Communities from Texas to Illinois and Pennsylvania to California are including healthy, active transportation activities in their Community Transformation Grant (CTG) application — and technical assistance from the National Complete Streets Coalition and the Safe Routes to School National Partnership can help them achieve their goals. We’ve rounded up additional resources for communities in today’s blog post.
The following is a guest post from Mark Racicot, Land Use Division Manager for Boston’s Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)
Last year, a coalition led by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council of Boston was awarded a $4 million grant through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program (part of the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities). The MetroFuture Regional Plan, a groundbreaking initiative, is designed to strengthen the economy, create jobs, increase transportation options, and improve quality of life for area residents.
Residents of the Town of Littleton, Mass., have already seen the major impact this funding can have on a community. A few weeks ago, Littleton residents voted to amend the uses allowed on active farms in residential districts and protect the future of their farming economy. As one component of the larger MetroFuture plan, Littleton used Sustainable Communities funding to protect agricultural land and will use additional funds to look at wastewater treatment programs and development in the village.
Keith Bergman, Littleton Town Administrator, said, “Littleton is committed to economic development consistent with community character. We’re host to IBM’s largest software development lab in North America, but we’re also a rural community with a rich agricultural tradition, active farms, and even a town-owned orchard. We want to help our farmers keep their land in agricultural uses by expanding ancillary uses, so we’re big on green, as well as Big Blue.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced a new series of investments to assess and clean up abandoned industrial and commercial properties across the country. Brownfield grants can serve as vital tools for struggling communities looking to revitalize by providing some of the resources necessary to redevelop contaminated properties, create jobs, and spur local economic growth. This round of EPA grants will include more than $76 million in funds distributed to a number of innovative efforts in communities in 40 states.
The Tamiami Trail Initiative in western Florida is one of these efforts. The Tamiami Trail Scenic Highway (US Highway 41) runs through Sarasota and Manatee counties and is plagued by more than 500 petroleum brownfields and a number of other contaminated properties. The revitalization initiative, which started in 2009, has brought together a diverse group of stakeholders – including government, nonprofits, business groups, environmental consultants, property owners, and community members – to inventory and cleanup petroleum sites along the corridor and help spur economic development opportunities in the process.
EPA has awarded the Sarasota/Manatee County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) $1,000,000 to help continue the cleanup and revitalization work already underway along the route.
The Tamiami Trail Initiative is part of a growing trend among communities across the country using a corridor-wide approach to redevelop abandoned and vacant properties contaminated by petroleum and other hazardous chemicals. By planning to remediate a cluster of sites along a given transportation corridor – rather than one at a time – communities like those along the Tamiami Trail are able to create an economy of scale that helps leverage resources and overcome many of the barriers associated with smaller scale revitalization efforts.
For more information about the Tamiami Trail or brownfield grants and revitalization projects, visit EPA.gov.
Smart Growth America’s most recent report, Repair Priorities: Transportation spending strategies to save taxpayer dollars and repair roads, was released last week in partnership with Taxpayers for Common Sense. Since then, questions about why states invested over half of repair and expansion funds in new roads between 2004 and 2008 have led to concerns about spending priorities and the financial liabilities states are creating by continuing to expand roads at the cost of repair.
Report: Deferred road repair poses financial liability [American City & County, 6/6/11]
Some states’ habit of spending on new road construction rather than on regular repair have left many states’ roads in poor condition, and costs to repair those roads are rising faster than states can address them… “Repair Priorities: Transportation spending strategies to save taxpayer dollars and improve roads,” examines road conditions and spending priorities nationwide and recommends changes at both the state and federal levels that the organization says can reduce future liabilities, benefit taxpayers and create a better transportation system.
Could Focusing on Repairs Please Everyone? [National Journal, 6/6/11]
It’s more cost effective to focus on the repairs, even though they may not win mayoral or city council elections…Is there a grand bargain to be struck here? Could a focus–mandated from Congress–on repair and maintenance, instead of new construction, reduce the cost of a surface-transportation bill such that the legislating process could begin in earnest?
Geoff Anderson: Preservation and repair are critical components of reauthorization of our surface transportation bill, and should serve as the foundation of any new bill…As highways deteriorate they become exponentially more expensive to repair. The fiscally responsible approach is to preserve more of our highways in good condition, and to make the needed repairs early—when it costs taxpayers significantly less.
With Congress currently debating the federal budget for fiscal year 2012, over fifty national organizations have once again come together in support of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. By issuing this joint letter to leadership in both the House and Senate, Smart Growth America and our partner organizations have sent the message to Congress that we support the Partnership’s programs that help rebuild local economies, make the most of federal investments and build strong, healthy, and vibrant communities.
| The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriations United States Capitol, Room S-128 Washington, DC 20510 |
The Honorable Thad Cochran Ranking Member Senate Appropriations Committee United States Capitol, Room S-206 Washington, DC 20510 |
| The Honorable Patty Murray Subcommittee Chair Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, Urban Development, and Related Agencies 133 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 |
The Honorable Susan Collins Subcommittee Ranking Member Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, Urban Development, and Related Agencies 123 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 |
Dear Chairman Inouye, Ranking Member Cochran, Subcommittee Chair Murray, and Subcommittee Ranking Member Collins:
As Congress considers the fiscal year 2012 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies appropriations, we, the undersigned group of concerned organizations, urge you to support the programs that help communities across America rebuild their local economies and improve their fiscal stability.
We urge you to support the Partnership for Sustainable Communities and related grant programs in the fiscal year 2012 T-HUD Appropriations Bill. The Partnership for Sustainable Communities helps community leaders get the most out of each federal or state dollar invested in their neighborhoods. These programs make federal investments go even further by helping local leaders leverage private sector investment, save money in municipal budgets, and help families with housing and transportation costs – all while creating jobs.
Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants, details of which are now available online, will support the development of comprehensive neighborhood revitalization plans which will transform communities into viable, mixed-income neighborhoods by linking housing improvements with appropriate services, schools, public assets, transportation, and access to jobs. The program is focused on directing resources to address three core goals – housing, people and neighborhoods. To achieve these core goals, communities must develop and implement a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization strategy, or Transformation Plan. The Transformation Plan will become the guiding document for the revitalization of the public and/or assisted housing units while simultaneously directing the transformation of the surrounding neighborhood and positive outcomes for families.
The Center for Community Progress is pleased to release a new book, Land Banks and Land Banking, by CCP co-founder and General Counsel Frank Alexander. The new book offers public officials and community leaders a step-by-step guide for taking control of problem properties and then leveraging them to spur smart development and meet community needs.
With inventories of vacant and abandoned properties at unprecedented levels, Alexander argues that empty lots and unoccupied buildings are not nuisances, as they often seem to be, but are instead potential resources for fueling economic recovery, driving community development and strengthening real estate markets. As the author explains, land banks have emerged as a key tool for urban planners, especially in response to the mortgage crisis. Land banking gives communities control of the unused land resources within their borders and helps leaders create catalytic opportunities for new development when private sector support is absent.
Today there are 79 land banking initiatives across the country, with a number of additional land banking bills up for consideration in state legislatures. Vacant properties acquired, developed, restored and/or resold by land banking authorities have already catalyzed millions of dollars in new private investments.
Download a free copy of Land Banks and Land Banking, or get a first edition copy at the 2011 Land Bank Conference, going on this week in Detroit, MI, June 5-7, 2011. Learn more at www.communityprogress.net.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently accepting applications for Community Transformation Grants. We encourage you to include technical assistance from the Safe Routes to School National Partnership and the National Complete Streets Coalition in your application.
The Office of Sustainable Communities in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Policy is seeking letters of interest from state capital cities that want to develop in ways that reflect the principles of smart growth, green building, and the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. Greening America’s Capitals provides state capitals with an opportunity to implement this partnership effort on the ground. EPA will provide design assistance to successful applicants; letters of interest are due on June 20, 2011.
For more information, download the full submission guidelines (PDF) or contact Chris Forinash, Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute at cforinash [at] nemw [dot] org.
Last week the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Philadelphia Water Department signed an agreement to officially begin using green stormwater infrastructure to reduce Combined Sewer Overflows to its waterways. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, speaking at a conference last week, presented the new plan:
The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) submitted plans for the project to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) in September, 2009, after vetting the plan with Philadelphia residents. Green City, Clean Waters lays the groundwork for the PWD to build primarily green infrastructure – such as stormwater tree trenches, vegetated bumpouts, porous asphalt, rain gardens, sidewalk planters – over the next 25 years. These projects will transform non-porous surfaces that repel rain into surfaces that allow water to soak through, reducing the amount of environmentally damaging stormwater runoff.