Melanie Is Not an Expert in the Field of Sustainability but a Maven Who Explains Her Work

Charles G. Burke
10951 N. 91st.Avenue # 194
Peoria, AZ. 85345
Ed Gonzales
Coordinator
Western Regional Sustainability and Pollution Prevention Coordinator
RE: Lifetime award for tri-state Visionary Melanie DeBo-Stauffer from golden Valley,Az.
It is becoming less rare to find individuals with unusual commitment to promoting sustainability, smartgrowth, pollution prevention, zero waste, etc. Yet in my 13 years of government service I have yet to find a more visionary and doggedly committed individual as Melanie DeBo-Stauffer. . Most recently I have been reviewing 12 years documentation of her work. From the time she moved to MohaveCounty, after a life changing experience working for Gov Jerry Brown on his 1992 presidential campaign and preparing as advance team coordinator his visit to the Rio Summit. She has assumed the role of community advocate championing the concepts of sustainability and the use of new technologies and systems strategies for the emerging tri state area. She has also acted as the unofficial “Green Chamber of Commerce” helping locate and develop opportunities for economic development, including her work on developing a plan for the substantial land holding on the banks of the Colorado River. The particular project of the ARCANA (ARIZONA/CALIFORNIA/NEVADA) is so visionary and forward thinking that she stands far above the sterling crowd around her state. From age 49 to 62 years old ,every day for Melanie has been a flurry of phone calls, e-mails queries, and conversations soliciting information , direction and support of regional, national and international authorities. Some include, on public place making , Fred Kent from Project for Public Spaces, NY ,Arizona's top architect and Sustainability elder, Vern Swabac. “Visioning the Future”, William McDonough “Cradle to Cradle” and Michael Brumgard international sustainability experts, Dr Charles Hopkins, Chair of the United Nations Decade on Education in Sustainability and Stardust New Ventures, Jaco Valis , International Exposition Pavilionsdevelopers to mention a few. And she has been able to procure untold dollars worth of PRO BONO work from these experts as well as interfacing with international marketing and branding firms LANDOR Associates ,SanFrancisco and LOCUM Destinations, from the UK, both major international tourism development leaders,to support the vision. She has kept up with all these experts over the years through changing political and economic time is ever critiquing and adjusting to further expand and make a case for the development concepts and theory. As vision holder, the big picture is well documented and the luminaries list of experts extensive. Her visions have catalyzed architectural drawings and regional planning proposals that dwarf the work of any single person with whom I have worked. Unlike most of us in the “green advocacy” field Melanie has received little to no funding and has paid out a significant amount of the couple's small income to bring international speakers to her home community to further a Sustainable future where environment and economic development meet on the banks of the Colorado for mutual benefit.

Melanie is not an expert in the field of sustainability but a maven who explains her work in terms of community participation and civic duty. And her work an example of what can be accomplished by citizen driven enitiative.

The following attempts to convey an overview of her 12 years of work, and below find is alist of information and web sites.

Her first vision in 1998, Windy River Eco-Park, was proposed for an old hotel complex on the Colorado River directly across from the Laughlin Casino venue. It was intended todisseminate information on the coming sustainability “Green Economy” and demonstrate some of the early innovations in retrofitting an old building. A local, small coffee/sandwich shop /book store/ art gallery venue, that would service the then 10,000 tourist rooms from the NV side as well as Bullhead residents as a regular watering hole f. This concept inspired by the AZMAIN STREET project seminar held for Bullhead that suggested that re-development of Old Bullhead needed to begin at the waters edge. In 1998 Focus Future and AZ Dept of commerce, sponsored a yearlong community assessment and with the informationgathered in 1999 a clear vision of the communities wants were articulated and this information then became the research basis for a water front development concept that would come to be known as the ARCANA. A social and cultural and tourist attraction with an ECO EDUTAINAMENT theme andwhere the internationally recognized Colorado River would meld environment stewardship and economic development came together for mutual benefit. This project was conceived to complete the Bullhead /Laughlin destination equation and to garner world class amenities for resident population of MohaveCounty and as well as service the 4.5 million visitors that visit the river each year. The ARCANA becoming the completion of the destination equation. . Melanie set out and gathered experts looking for the information the city and its residents did not know they did not know and trying to satisfy the long laundry list of wants and needs by the community that seemed overwhelming and out of reach, and that as a community of 18,000 at the time did not have resources nor capacity of vision to pursue.

In 2001 she coordinated the first of 4 Colorado River Development Symposiums (see attached) which drew experts from around the state and nation to address the opportunities for the waterfront and. address the Focus Future information gathered by the city in 1999 . Yet her detailed proposal were passed over as phantasmagorical and “SUSTAIANBILITY” the words of environmental terrorists. Only the “Tree Hugger” part of the proposal seemed to be examined;all of the tourism, business and wealth creation, community and cultural stewardship were somehow missed by the reviewers. Undaunted she has continued to originate and coordinate community capacity building seminars for the region, the latest ones in February and then June 2008. See attached review.

The scope of her plan to revitalize “old Bullhead” was detailed and matched the type of work going on in New Urbanism” projects elsewhere. Whilethe proposal received letters of support outside of the Bullhead and despite audiences with Arizona Dept of Commerce, Tourism etc. no economic analysis of her proposal on the region was made. An analysis outline was proposed by ERA during this time laying out the economic advantages. see attched . To help the readers Melanie gave examples Brattleboro.Vermont’s milliondollars grant seed“eco-park”. When there was still no response,Melanie then began to accentuate the focus of the tri-state gateway and called for a Colorado River Exposition in 2001. Called the ARCANA.the eco-entertainment /educational Colorado River Expo had all the trimmings of an international exposition that would be permanently installed as the “Epilogue venue of the Grand Canyon Experience. Moreover, the buildings and the carefully versioned waterfront were designed to last generations and demonstrate emerging energy technologies, create jobs of the future , attract needed university participation necessary in an emerging economy for research and development , tell the extensive history of the region and promote stewardship of the very fragile resources the tri-state area and encourage the Nevada casinos venue of Laughlin to retrofit and adopt sustainability principals for hotels and resorts. As the first outpost of civilization on the Colorado, Melanie's vision of a futuristic gateway city would act as the statement maker, social and cultural hub of the county , high visability demonstration and newest asset to the tourism roster of Arizona, act as guardian of the Colorado and jumping off point for a green belt offering regionally appropriate recreation and education and bringing qa new generation of visitors to Laughlin, Bullhead City, Kingman, Needles.She conceived a 60 trail system along the river down to the western gateway of Needles California where the historic El Garces of Harvey Train Station chain is under restoration and engaged City Planning manager Sharon Atkinson to become part of the planning process for the corridor concept. The reactions of outsiders who know the area was overwhelmingly positive. A civil engineer not involved with the project said of the ARCANA, there is one picture that should be in the Governor of Arizona's office representing our future, and this is it! Within the Arcana's two main buildings were over 50 educational and business activities and a third complex for University research and development of arid lands sustainability.That included residential housing and hostel accommodations for visiting academics and act as a Green business inqubator for the region.
2001 The mood of the nation was not eco-educationalwith a new Gateway into Arizona but “fear of terrorism”. The thought of an on going School of Sustainability and School of Cultural development in NW Arizona on the AZ/Nevada border with regionally appropriate Sustainability projects stretching down the Colorado River into the Native American reservations and beyond to Needles, and eastward to Kingman, two great Route 66 destination cities ripe for Green Historical building restoration, completing the GOLDEN LOOP from Las Vegas over the new Boulder Dam bridge to Bullhead Laughlin and the river cities and back was seen as far fetched. Yet this is exactly what was called for in the 2004 Bastille study done for Governor Napolitano suggesting a Strategic Investment Strategy for a Sustainable Systems Industry in AZ that called for “high visibility demonstrations” of the states commitment to its future economic development. Melanie participated in the Tri Universities Conference to bring private and university participation together to bring this strategy to fruition and brought the case for the ARCANA to the attention of both NAU and ASU. On this matter Melanie has been courting ASU’s “ Decision Theater”, for some 3 years since it opened its doors, and soliciting a coalition of businesses in the county , with the help of David Lord of LaughlinRanch, to sponsor and endow a Decision Theater in Mohave County, located on the water front to bring university research and development to the county and use of the “Decision Theater” to assist stakeholders emerge sustaianbily. Interestingly far south in Mohave County, in Lake Havasu several persons were thinking about the same issues but on a smaller scale and were attempting to gain grant money for the cultural enhancement of the City with its surrounding mountains and beautiful Lake. Those who have never visited it do not realize that land in Nevada, Arizona and California and the Colorado River stretch are “the Epilogue of the Grand Canyon” and the entire river cities would joined in this river theme
still there was no movement forward with the project. City managers came and went, city councils changed faces and names but dwarfed by the 4-5 Million visitors to neighboring Laughlin's casinos, the Arizona side stakeholders couldn't see how the money would be found and how such a project would ever within itself pay return on investment. Overwhelmed by years angst over millions and millions of dollars transferred from AZ to NV through this corridor unchecked, the city remained without direction on the issues of development. Challenges are great. Of course, the economic benefit of a “Gateway Project” is not the impact of tolls received at the gate but the total of the wealth generated there and beyond-downstream of the gateway. In this case, the benefits to neighboring Laughlin, Kingman, MohaveValley,Golden Valley, Dolan Springs, Aha Macav, White Hills and on to Needles would have to be added. In Melanie's vision BullheadCity would be a destination city that unlocked the doors southward toward Needled, Topock Gorge and LakeHavasu, the river transportation and exploration corridor once more. A The ARCANA or derivative would represent the historical and emerging culture inresource management and arid land research.
Meanwhile Arizona and Nevada were experiencing explosive population growth. Arizona's governor came to the tri-state region to express her concern for the fragile area near BHC and Kingman which is predicted to be the fastest growing region after the opening of new dam bypass bridge from Nevada to Arizona by seeking to connect developers to emerging Green Building movement which had taken residential home certification into Scottsdale and the commercial building supported by USGBC a to the University Cities, and Maricopa County. When Land trader David Lords purchased 13,000 acres to build Laughlin Ranch as a retirement community, Melanie approached David with the proposition that he declare Laughlin Ranch a sustainable community. David who is mindful of the future, and saw the possibilities of distinguishing Laughlin Ranch from other communities, Melanie put together ten of Arizona’sSustainability leaders and elders whoexpertise in planning various aspects of low waste, energy efficiencies, water management and smart growth are well known, subsequently became the Laughlin Ranch Sustainability Council. David committed Laughlin Ranch to “Green Schools” Green Residential, and LEED standards for any commercial buildings, and engaged Tony Brown founder of the Ecosa Institute to plan a large SustainabilityCenter at the ranch to service the community and county. This building would also house the proposed endowed “Decision Theater” from ASU. A few months later Melanie introduced one of the members of the council who represents USGBC toKathy Taggett Hicks for a chalk talk. Kathy is project manager for nearby 55,000 acre Mardian Ranch at White Hills that was already working to bring a more sensible and sustainable building footprint to this project for the developer in green residential standards. As Hicks has had to work with the county to remove old rules and regulations that restricted new innovations the outreach effort of Melanie to Hicks service has been a valuable asset to the Kingman area as she disseminates information to her local citizenry. With Mardian Ranch at White Hills declaring in 07 that it was “sustaianbilble this meant that Mohave county now was the home of two of the largest masterplanned communities in the state a nd atha nation if not the world . Other outreach and capacity building by Melanie then brought a smaller developer of the 1700 acre “Dorado” to commit to “high performance green residential standards and “open space” for community gardens to demonstrate native foods in Golden Valley.
Of course in 06 the bottom began to fall out of the housing market; Laughlin Ranch had completed only 70 homes to the City of Scottsdale's GreenBuilding standard and approved several hundred condominiums to be built to 'Green standards.
With the housing market in a slump Melanie turned back to the River; with another group of planners , Barnabas Kane and Matt Ackerman , former AIA NAZ CHAPTER PRESIDENT, to conceive a wholly new concept for the river front lands that would become part of not only development of the social and cultural hub of the city and county but part of the energy portfolio of Arizona in another concept called the “WAVE” This MASSIVE Solar Ramada of sorts would cover the Arcana project generate all the power necessary to pay for the installation and all of the power needed for the resident population of Bullhead and the Casino venues in Laughlin and continue in perpetuity to generate capital through net metering, and satisfy yet another “high visibility demonstration concept for the state to point out its sustainability agenda. . To present this new concept Melanie coordinated and produced a community capacity building workshop called “To Be or Not to Be One of the Worlds Greatest Waterfronts” bringing in internationally recognized waterfront consultant Fred Kent from Public Place Making in New York , she and her husband paying for the bulk of the expenses, for the day long workshop of 6 speakers.
Fred Kent insisted on being driven up and down the Bullhead waterfront and affirmed Melanie's belief that the land across from the casinos and downriver was a potential Green Gateway and that BHC could be also be a destination city for visitors to Mohave Co. and the tri-state area. She then began designing a series of Capacity Building Workshops for the county's stakeholders with the hope that by raising awareness, she could budge the jurisdictions into action. Despite her lack of funds she has welcomed into her home the green building and sustainability experts.

At this time Melanie is actively redoubling her effort to put together a public private partnership to advocate for the Wave and an ARCANA type venue that is internationally recognized for its location and significance on the Colorado River . She is also advocating an architectural theme competition to bring the best and brightest to vision this venue of Environmental stewardship, education, recreation , entertainment and eco tourism , to then market the concept directly to those developers of River front venues from accross the planet to engage in this again “EPILOGUE OF THE COLORADO RIVER” In doing so linking all the lands on the river front from Davis Camp at the foot of the Davis Dam and the eastern most boundary of the Golden Gate National Recreation aArea, owned and operated by Mohave County , AZ. State Lands, private land leased from the state of AZ by Don Laughlin, Old Bullhead City and BLM land in a masterplanned scenario for maximum environmental stewardship and economic benefit. Melanie is now preparing with colleagues a “White Paper” to raise awareness of stakeholders from Bullhead to MohaveCounty to the state of Arizona to argue the case for participation of all these entities to develop a world class venue on the Colorado for the benefit of all parties in spades.