Downtown intersection, originally uploaded by Complete Streets. Building local capacity to plan for growth and development in ways that cut traffic congestion, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect rural areas and green space, revitalize urban centers, and create more affordable homes just makes sense. Today, the Senate moved forward a bill that would provide federal resources … Continued
The economic benefits of smart growth are broad and deep. The experience of communities across the country, urban to rural, shows that smart growth directly reduces public costs, improves rates of return for public and private investors, and avoids the expensive environmental, health and social equity costs of sprawl.
This overwhelming evidence is only helpful if we can put it to work when we need it. The goal of this Sourcebook is to help you do that.
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Materials and information from the Wingspread Training held in Racine, WI from July 15th-17, 2010 are available below.
In a time when state public infrastructure funds are already stretched thin, can we afford to exacerbate the problem by making infrastructure decisions that support sprawl, requiring expensive extension of roads and utilities? According to the New York state legislature the answer is no. Last month the state passed the Smart Growth Public Infrastructure Policy Act.
The North Carolina General Assembly recently passed legislation establishing a Sustainable Communities Task Force within the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. North Carolina is now the latest state to recognize the connections between cross-agency governance at the state level, coordination with stakeholders at the local level, and sustainable communities on the ground.
In his New York Times blog yesterday, Edward Glaeser asks for nuance and careful thinking on the question of whether countries should spend their way out of the recession: there’s no one answer, and we need to look carefully at the situations different countries are in. Similarly with different kinds of public spending. Some work, some don’t. It’s a good argument, but one he then fails to apply to infrastructure.
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan took to the White House Blog to talk about the importance of and goals of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. He wrote…
In an effort to enhance livability and sustainability initiatives, DOT and HUD have created a new process that removes conflict between HUD and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) contracting requirements. The initiative was published in today’s Federal Register. From the Federal Register notice… Under this initiative, the FHWA will utilize Special Experimental Project No. 14 (SEP-14) to permit, on … Continued
Webinar: National Infrastructure Investments (TIGER II Discretionary Grants) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Challenge Planning Grants Date/Time: Thursday, July 1 at 2:00pm EDT The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and HUD have issued a joint solicitation for the two planning grant programs in order to better align transportation, housing, economic development, … Continued