Faced with the growing cross-pressures of citizen consumer demands, economic vitality, finite environmental resources, and resident concern over quality of life issues, a number of cities have looked toward a sustainable community strategy as a potential policy solution. While such an alternative has shown promise, it has only begun to move from an intellectual vision to an applied program. To build on our knowledge concerning the scope and practice of sustainable communities, this article examines Santa Monica, California, which, over six years ago, initiated a multifaceted sustainable city program. From this research, scholars and practitioners will gain a stronger understanding of the pattern of policy adoption, types of programs, implementation tools, and the facilitative and constraining agents in this city's sustainable community program experience. Along with making a contribution to mapping the current sustainable community terrain, this research also suggests a series of variables for hypothesis construction and testing in future research.
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