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Vice-mayor Hannah McKinney on saving municipal budgets through smarter growth in Kalamazoo, MI

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Hannah McKinney believes that to create strong metropolitan areas in this country we have to focus on creating strong neighborhoods. As Vice Mayor of Kalamazoo, Michigan; she’s working to make that happen in her region.

“That sense of being tied to a physical location is something that, for many people doesn’t exist anymore,” says McKinney, “We need to create neighborhoods that are unique, that are livable.”

An Advisory Board member of Smart Growth America’s Local Leaders Council, Hannah McKinney has served on the City Commission for 16 years. She has a long history of working to make Kalamazoo a great place to live, work, and visit. In 2003, McKinney co-chaired the Convening our Community project; a community-building initiative focused on creating a smart growth report to guide land use decisions. McKinney worked on the city’s Comprehensive Plan update, Downtown Plan, and the creation of a 2010 Master Plan to guide future growth and development, all while protecting Kalamazoo’s unique character – – and that’s only part of it.

Local Leaders Council

Upcoming Webinars: October 2013

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Want to learn about new, innovative strategies for creating great places? Several upcoming webinars provide ideas and inspiration for local leaders.

Brownfields Policy Update from Capitol Hill

Thu, Oct 3, 2013 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT

Join NALGEP and its Brownfield Communities Network for a webinar where the nation’s leading brownfields policy experts will bring you up to speed on the latest Congressional activities related to brownfields. Speakers will include Evans Paull of the National Brownfields Coalition, Judy Sheahan from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and NALGEP Executive Director Ken Brown. The webinar will cover the key matters before Congress affecting brownfields revitalization, including brownfields reauthorization legislation, the outlook for FY 2014 appropriations for brownfields at EPA and other agencies, and efforts to reinstate the brownfields tax incentive. There will be ample time for questions and discussion.

Click here to register.

Montana Rural Health Initiative: Building Active Communities Upcoming Webinars

Transportation Engineering and Public Involvement
Monday, October 7th, 12-1:30 PM
*Registration information coming soon!

Making the Case for Active Communities
Wednesday, October 23rd, 12-1:30 PM
*Registration information coming soon!

For more information on the Building Active Communities Webinars visit http://healthinfo.montana.edu/RHI%20Webinars.html 

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Policy Update: Federal Government Shutdown

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As of midnight on September 30th, the Federal Government was ‘shutdown’ after Congress was unable to agree upon the terms of a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government past September 30th.

House Republicans fought to delay and defund parts of the Affordable Care Act despite President Obama and Senate Democrats saying they would not support any such bill. Instead, Senate Democrats passed a ‘clean’ CR to fund the government through November 15th. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) on Monday that she would provide votes from House Democrats to pass a multi-month funding resolution. But that didn’t happen.

The ‘shutdown’ will not affect critical government services such as military, air traffic controllers, mail, Social Security and Medicare. However, many programs that are funded through the annual appropriations process will come to a halt until further notice.

The last government shut down occurred 17 years ago when Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House and Bill Clinton was President. That shut down lasted 28 days.

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Smart Growth America holds workshop in Cincinnati, OH on implementing transit-oriented development

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Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati, OH. Photo via Flickr.

Smart Growth America visited Cincinnati, OH, last week to meet with residents and City officials about the many benefits of transit, and development surrounding transit, and why these strategies are important to future development in Cincinnati and the surrounding region.

In June the City of Cincinnati adopted a new comprehensive plan, has updated the Green Cincinnati plan and is currently revising its land development code. All three emphasize strategies that will help support smart growth in Cincinnati.

Technical assistance

Partnership in the News: Cincinnati makes strides toward transit oriented development

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Cincinnati-Streetcar-Announcement

Cincinnati, OH is a regional leader in pursuing ways to make the city more livable and attractive to residents and business. To help advance the city’s smart growth goals even further, Cincinnati will receive technical assistance from Smart Growth America’s Leadership Institute to inform residents and community leaders about the benefits of transit oriented development (TOD).

Roger Millar, Vice President of Smart Growth America, says, “This workshop will provide the community with an opportunity to learn more about transit options and transit oriented development in the context of Cincinnati. Now is a great time to assess how Cincinnati can most effectively align its development with transit investments.”

Technical assistance

Completing Our Streets: A smart approach to the cost of Complete Streets

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Richfield, MN
In Richfield, Minnesota, a utility project led to the reconfiguration of 76th Street with sidewalks, a side path, and fewer lanes, saving $2 million from original projections. Residents to the east now want to extend the features further along the street. Image via the City of Richfield.

This post is the third in a twice-monthly series of excerpts from Completing Our Streets: The Transition to Safe and Inclusive Transportation Networks, the new book from Island Press by Barbara McCann, founder of the National Complete Streets Coalition. The book discusses the keys to the movement’s success, and how places and practitioners in the United States are tackling the challenges of putting a new transportation paradigm into daily practice.

Today’s excerpt addresses a common concern: costs. The National Complete Streets Coalition recently published a toolkit to help local supporters respond to cost concerns, with examples from across the country. The report is accompanied by PowerPoint slides that can be downloaded and selectively used in community meetings.

All National Complete Streets Coalition Platinum Partners and those who upgrade to the next Partnership level will receive a signed copy of Completing Our Streets. Become a Coalition Partner today!

Complete Streets

Mayor Bryan Barnett on fostering a liveable Rochester Hills, MI

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Located 25 miles north of Detroit, the city of Rochester Hills, MI may seem like an unlikely place for smart growth to be taking hold. But local residents have taken to smart growth concepts on multiple fronts—from transportation, to preservation of open space to economic development. Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett, a member of Smart Growth America’s Local Leaders Council, is committed to advancing them even further.

“To me smart growth is a philosophy and it’s a lifestyle,” Barnett says. “It’s not all economic development, it’s not all transportation. It’s about stepping back and looking at how our decisions impact where we want Rochester Hills to be a few years down the road.”

Local Leaders Council

Transportation in the City event highlights the changing the face of transit in DC

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TranspoInTheCityCrowd

On Wednesday, September 25, Smart Growth America’s Transportation in the City event brought together a panel of transportation and startup experts, representatives from innovative transportation services operating in DC, and Washington residents to discuss the growth of transportation options over the past few years – and the challenges that lay ahead.

The panel included Donna Harris, Co-founder, 1776; Sita Vasan, Executive Director, SwitchPitch; Martin Di Caro, Transportation Reporter, WAMU; and Tom Fairchild, Director, Mobility Lab. Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth made the opening remarks and the panel was moderated by Smart Growth America Vice President and Chief of Staff Ilana Preuss.

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Spotlight on Sustainability: Maryland capitalizes on grant, plans growth around Metro stations

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The southern expansion of the Washington, D.C. Metro green line opened in 2001 – costing over $900 million. Prince Georges County, Maryland, seeking to capitalize on the existing transit system developed a corridor action plan that incorporates transit oriented development around four southern green line stations; Southern Ave, Suitland, Naylor Rd. and Branch Ave.

With an annual ridership of over 200 million trips the Metro system is an invaluable asset to spur future growth in the DC metropolitan region. Job and housing growth was higher in the area along the southern green line than it was along any other transit line in the DC metro system between 2000-2010.

The Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission (MNCPPC) capitalized on the growth potential of the southern green line with an $800,000 Community Challenge grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop the corridor action plan.

Complete Streets

Southeastern San Diego to replace brownfields area with community's smart growth vision

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Community members help plan the Village at Market Creek development. Image courtesy of the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation.
Community members plan the Village at Market Creek development. Image courtesy of the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation.

After extensive planning and dozens of community meetings, the Village at Market Creek in San Diego, CA, is ready to break ground on the next phase of a visionary smart growth project.

For two decades, San Diego has been working to remediate and redevelop the former home of aerospace manufacturer Langley Corp. The company left San Diego in the 1990s, but leaking underground storage tanks and other potentially hazardous materials on the numerous factory sites remained. That meant the 60 acres were not only blighted, but potentially dangerous to redevelop.

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