Request for Proposals: Support for technical assistance to brownfields communities grant proposal

Smart Growth America is preparing a grant proposal to be submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide technical assistance to brownfields communities in EPA Region 3 (EPA-OSWER-OBLR-12-05). Smart Growth America seeks to augment team capabilities with contractor expertise, and is accepting proposals from interested non-profit organizations, educational institutions, private firms and individual consultants to be a part of the team that is proposing on the EPA grant.

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A game plan to change development patterns in Gwinnett County, Georgia

Downtown Suwanee in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Photo by Smart Growth America.

Located just outside Atlanta’s Perimeter beltway, Gwinnett County stands at the crossroads of change. Long known as a low-density bedroom suburb, Gwinnett today is a diverse county of more than 800,000 people with and rapidly increasing jobs base.

But Gwinnett County is quickly bumping up against the limits of suburban development. Older retail and jobs centers are changing rapidly and some are in decline. As is the case everywhere in metropolitan Atlanta, traffic congestion is overwhelming. The County and its business leaders have sponsored several transit plans for the I-85 corridor in recent years, but the defeat of the recent transportation initiative has made it unlikely that rail transit will extend to Gwinnett County anytime soon. In a few cases – the City of Suwanee in particular – new development has taken on a different pattern. But most of the county is still stuck in the problems of suburbia.

Technical assistance

Smart Growth Stories: Emerick Corsi on driving growth with transit

Many people recognize Forest City Enterprises as one of the biggest real estate companies in the nation, with a multi-billion dollar portfolio that spans coast to coast and a spot on the New York Stock Exchange.

What’s less well known is that Forest City also happens to be one of the biggest advocates of walkable neighborhoods with transportation choices. Real Estate Services President Emerick Corsi is a firm believer in the power of transit to drive economic growth in surrounding areas, and the company is actively pursuing this kind of development. As a member of LOCUS, Forest City understands the impact of transit-oriented development on local economic growth and job creation.

Local Leaders Council LOCUS

It’s not too late to apply for a free technical assistance workshop from Smart Growth America

Are you interested in Smart Growth America’s free technical assistance workshops but haven’t had time to apply? Don’t worry – it’s not too late! Applications are being accepted until October 25, 2012 at 5:00 PM EDT.

Smart Growth America’s technical assistance program helps to facilitate local solutions to development issues and concerns. Participating communities are able to grow in ways that benefit families and businesses while protecting the environment and preserving a sense of place.

Technical assistance

Free technical assistance webinar materials now online

Smart Growth America recently hosted an informational webinar about this year’s round of free technical assistance workshops. Potential applicants will find in this webinar a summary of the application process, including important deadlines, eligibility requirements and where to direct further inquiries. First, Roger Millar, the Director of Smart Growth America’s Leadership Institute, provides an explanation of … Continued

Technical assistance

Washington Update: FY 2012 funding extended into 2013, sequestration looms at the end of the year

In anticipation of the upcoming election season, Congress has passed a continuing resolution (CR) to extend federal spending until March 27, 2013.

Leaders in both chambers have pushed for the passage a CR in order to avoid a government shutdown so close to the November election. Funding for the current federal programs, which was scheduled to expire at the end of September, will remain unchanged until March at which point Congress will revisit budget negotiations. The resolution passed the House with overwhelming support on September 13. The Senate deliberated the measure, and eventually passed the resolution, 62-30. President Obama signed the CR late last week.

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Upcoming Webinars: October 2012

Wednesday, October 3, 2:00-3:15pm ET. Register for the NALGEP Brownfield Communities Network webinar today and gain valuable information about the recently announced grant guidelines and Request for Proposals for the EPA’s FY2013 Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Program.

Thursday, October 4, 3:00-4:00pm ET. EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities will conduct a webinar on free technical assistance available to communities through EPA’s Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program.

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Spotlight on Sustainability: A fresh approach to regional planning in southern Texas

A tugboat in Galveston, TX. Photo courtesy of flickr user BFS Man.

After receiving a HUD Regional Planning grant two years ago, the Houston Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) knew it had its work cut out. The grant region comprises 13 counties and 6 million people and a wide variety of city types, from rural to coastal, suburban and urban. Yet, in such a large and diverse region, the grant has done much to coordinate local planning efforts, says Meredith Dang, the Land Use Transportation Coordinator at H-GAC.

“As a region, we’ve done a lot of planning about individual concerns – like housing, transportation and infrastructure – but not on this holistic level, so we’re using our grant to look at how the issues interact and what sort of future the region wants to strive towards.”

The grant consortium is made up of 24 local organizations, with local governments, nonprofits, and university and research organizations involved, all groups that had not previously worked together. “The scale at which H-GAC has been able to cross the lines between government and nonprofit and education through the Consortium has created partnerships that have been really groundbreaking for our region,” Dang says.

Currently, the consortium is working together to come up with development strategies through a series of case studies. Two case studies in particular have emerged as key projects for the grant.

The first involves the city of Houston, where planners are looking to piece together a set of policy tools that encourages and incentivizes walkable, mixed-use development in a dozen business centers throughout the city as well as builds a framework that speaks to the kind of development people really want. The second is being carried out in the city of Galveston, where planners hope to develop a more complete method of cost-benefit analysis for sustainable development.

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