Blog

"Navigating Change: Running Effective Community and Coalition Meetings" webinar materials now available

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Thank you to everyone who attended SGA’s Sustainable Communities Network webinar Navigating Change: Running Effective Community and Coalition Meetings on November 22nd.

During this training, Odin Zackman, facilitator and community sustainability consultant, walked us through the basics of designing an effective community or coalition meeting. Navigating Change provided facilitation tips and techniques, and offered interventions that can help keep public meetings on track. The presentation (without audio) can be viewed here. Click below for the full presentation, responses to unanswered questions asked during the webinar, and additional resources.

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Smart Growth America Visits Middle Tennessee to Learn about Quality Growth Best Practices

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Smart Growth America Visits Middle Tennessee from CRT on Vimeo.

Crossposted from Cumberland Region Tomorrow.

Cumberland Region Tomorrow (CRT) recently hosted a network of quality growth experts from across the country to learn about successful quality growth models and best practices in Middle Tennessee. Participants from San Francisco to Boston learned about CRT’s successful model of collaborative leadership that is creating positive quality growth outcomes in the region. On the ground tours in Nashville, Franklin, and Leiper’s Fork, combined with presentations by local and state leaders, demonstrated how successful community revitalization and conservation efforts are supporting Middle Tennessee’s place-based economies through tourism and agriculture, and music.

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A Citizen's Guide for land use and transportation planning from Idaho Smart Growth

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Over the past two years, Smart Growth America’s coalition partner Idaho Smart Growth has helped more than 20 communities around Idaho advocate for and implement healthy living policies. To help community members better engage in local planning decisions, Idaho Smart Growth recently published a new free and easy tool to help you. Idaho Smart Growth’s Citizen’s Guide can help advocates create vibrant, healthier communities that include parks, stores, restaurants, schools, and businesses all within a walkable neighborhood.

With funding and support from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Idaho Smart Growth developed this guide as a resource for citizens who are interested in helping shape the future of their community and for people who are concerned about a specific land use or transportation proposal. The goal of the guide is to help citizen advocates get started by sharing background information on land use and transportation planning in Idaho, suggesting some steps you can take to get more involved, and defining the basics of smart growth.

The guide contains information specific to Idaho, as well as information that’s helpful to anyone interested in community planning, including tips for effective input on local comprehensive plans, steps for addressing development issues, and an overview of the benefits smart growth strategies can bring to a municipality. The guide also includes resource links and information about partner organizations.

Visit Idaho Smart Growth’s website to download the Citizen’s Guide >>

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Spotlight on Sustainability: Mitchell to Rapid City, South Dakota

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The following is based on an interview with Bruce Lindholm, Program Manager, South Dakota Department of Transportation.

For farming communities in South Dakota, high transportation costs for crops has a major impact on the economy. Increased mileage and fuel prices mean that less money goes back into farmers’ pockets and into the local community. All of that is about to change with the help of a TIGER II grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, through the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities. The Mitchell-Rapid City Rail Line, in the midst of rehabilitation, will soon be able to transport agricultural commodities shorter distances and at lower costs than the trucks currently in use. Once completed, the Line will carry grain and fertilizer over 60 miles from Mitchell, SD to Chamberlain, SD.

The improvements will be a boon to the economy. “Significant savings in transportation costs will allow the local elevator to pay farmers 15-25 cents more per bushel for their product. That money goes back into the local economy,” says Bruce Lindholm, Program Manager at the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT). He and others at SDDOT are overseeing the reconstruction of the rail line through a predominantly agricultural and rural region of the state.

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“The Death of the Fringe Suburb” and the next wave of real estate development

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This past weekend, Christopher Leinberger wrote a provocative op-ed in the New York Times about why exurban America – which has been hard hit by foreclosures in recent years – won’t rebound, even if the economy does.

Leinberger, who is President of Smart Growth America’s project LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors, went on to explain why the future is so dim for these places, and what Americans are looking for instead.

High home values and low vacancy rates in the country’s city centers and inner suburbs mean that Americans want to live in mixed-income, pedestrian-friendly areas that “support the knowledge economy, promote environmental sustainability and create jobs.” Outer fringe areas are failing to offer these features – and they will fail in the marketplace as a result.

LOCUS

Smart Growth America welcomes Bill Fulton, Mayor of Ventura, CA and urban planning expert, to staff

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Smart Growth America is proud to welcome Bill Fulton, Mayor of Ventura, CA and an expert in the field of urban planning, to its staff.

A longtime writer, researcher, and urban planning consultant, Mr. Fulton is one of the country’s leading experts on the smart growth policies and the relationship between smart growth and economic development. At Smart Growth America, Fulton will focus on Smart Growth America’s programs to assist state, regional, and local government agencies around the nation with smart growth policies and tools.

Geoff Anderson, President and CEO of Smart Growth America said:

Bill’s practical experience implementing smart growth strategies will be a tremendous asset to Smart Growth America. Our organization is committed to helping local elected officials use smart growth strategies to create stable, sustainable economies and communities and Bill’s expertise will help us do just that. We are proud to welcome him to our team.

Fulton currently serves as a Principal and Shareholder of The Planning Center | DC&E, a California-based planning consulting firm. He will continue these roles in a limited capacity, focusing on Transfer of Development Rights programs nationwide and high-profile smart growth projects in California. In Ventura, he will step down as Mayor and member of the City Council in December. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the School of Planning, Policy, & Development at the University of Southern California, where he teaches land use policy and smart growth.

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