Supporting Sustainable Rural Communities

Performance Measures for Success

Communities of all sizes are using performance measurement to better understand the impacts of their decisions. Performance measures document changes in human behavior, demographics, economic trends, or development patterns. By translating data and statistics into a succinct and consistent format, performance measures quantify the degree to which programs, policies, and investments achieve community goals. Performance measures allow decision-makers to quickly observe the expected effects of a proposed plan or project or to monitor trends in its performance over time.

Along with helping rural communities track progress toward their own sustainable communities goals, performance measurement can also aid the Partnership agencies in assessing the effectiveness of their investments in rural communities and small towns. Performance measures can help HUD, DOT, EPA, and USDA translate the Livability Principles into concrete outcomes, target their resources toward planning and capital programs that support sustainable communities, and evaluate federal initiatives.

Rural communities, given their distinctive characteristics, require customized performance measures. The measures provided here are suggestions for communities or regions interested in performance evaluation at the community or regional scale. Each measure can also be used or adapted to assess the performance of federal programs at a national scale. However, some measures may require local data that are not available in a nationally consistent format. For example, while the U.S. Census counts housing units every 10 years, more timely and geographically precise information on the location of new home construction would have to be acquired from each county building permitting office or tax assessor. As a result, it is difficult to accurately measure at a national scale the percentage of new housing units built on previously developed land or near rural town centers, or the average density of new residential development. Likewise there is no single consistent database describing land use or land value at a parcel level. As a consequence, it is impossible to assess how different places across the country arrange and balance residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural uses, or how property values change over time.

The following framework for performance measurement is organized in terms of broad goals and specific strategies that can help attain each objective. Each rural community can choose a different set of strategies that best fits its opportunities and challenges. The implementation measures evaluate the effectiveness with which each strategy is pursued. Other indicators can be used to track a community's progress toward the broader goals. These measures reflect changes in behavior or outcomes on the ground that would be anticipated to result if strategies are implemented successfully. All the measures described here are examples that can be helpful to rural communities trying to become more environmentally and economically sustainable, but they are a starting point, not a definitive list.

Goal 1: Promote Rural Prosperity

Create an economic climate that enhances the viability of working lands, preserves natural resources, and increases economic opportunities for all residents in rural communities.

Goal 2: Support Vibrant and Thriving Rural Communities

Enhance the distinctive characteristics of rural communities by investing in rural town centers, Main Streets, and existing infrastructure to create places that are vibrant, healthy, safe, and walkable.

Goal 3: Expand Transportation Choices

Create communities where everyone-including elderly, disabled, and low-income residents-can conveniently, affordably, and safely access local and regional goods and services.

Goal 4: Expand Affordable Housing

Create communities where everyone-including elderly, disabled, and low-income residents-can afford housing and transportation expenses.