Seneca Falls Ped Crossing, originally uploaded by faceless b. Photo credit: EPA Smart Growth. A new day is dawning in New York. On August 30, Governor Paterson signed New York State’s exciting smart growth infrastructure act into law. “The Smart Growth Public Infrastructure Policy Act has helped to propel New York to the front of … Continued
Affordable Senior Housing, originally uploaded by faceless b. Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the combined burden of housing and transportation on low-income families. Many household budgets are being squeezed and people from every income level are looking to decrease their costs. A number of new studies have shown that neighborhoods that … Continued
Downtown intersection, originally uploaded by Complete Streets. Building local capacity to plan for growth and development in ways that cut traffic congestion, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect rural areas and green space, revitalize urban centers, and create more affordable homes just makes sense. Today, the Senate moved forward a bill that would provide federal resources … Continued
In a time when state public infrastructure funds are already stretched thin, can we afford to exacerbate the problem by making infrastructure decisions that support sprawl, requiring expensive extension of roads and utilities? According to the New York state legislature the answer is no. Last month the state passed the Smart Growth Public Infrastructure Policy Act.
The North Carolina General Assembly recently passed legislation establishing a Sustainable Communities Task Force within the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. North Carolina is now the latest state to recognize the connections between cross-agency governance at the state level, coordination with stakeholders at the local level, and sustainable communities on the ground.
n this era of dramatically constrained fiscal resources, one state has made a concerted effort to be smarter stewards of their limited economic development dollars by focusing more of their spending on existing towns and communities rather than on potential new development at the edge or in outer townships. This week the Keystone Research Center (KRC) completed a study of Pennsylvania’s state economic development efforts funded by the William Penn Foundation. The new research shows that from 2003-2008 about 25% more of state economic development subsidies were directed to older existing areas than to outer townships on a per capita basis.
Will California’s plans for reducing dangerous climate-changing emissions help or hinder the building and development market? California’s most prominent association of real estate developers answered that question emphatically last week, saying that California’s law requiring regions to reduce emissions through smarter land use, transportation, and housing decisions is good for business.
Since 1995, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Brownfields Program has helped communities across the country assess and clean up thousands of those contaminated, vacant properties known collectively as “brownfields,” leveraging more than $14 billion in public and private investment and contributing to the creation of more than 60,000 jobs in the process. Over the last several months, Smart Growth America has been working as part of the National Brownfields Coalition to help reauthorize this vital program, with a series of amendments to improve it.
Should an apartment, townhouse, or condo automatically be considered affordable – no matter the cost or rent? That would be crazy, right? A New Jersey State Senator has introduced a bill that would do exactly that, letting cities and towns off the hook for producing desperately needed affordable housing units if they merely have a lot of multi-unit buildings.
Atlantic Station in Atlanta in 1971, today a superb example of a successful brownfield restoration. The economic downturn changed the landscape of communities across the country — creating growing numbers of abandoned homes, shuttered auto manufacturing plants, and vacant land parcels. Distressed and economically disadvantaged areas have been hit worst of all, and more communities … Continued