Complete Streets

The latest developments, events, and resources from the National Complete Streets Coalition:

Mayor Randy Rhoads and Lee’s Summit, MO: Regional leaders in smart growth

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Yesterday we announced the winners of our 2013 Leadership Awards. Mayor Randy Rhoads and Lee’s Summit, MO were one of the winners.

In one Missouri city, a mayor’s leadership has helped foster a culture that values sustainability and public participation, with significant smart growth accomplishments on the ground to show for it.

Lee’s Summit, Missouri is a city of just over 91,000 people located 20 miles from downtown Kansas City. During the last decade, Lee’s Summit experienced rapid growth, with the city’s population swelling by nearly 20 percent from 2005 to 2010. This created an emerging sense in the community that property developers – rather than citizens themselves – were charting the course for the future of Lee’s Summit. Development questions were thrust to the forefront of civic conversation as the community grappled with how to grow in a fiscally and environmentally sustainable manner.

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Gabe Klein Ties Complete Streets to Chicago's Economic Success at National Complete Streets Coalition Dinner

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Last week, fifty Partners and friends of the National Complete Streets Coalition gathered in Washington, DC to celebrate the Complete Streets movement, the Coalition’s work over the last year, and the generous annual support of our Partners.

The dinner’s featured guest, Commissioner Gabe Klein of the Chicago Department of Transportation, added to the room’s enthusiasm. Commissioner Klein tied Chicago’s Complete Streets efforts to city’s economic success, citing the growing attention Complete Streets receive from local leaders, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Chicagoans are seeing Complete Streets as the pathway to safer and more attractive places for people to live and attract top companies to the city. Commissioner Klein encouraged Complete Streets supporters to “be brash” when talking about your goals, clearly communicate the benefits of the approach, use all available funding sources, and demand more from the private sector.

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Chicago DOT commissioner headlines annual dinner — Complete Streets News, January 2013

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Policy Adoption

On January 14, the Alameda, California city council approved a Complete Streets policy by resolution. The policy reflects and is responsive to the city’s adopted General Plan, and includes direction on design guidance, working with stakeholders, and those authorized to approve exceptions. Read the Alameda Policy (PDF)

Suisun City, California, a community of 28,000 northeast of San Francisco, adopted a Complete Streets policy via resolution on December 18. In doing so, the city becomes eligible for the OneBayArea grant program, administered by the regional planning organization. The city will work on an update to its general plan that complies with the state’s Complete Streets law. Read the Suisun City Policy (PDF)

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You are invited: National Complete Streets Coalition's Third Annual Complete Streets Dinner

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Chicago Transportation Commisisoner Gabe Klein is this year’s featured guest.

You are invited to join the National Complete Streets Coalition for our Third Annual Complete Streets Dinner on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at Petits Plats in the Woodley Park neighborhood of Washington, DC. We’ll nosh on some of the District’s best French cuisine while networking with top minds in the field.

We are excited to have Commissioner Gabe Klein of the Chicago Department of Transportation as our featured guest this year. Klein views his position as an opportunity to continue public service in the fifth-largest urban economy in the world for a reform-minded and results-oriented leader; to make Chicago an example nationally for innovation in transportation and public space; and most importantly, to positively impact quality of life for the 2.6 million residents of Chicago. Klein was previously the Director of the Washington D.C. Department of Transportation and has held a number of leadership roles in transportation, technology, consumer services, and consulting.

Your dining companions will be some of the biggest names in Complete Streets, including several of our Complete Streets Steering Committee members, workshop instructors, and staff from our Complete Streets Partner consulting firms.

Seats are available at $150 or, for $200, you will be seated at the head table. Click here to reserve your tickets online. Current Complete Streets Partners receive a significant discount, and Partners at the Silver level and up receive complimentary tickets.

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Complete Streets winners, big and small

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Downtown Lancaster, California. Photo courtesy of the City of Lancaster.

A Complete Streets approach helped Lancaster, California revitalize its commercial core and win the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2012 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement for Overall Excellence.

After decades of decline, the city’s downtown, centered on Lancaster Boulevard, had become home to rising crime and unemployment rates. Automobiles regularly travelled at speeds of 40 to 50 miles per hour, and many of the intersections were controlled by traffic signals. Residents believed that the street was dangerous to cross and unpleasant to walk and shop along.

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Smart Growth America's Top 12 of 2012: Growing our coalition

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The Fairborn-CEMEX town plant redevelopment is one of hundreds of brownfield sites across the country. Photo by the Ohio Office of Redevelopment, via Flickr.

We’re doing a special blog series highlighting some of Smart Growth America’s favorite accomplishments from 2012. This is the fifth of twelve installments.

In 2012 Smart Growth America welcomed two major new programs to our advocacy work.

In February, we announced a new alliance with the National Brownfields Coalition. The National Brownfields Coalition, now a program of Smart Growth America, seeks to raise awareness about the economic benefits of transforming vacant brownfields into thriving neighborhoods. The Coalition brought with it expertise on federal policies that promote brownfield revitalization and sustainable development have helped us pursue public policies aimed at reinvigorating neighborhoods across the country.

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Lessons learned in Louisville: a common vision for Complete Streets

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A page from the Louisville Metro Streetscape Design Manual.

The following is a guest post by National Complete Streets Coalition partners Jonathan D. Henney, AICP, ASLA and Mike Sewell, P.E., of Gresham, Smith and Partners.

In 2006, just as the Complete Streets movement was gaining momentum, Gresham Smith and Partners (GS&P) put together a Complete Streets Design Manual for the City of Louisville Metro Planning and Design Services Department. The manual offered practical guidelines for using Complete Streets principles within urban, suburban, rural, residential and commercial streetscapes.

At first, the Complete Streets Manual existed mostly as theory, providing universal language for unbuilt projects. Today, it exists as a living language across the city, visible in a diverse range of Complete Streets projects, each testifying to commonly held guidelines. That jump from theory to practice was far from automatic, and other cities can learn from Louisville’s trajectory.

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Complete Streets pay off

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From New York City’s new report, Measuring the Street.

With its new report Measuring the Street: New Metrics for 21st Century Streets, New York City illustrates how its Complete Streets approach meets new goals – and builds local economies.

Communities implementing Complete Streets policies must adopt new performance measures for transportation projects and the networks of streets as a whole. Such measures should provide clarity on how those projects are meeting community needs and goals for the transportation network. Success can be measured in a number of ways, including improved safety for all users; physical changes to the built environment; number of people walking, riding bikes, taking transit, or riding in cars; and improving travel conditions and access for all.

New York City has focused on three overarching goals: designing for safety, designing for all users of the street, and designing for great public spaces. To meet these goals, the City’s Department of Transporation uses five key strategies: designing safer streets, building great public spaces, improving bus service, reducing delay and speeding, and efficiency in parking and loading. New approaches to street design reflect a “blending [of] new technologies with time-tested tools to create 21st Century Streets for all users,” and have resulted in safer streets, more efficient travel, and big boosts for local businesses.

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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.

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Georgia DOT adopts Complete Streets policy

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The corner of Bull and Perry Streets in Savannah, Georgia, features several Complete Streets features. Photo by Ken Lund, via Flickr.

September 20, 2012 marked a significant day for the Complete Streets movement: the day the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) adopted a Complete Streets policy.

That policy is 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. Gerald Ross, GDOT’s Chief Engineer, coordinated a policy task force and collaborated with several stakeholder groups. The comprehensive final 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.”

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