Protected: Coalition Call Notes – 2/23/12
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Deerfield Beach participates in “complete streets” policy workshop with help from Smart Growth America
On February 15, 2012, 40 community stakeholders from Deerfield Beach, Florida met with representatives from the National Complete Streets Coalition and Smart Growth America as part of a free program helping their city develop “complete streets” policies. In this interactive, day-long workshop, city staff and residents learned how everyday transportation decisions can promote streets that are designed to allow safe access for all users. Complete Streets workshops aim to draw on the experience of community stakeholders and offer new opportunities for them to work together.
The City of Deerfield Beach learned of the economic and fiscal benefits of smart growth in June of 2011 through a workshop with the Environmental Protection Agency. A product of that workshop was a commitment to support a thriving local economy by creating a more walkable community following the guidelines of Complete Streets. The City was able to pursue this goal after being granted a free technical assistance workshop from Smart Growth America. Having established a foundation of smart growth basics, the city was equipped for a policy development workshop, where attendees learned the Complete Streets concept and began developing a customized draft policy.
Western North Carolina looks to harness regional potential
It’s thousands of miles from more recognized hubs of smart growth activity like Seattle and San Francisco, but Western North Carolina has emerged as one of the nation’s leading examples of what is possible when regional planning and economic development strategies find common ground.
Thanks to a $1.6 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, government officials, local citizens and business leaders in the region are taking control of their communities’ future. If recent initiatives meet with the success they promise, an area that was once an afterthought even for many North Carolinians might become a staging ground for new businesses at the forefront of the state’s economy.
“I want my kids and grandkids to have a future here,” said Mark Burrows, Planning and Economic Development Director for Transylvania County. “Even before we knew what sustainability was, this is what we have always wanted…a place where there are jobs and people can walk to work.”
As the House transportation bill languishes, there's still time to 'fix it first'
Crossposted from the Huffington Post.
Let’s look on the bright side of life.
By all accounts, you would be hard-pressed today to find anyone who views congressional inaction positively. But with the House of Representatives’ transportation package languishing amid opposition from both Democrats and Republicans, members of Congress at least have added time to address the bill’s severe shortcomings.
Our country’s roads and bridges are in desperate need of repair, so crafting economically beneficial legislation with bipartisan support should be lawmakers’ top priority. Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica has already shown us what’s possible when business development and other interests meet, including language in the House bill that would spur development around transit stations and jumpstart real estate investment. With that kind of cooperative leadership as a model, the House would be wise to make the following revisions, showing voters that it’s the congressional branch with the capacity to get things done in an election year.
Fighting blight in Pennsylvania: State House of Representatives passes land bank bill
In Pennsylvania today, more than 300,000 properties stand vacant. These properties cost municipalities millions of dollars each year in maintenance costs and even more in lost revenue. In Philadelphia alone – which has some 40,000 vacant properties – the City pays $20 million each year just to maintain those properties.
Last week, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives took a major step toward turning the state’s vacant properties back into homes and businesses. On Wednesday the House passed HB 1682, a bill that would allow counties and municipalities in Pennsylvania to create land banks. Land banks are entities that can hold and manage vacant, abandoned and foreclosed properties, making it faster, easier and cheaper for prospective new owners to purchase these properties and get them back into productive re-use.
Partnership for Sustainable Communities 2012 Briefing materials now available
Thank you to everyone who attended SGA’s Sustainable Communities Network Partnership for Sustainable Communities Briefing on February 16th, 2012.
Smart Growth America hosted the senior leadership
from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency on this briefing.
Click below to listen to Beth Osborne (DOT), Mariia Zimmerman (HUD), and Tim Torma (EPA) give updates on this year’s Partnership for Sustainable Communities grants and programs, talk about where the Partnership stands in the President’s fiscal year 2013 budget, and outline the work that each Partnership agency plans to do in the upcoming year.
Partnership in the News: Flint Gets First New Master Plan in Over 50 Years
The last master plan for Flint, Michigan was crafted when General Motors was prominent, the city was thriving, and the demands of a growing workforce and population needed to be met. Now, reports The Flint Journal – –
Fast-forward 50 years and Flint is facing the opposite struggle — jobs are gone, homes are empty, people are leaving — and community leaders are poised to craft a new master plan that will attempt to point the city in a new direction.
It will be the first time the city will have a comprehensive look at its former industrial and now-vacant properties, officials said.
Partnership in the News: DOT Secretary Joins Cincinnati Mayor for Streetcar Kick Off
Fox19 reports that Cincinnati Mayor Mallory joined by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Transit Administration Peter Rogoff to kick off construction of a new streetcar line partially funded by a DOT TIGER grant.
The new 3.6-mile streetcar line will connect Downtown and Over-the-Rhine.
The D.O.T. says it will spur Cincinnati’s efforts to revitalize its downtown core by improving access to major employers, the developing riverfront and many area attractions.
Partnership in the News: Technical Assistance for Simsbury, Connecticut
Simsbury, Connecticut is one of six New England towns soon to benefit from a technical assistance grant through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program, reports the Simsbury Patch.
“The EPA is going to send in a private firm to assess things like walkability, such as sidewalks, street crossings and parking,” said Hiram Peck, Simsbury’s Town Planner.
The technical experts will work with the communities on actions they can take to improve the economy, the environment, and quality of life.
Momentum Continues in the States
Though all eyes have been on federal transportation policy the last few weeks, states have continued to push forward with their Complete Streets efforts. Bills have been introduced in West Virginia and Rhode Island, and several states with Complete Streets policies in place move ahead with implementation.