even more importantly Lagoon Valley helps define the North SF Bay Area as a leader in forward thinking communities.

With growing attention on “smart cities,” how does Lagoon Valley incorporate technology into its infrastructure—whether in mobility, energy, water, or data use?

In both backbone community infrastructure, and the actual homes built within Lagoon Valley neighborhoods, smart technology plays an important role in energy efficiency and potable water reduction. We’ve completed technologically state-of-the-art utility systems that the city manages, and our home builders meet or often exceed California’s mandated Title XXIV energy code, the strictest in the country.

All homes include solar panels and many feature home battery storage as well. We also require home construction to enable greywater reclamation by dual-piping residences for up to 50% less potable water consumption. Reducing vehicle miles traveled includes traffic-calmed streets with safe pedestrian walkways, trails and bikeways to connect all neighborhoods together, as well as with the Town Center and recreational Event Center. And residents appreciate the custom-designed street lighting, which eliminates light pollution by shielding against upward deflection, protecting the night sky and wildlife from unnecessary diffused lighting impacts.

What have been the most significant challenges—regulatory, environmental, or otherwise—in bringing this project to life, and how did you overcome them?

The most significant challenges we’ve experienced to date include the COVID-19 pandemic, which slowed regulatory processing and project approvals dramatically. The challenges for cities to work mostly remotely from 2020 through 2022 were daunting and, in some respects, they are still recovering from that disruption.

Also, it is our policy to require high standards of architectural and landscape design, which results in our need to be selective when considering interested builders. More recently, we’ve been affected somewhat by the unsettled macro-economic situation, particularly tariffs, which are affecting certain costs. But considering all those issues, we remain pleased that Lagoon Valley’s sales are outperforming the regional competition.

Do you see Lagoon Valley as a one-of-a-kind development, or could it serve as a model for other regions looking to integrate sustainable living with economic growth?

Lagoon Valley can become a model for sustainable community development, much as Prairie Crossing, just north of Chicago, and Serenbe, just south of Atlanta, served as models of conservation and sustainable design for me. Sustainable development, in the form of conservation communities such as Lagoon Valley, requires commitment from both the private and the public sectors to place value on ecosystem services and prioritizing open spaces.

There are always incentives that can be provided to assist with the financial viability of sustainability. It requires mindfulness of those site-specific incentives from cities and counties to encourage a shift to more sustainable communities. When political leaders and their managers understand this, amazing things can happen both for those fortunate enough to become residents and for cities overall, as they become known for advancing sustainability.

What do you want your personal legacy to be with Lagoon Valley, and how do you see the community evolving over the next 20 to 30 years?

Envisioning new communities is, for me, like a composer’s creation of a symphony. There are many components necessary to fit together seamlessly to form a cohesive whole. It is also an evolving process. This simply means ideas that become formulated into actionable parts must sometimes be revised over time to better suit evolving conditions. A good example is the way we’ve addressed the housing crisis in the San Francisco Bay Area. Due to California’s high development costs and, in many areas, a very limited supply of smaller homes, it is difficult for individuals and couples to find smaller units they can afford. In response, we require all Lagoon Valley builders to include accessory dwelling units in a percentage of their home designs.

These smaller units can be accessed from the larger home or locked off to become private apartments, ranging in size from 425 to 750 square feet. Because they are pre-designed, they fit architecturally in the neighborhoods and offer affordability to those not in need of larger, more expensive housing. When I visualize Lagoon Valley 20 years from now, I see a flourishing wildlife haven with neighborhoods interspersed and residents united by friendship, reciprocity, and a deep sense of respect for the place they live.

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