Author: Smart Growth America

Top 10 of 2013: Over 550 communities are making streets safer and more convenient with Complete Streets policies

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This month, we’re looking back at some of Smart Growth America’s brightest moments and greatest accomplishments from 2013. First on the list? We’re celebrating the over 550 Complete Streets policies that have been enacted in the United States.

Complete Streets policies help create streets that are safe and convenient for everyone who uses them, and today over 550 communities across the country have enacted such policies. That’s a milestone worth celebrating.

In August the National Complete Streets Coalition, a program of Smart Growth America, brought together transportation officials and national smart growth experts in Washington, DC, to celebrate the accomplishment.

Complete Streets

Save the date: 2014 LOCUS Leadership Summit

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Photos from the 2013 LOCUS Leadership Summit.

The 2014 LOCUS Leadership Summit will take place June 17-18, 2014 in Washington DC. The LOCUS Leadership Summit is the premiere conference where smart growth deals get done. Real estate developers and investors who are interested in advancing walkable, sustainable communities are invited to join us for two days of business networking, dealmaking and insight into the latest smart growth innovations.

LOCUS

Applications now being accepted for Smart Growth America’s 2014 free technical assistance workshops

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A technical assistance workshop in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Applications are now being accepted for Smart Growth America’s 2014 free technical assistance workshops. Each year Smart Growth America offers free assistance to local communities interested in building stronger local economies and creating great neighborhoods. These workshops will be awarded to a limited number of qualifying communities.

Now in its third year, this free workshop program helps city, county and regional leaders find solutions to local issues and concerns. Our workshops help participating communities to grow in ways that benefit families and businesses while protecting the environment and preserving a sense of place.

Technical assistance

Turning brownfields into healthfields in McComb, MS

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A historic photo of the McComb City Hospital Building in McComb, MS. Photo via the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

One building in McComb, MS, could provide health care facilities for area residents and revitalize downtown at the same time. A federal brownfields grant is helping the small town achieve both these goals possible.

The McComb City Hospital building, originally constructed in 1911, was the area’s only hospital until the 1960’s and when the Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center was built in 1969, the McComb hospital closed. Through the late 1980’s the building was reused for a variety of purposes, none of which were able to generate long-term and sustainable use of the property.

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Video: Joe Minicozzi on the fiscal benefits of a revitalized Asheville, NC

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Many communities are coming to realize smart growth provides substantial economic benefits in addition to creating great neighborhoods. Smart Growth America’s Local Leaders Council recently sat down with Joseph Minicozzi, the principal of Urban3, LLC, a private consulting firm specializing in land value economics, property tax analysis and community design, to discuss how some communities are using smart growth strategies to their economic benefit.

Local Leaders Council

Local Leaders convene to discuss supporting America’s cities and counties

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Members of Smart Growth America’s Local Leaders Council in Washington last week.

Elected officials representing diverse communities around the nation gathered in Washington, DC on October 8th for a briefing on the progress and future plans of Smart Growth America’s Local Leaders Council, a nationwide, nonpartisan network of local decision makers with a passion for building great towns, cities, and communities using smart growth strategies.

During the meeting the Council’s Advisory Board reviewed the first-year accomplishments of the program: Over 80 elected and high-level appointed local officials have formally joined the network in the past year, numerous events have been coordinated through the speaker’s bureau, and a new Maryland State Chapter is under development.

Local Leaders Council

LOCUS Steering Committee gathers in Washington DC

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Los Angeles’ Union Station, one of several projects being worked on by LOCUS members. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Metro.

The Steering Committee of LOCUS, Smart Growth America’s coalition of responsible real estate developers and investors, gathered in Washington DC this week to discuss upcoming LOCUS projects and identify new issues facing smart growth development today.

Art Leahy, CEO of Los Angeles Metro, started the meeting on Tuesday with a presentation about the future of L.A.’s Union Station. As Leahy explained, Metro’s Master Plan for the station will celebrate the site’s history, improve passenger experience and make the Union Station neighborhood a great destination by considering combinations of public space enhancements, access and circulation improvements and new development. Leahy presented about the project to the Steering Committee, and received feedback from fellow Committee members.

LOCUS

Complete Streets News – August 2013

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Policy Action

Concord, California has been awarded funds from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s One Bay Area Grant (OBAG) program to redesign Detroit Avenue. To be eligible for OBAG funds, communities in the San Francisco Bay region must show that the project follows a Complete Streets approach, in line with a locally-adopted policy or plan. (Concord Patch)

Sacramento, California’s Complete Streets Coalition brings together community non-profits and regional public agencies to ensure Complete Streets implementation in plans, projects, and processes. WALKSacramento gave an update on its work in a recent blog post. Read more >>

Los Angeles Departments of City Planning and Transportation are working together to develop a Mobility Element of the city’s General Plan that fully considers the needs of all users of the roadways and responds to citizens’ input. Streetsblog L.A. gives an update on their work so far and how community members can engage and share their ideas. Read more >>

Complete Streets

A Joint Announcement from Reconnecting America and Smart Growth America

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Reconnecting America and Smart Growth America boards and staff have recently completed a joint strategic planning process to evaluate how to have the most impact in advancing shared goals related to federal transportation policy reform. To that end, the boards of each organization have agreed to the full transfer of the Transportation for America Campaign, which has been jointly hosted by Reconnecting America and Smart Growth America, to Smart Growth America with the goal of consolidating the transportation policy advocacy work into one organization.

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Reigniting America’s real estate and housing markets through reform

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This op-ed originally appeared in The Hill.

Today, the real estate industry finds itself caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) are leading the charge for tax and housing reform. On the other, we in real estate are wary of policy changes and the potential impacts on the recovering real estate market. But there may be a way forward. In January 2013, Smart Growth America (the parent organization of LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors) released a study that surveyed 50 federal programs and found that between tax breaks, grants, loan guarantees and other programs the federal government spends or commits approximately $450 billion each year directly to the real estate market. The study found that much of that spending is uncoordinated and out of step with today’s market realities and demographic shifts.

As leaders in the real estate development community, we understand the positive impact federal involvement can have on the real estate market, and support a continued federal role in the sector. However, we also recognize the economy and real estate market have structurally changed, and policies and programs that spurred prosperity in previous generations can actually impede it today. We must ensure that every dollar invested in real estate is going to help the economic recovery – and that is why, we, LOCUS, a national coalition of real estate developers and investors in partnership with Smart Growth America developed a series of recommendations in a recent report, Federal Involvement in Real Estate: A Call for Action, proposing common sense reforms to existing programs.

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