Kalvin Platt of the SWA Group in Sausalito, CA, who has helped plan successful communities across the country, recently spoke to the Doral community about the importance of such an undertaking.

The presentation was given at the Doral Country Club, with Platt addressing business leaders during a lunch meeting and the general public during the evening.

Platt’s study was welcomed by everyone within the community, but the initial proponent of the idea of bringing Platt in to study Doral was Edward Easton, Sr. Easton’s International Corporate Park, a state of the art facility on the southern tip of Doral, was designed by Platt, and Easton came to believe that Platt would be ideal in helping Doral plan its future growth.

“The Doral of tomorrow should be founded upon planned growth and not sprawl,” Platt said at the start of his presentation.

Platt, a former resident of South Florida, examined three communities in particular, showing the advantages of proper planning. All the while he hinted at the greatness Doral could realize if it is planned carefully.

The cities he used for his comparison, Boca Raton, Weston, and Coral Gables, are all similar in size and composition to Doral. Many of those things that have made them successful, Platt explained, need to be incorporated into Doral in order for it to realize the same success.

Those things include a balance between residential and commercial concerns, a city center, public recreational facilities, unified signage and graphics to help form an identity, and wide, landscaped thoroughfares.

Most importantly though, Platt stressed the importance of a strong vision and a commitment to quality if Doral is to succeed.

“What happened in those places (Boca, Weston, and Coral Gables) can’t happen here unless what we do here is not quality,” Platt said.

As for how this work could be funded, Platt suggested that a public/private partnership might be the best solution.

“When you’re in a good economic cycle, as we are now, and you can make an investment in your community, doing so will continue to push that cycle upwards—and values will continue to rise,” he said.

As for the future of his involvement in the Doral community, Platt was cautiously optimistic when reached recently.

“I received several messages from Ralph Arza (the outgoing Community Council Chairman) saying that he’d like to go forward with the project—I think that at some point down the road, perhaps not immediately, I might be able to help Doral,” Platt said.

Platt also said that the alternative to planned growth, sprawl, would be a nightmare for Doral.

“If the infrastructure of a community does not keep pace with the needs of the community, the results can be disastrous. Florida’s concurrency laws uphold that idea. If you don’t allow for the appropriate infrastructure within a community, quality of life will be reduced. The alternative to a commitment to improving things is a deterioration in the community’s quality of life,” Platt said.