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Partnership in the News: Anacostia Riverwalk Trail plan revealed

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On Monday, October 15, federal and state officials from Maryland and the District of Columbia held an event to announce a four-mile portion of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail that will be known as the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens segment and will be funded largely by a 2012 DOT TIGER grant.

The trail is a broader effort to bring development and activity to the Anacostia waterfront, as it connects 60 miles of trails in Maryland and throughout the District. Mayor of D.C. Vincent Gray had this to say about the project:

“This latest segment of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail is an important part of the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative’s efforts to create a healthy, green, equitable and prosperous city – goals that go hand-in-hand with my Sustainable DC plan. I’m excited today to unveil the trail’s unique design, which will give the public a window into the host of benefits this new regional trail link will provide to our neighbors in Maryland as well. We look forward to continued collaboration with our regional and federal partners as we move forward with construction and press ahead with our efforts to create a world-class Anacostia Riverfront in our city.”

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Introducing Smart Growth America's Local Leaders Council

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Smart Growth America is proud to announce the launch of our new Local Leaders Council, a nonpartisan group of local elected officials who share a passion for building great towns, cities, and communities.

Representing diverse communities of all sizes from across the United States, members of the Local Leaders Council are using smart growth strategies to help their hometowns compete and grow in today’s economy, generate better return on taxpayer investment, provide transportation and housing choices for their residents, and create vibrant places where people want to live, work, and play.

Local Leaders Council

Smart Growth Stories: Building a solid foundation for the future of Detroit

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Detroit is changing. The popular story of the last half-decade has largely revolved around the economic fallout of the troubled automobile industry, interspersed with tales of population drain and abandonment. Based on this narrative, it might be easy to dismiss Detroit, to write the city off as a once-great but now-fallen metropolis of yesterday.

Easy, that is, unless you’ve been following the news. A New York Times article from a year ago picked up on the massive influx of young, educated people even in the face of massive out-migration, while a Forbes article from July of this year highlighted the development in downtown Detroit, largely centered around Woodward Avenue, the spine of the downtown area.

These news stories are beginning to touch upon what people familiar with the new movement in Detroit already know: Detroit is rebuilding. But this time, developers and investors are taking a different tack, focusing on downtown, mixed-use, and transit-oriented development strategies, shifting the city away from the large manufacturing development that has characterized Detroit for so long.

Bedrock Real Estate is at the forefront of this new strategy. “We’re going to continue to fill up Detroit, downtown Detroit. There’s no longer this need for manufacturing plants. You don’t need these big, huge buildings anymore,” says Jim Ketai, Managing Partner of Bedrock and member of the Steering Committee for LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors. “So we are recreating Detroit. It’ll be a new Detroit, something different than what Detroit once was.”

Local Leaders Council LOCUS

New green building resources for HUD grantees

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The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced a new initiative to offer green building training to their grantees and other affordable housing organizations. The free courses include Introduction to Green Building for Affordable Housing, Executive Decision Making, Best Practices for Green Building Operations and Maintenance, Financing Green Building, and Energy Performance Contracting for Small PHAs.

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Partnership in the News: Tulsa, OK poised to clean up brownfields

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With the help of a $175,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Tulsa, Oklahoma is in the final stages of a brownfield redevelopment plan that includes six properties throughout the city. The grant will help Tulsa clean up the sites and thus serve as a catalyst for broader revitalization and redevelopment efforts. On cleaning up one of the former industrial sites, Mayor Dewey Bartlett said:

“This could be a great asset to the city, contributing to the tax rolls and the business community. We just have to get it there.”

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Deadline to apply for Smart Growth America's free technical assistance is this Thursday, October 25th

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Smart Growth America’s 2012 free technical assistance workshops are a great opportunity for communities interested in smarter growth – but the application window is closing soon!

Communities interested in applying for one of our 12 workshops types have a few more days to submit an application. The deadline to apply is this Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 5:00 PM EDT.

Applications will be accepted online or by email (PDF). Any questions may be directed to assistance [at] smartgrowthamerica [dot] org. 

Technical assistance

Partnership in the News: BRT gains traction in Madison, WI

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On September 10, the Metropolitan Planning Organization, Capital Region Sustainable Communities, and Capital Area Regional Planning Commission – all organizations of the city of Madison, Wisconsin – met together to present a study carried out by the city testing the idea of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route to the public and receive feedback.

This initial meeting was meant to introduce the idea to the public, with the next round of feedback involving more public input on specifics of the plan, including stop location, frequency, and stop amenities, among other things, according to Joe Kern, Project Manager of SRF Consulting.

The study was funded by a three-year HUD Regional Planning Grant.

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Complete Streets News, October 2012

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New policies are adopted in Georgia, Michican, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. Policy action in DC, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington. Applications now being accepted for free Complete Streets workshops and more in this month’s news from the National Complete Streets Coalition.

Want to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox? Join the National Complete Streets Coalition mailing list.

Policy Adoption

Georgia DOT Adopts Policy – On September 20, the Georgia Department of Transportation adopted a Complete Streets policy, the product of years of work done by the state’s Complete Streets supporters, including Georgia Bikes; the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition; the Atlanta Regional Commission; the cities of Atlanta, Decatur, and Roswell; several transit agencies; and leaders within GDOT. The new policy calls for the Department to “routinely incorporate bicycle, pedestrian, and transit (user and transit vehicle) accommodations into transportation infrastructure projects as a means for improving mobility, access, and safety for the traveling public.”

The Road Commission for Oakland County, Michigan adopted Complete Streets guidelines (PDF) last month to help the County apply the approach to its transportation projects.

On September 25, Newark, New Jersey announced that it had adopted a formal Complete Streets policy. Mayor Cory Booker strongly supported the policy, stating that Newark’s streets would be “the safest and most welcoming in the entire nation.” Booker participated in an AARP-led webcast discussion about Complete Streets a few days later.

In early October, the city of Onalaska, Wisconsin adopted a Complete Streets policy and a recommended project checklist. The checklist asks project managers about accommodations for people walking and bicycling and encourages them to check existing plans and nearby destinations when making decisions.

Complete Streets

Funding Opportunity: Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Grants

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces $4,000,000 in funding for brownfields. The Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Grant program facilitates community involvement as well as the research, training, and technical assistance necessary for brownfields assessment, cleanup, and subsequent reuse.

Brownfields area-wide planning grant funding must be directed to specific areas affected by either a single large site or multiple brownfield sites, such as a neighborhood, downtown district, city block, or local commercial corridor. The grant funding will result in an area-wide plan, including implementation strategies, for the brownfields-affected area. The brownfields area-wide plan will inform the assessment, cleanup, and reuse of brownfield properties and promote area-wide revitalization.

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