Month: August 2012

Learn how your community can grow smarter with technical assistance from Smart Growth America

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A view of downtown Oklahoma City, OK by Flickr user Becky McCray. Smart Growth America came to Oklahoma City in April to provide technical assistance.

On Tuesday, Smart Growth America and the Tennessee Department of Transportation released Removing Barriers to Smarter Transportation Investments, a report that provides detailed analysis and specific recommendations to help Tennessee invest more smartly and efficiently in its transportation and infrastructure needs.

The report was created as part of Smart Growth America’s technical assistance, which is available to towns, counties and states interested in learning how to apply smart growth strategies to their own growth or planning. Policy analyses, public investment recommendations and hands-on workshops are among the many services included in our technical assistance.

Technical assistance

Smart Growth Stories: Point C’s David Grannis on creating vibrant neighborhoods in downtown Los Angeles

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The right development can strengthen the economy of a neighborhood, a city or even an entire region. Places with housing and transportation choices are increasingly popular, and can benefit municipal budgets as well. Too often, however, this type of development is blocked by restrictive zoning guidelines or other regulatory policies, which stand in the way of fiscally responsible development – and market demand.

This is why real estate developers have joined together with Smart Growth America to create LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors. LOCUS advocates for state and federal policies that help cities and communities get what they want from their spaces, while also investing ways that will remain viable for the future.

It is this shared vision for future development that drives people like David Grannis. Grannis is a managing partner of Point C, a strategic consulting group that focuses on land use and transportation and LOCUS member.

Local Leaders Council LOCUS

TDOT Commissioner John Schroer on building an even better transportation system in Tennessee

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Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner John Schroer is part of the dedicated team working to make Tennessee’s transportation system more efficient and a better value for Tennessee taxpayers. As part of our new analysis, Removing Barriers to Smarter Transportation Investments, released in partnership with the Tennessee DOT, Commissioner Schroer writes an open letter to Tennesseans on how and why the department is working to improve its services. From the report:

Dear Fellow Tennesseans:

It is critical that our state continues to provide better services and infrastructure to our citizens and businesses, and more importantly in a financially responsible manner. I also recognize that the services provided by our transportation system are absolutely critical to sustaining and growing our state’s economy. It is therefore essential that all of us plan, build and operate our transportation system in a manner that balances the needs of rural and urban areas, businesses and communities, and preserves our way of life.

While we are all concerned about maintaining the current infrastructure at an acceptable level, we must also wisely use our limited funding sources to provide a transportation system that is efficient, dependable and safe for all users of the system. TDOT is focused on a planning a statewide, multimodal transportation system that enables both rural and urban communities to grow and prosper taking into account business needs, access to jobs, access to freight ports and airports, needs of transit riders, bicyclists, pedestrians, tourism and quality of life.

Technical assistance

Analysis highlights opportunities to improve Tennessee’s transportation system, make best use of limited financial resources

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The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) has partnered with Smart Growth America to increase its efficiency and ensure the greatest possible return on Tennessee’s transportation investments. As a result, TDOT has compiled a series of recommendations designed to pin down areas for improvement, prioritize projects and streamline processes.

“Transportation investments are invaluable to driving economic recovery and prosperity across Tennessee,” says TDOT Commissioner John Schroer. “But as this report shows, we cannot be limited to old ways of doing business. We must enable and encourage more flexible, innovative and lower-cost solutions to state’s transportation needs. Prioritizing and designing projects to add the most value for their cost is smart, common sense policy in a time of fiscal constraint, and all Tennesseans stand to benefit from an even more effective Department of Transportation.”

The analysis, Removing Barriers to Smarter Transportation Investments, revealed TDOT currently has nine times more projects in its work plan than it has funding. As a result, some beneficial projects currently run the risk of falling through the cracks, while the service intent of others might be equally fulfilled through a less expensive solution.

Technical assistance

Planning wisdom, economic prudence: An interview with Mitchell J. Silver

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Planning Wisdom, Economic Prudence
By Phillip LaFargue, Center for Planning Excellence, Baton Rouge

Mitchell J. Silver, AICP, is the Chief Planning and Economic Development Officer for the Department of City Planning in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is also the current President of the American Planning Association. Since he will be one of the headlining speakers at Center for Planning Excellence’s 2012 Smart Growth Summit, we decided to ask him a few questions relating his experience to issues we face in Louisiana. What we got was sound advice on planning and economic development that would be applicable anywhere in the world.

Click here to read the interview.

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Video: Strong communities and strong economies have choices

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Smart Growth America’s Roger Millar recently sat down with our coalition partner the Sonoran Institute for a video about choices in development. As one of several developers, architects, elected officials, realtors, conservationists, and community leaders in the video, Millar discusses why choices matter when it comes to building thriving communities in today’s economy.

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Smart Growth Stories: A Tale of Three Cities

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What kinds of investments allow cities to rebound and jumpstart local economic growth?

Bombed out.

If you were feeling cynical, that’s how you might describe the current state of downtown Reno, Nevada. Take a walk down Virginia Avenue and see what I mean. Go past the forlorn casinos, the shuttered liquor store, and the homeless loitering near the 4th Street bus station. Search in vain for a downtown restaurant or bar that is not attached to a gambling institution. And then, when it is dark, walk in the shadow of the National Bowling Stadium, a building designed for a sport whose own history unfortunately mirrors that of the town in which it stands.

Bombed out.

A few years ago, that’s how you might have described Woodward Avenue in Detroit. People were fleeing the city then, a trend that had continued since the Motor City’s initial decline in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Great old buildings, monuments to a forgotten past, may well have outnumbered the residents and businesses for which they were fashioned. It was the scariest of places – the loneliest of places.

Bombed out.

Almost two decades ago, that’s how you could have literally described part of Oklahoma City. Or as current Mayor Mick Cornett told it at a conference earlier this year, “That’s all people knew about us.”

Each of these places has struggled with decline. But where there is barrenness, there is always a chance at renewal. All across the country, towns are looking to make a comeback. In my role at Smart Growth America, I talk with community leaders and representatives almost every day who ask the same questions. How do we create jobs? How do we attract new residents and new businesses? How do we change our reputation for the better? And then how do we avoid falling down after we’ve gotten back on our feet?

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In Memoriam: Mark Schneider, leader, developer and advocate

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It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that Smart Growth America reflects on the sudden passing of the Mark C. Schneider, a smart growth real estate developer, civic leader, chairman of the Board of Directors of Pittsburgh Institution and 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, one of our coalition partners. Mark succumbed to injuries that he suffered as the result of a bicycling accident in Maryland on July 29th, 2012. He passed on with family and friends at his side. The following remembrance is from our partner, 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania:

“Though he made many contributions and played many important roles, his most valued and treasured was as friend. Mark was so much more-personally and professionally-than a Board member to us at 10,000 Friends. He was a successful businessman, real estate developer, civic leader, volunteer, fundraiser, champion, mentor, and boss. Mark spent so much time working with us that he almost seemed a co-worker as well. Mark joined 10,000 Friends’ Board of Directors in 2002. He left the Board briefly to consult on our signature and most successful project, the Pennsylvania Community Transportation Initiative (PCTI). He then rejoined the board and became chairman in 2010. Mark’s leadership, vision, ideas, and influence can be felt in everything that we do.”

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Don’t call it a comeback: the rebirth of downtown Roanoke, VA

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Located along the Roanoke River in a valley between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains, Roanoke, VA in many ways embodies the idyllic beauty of southern Virginia.

Now, new investments and redevelopment of former brownfields are part of a robust revitalization effort in downtown Roanoke. Roanoke is changing and people are noticing.

“Ten years ago, 11 people lived in downtown Roanoke,” says City Manager Chris Morrill. “Now 1,200 do. Even two and a half years ago, people were talking about what Roanoke wasn’t, what it could have been if it had something else. Now people are taking pride in their communities, getting out more, making connections to downtown, going out to the farmer’s markets, and they love the greenways. There’s a definite sense of optimism, that we’re going in the right direction and creating the type of place where people want to live.”

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