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Pennsylvania's land bank bill to come before the State Senate

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A land bank can make reusing vacant buand put them back into usefficient. Image from Take Back Vacant Land.

Members of the Pennsylvania State Senate will vote this week on proposed legislation that would make it easier to buy and redevelop blighted properties in the state.

HB 1682 would enable local leaders in Pennsylvania to establish land banks, entities that can hold and manage vacant properties to help get properties into the hands of responsible new owners more quickly. The bill passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in February and now awaits consideration by the Pennsylvania State Senate.

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Partnership in the News: Helena, MT among 2012 recipients of EPA grant

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Helena, MT has been selected to receive an EPA Greening America’s Capitals grant in an effort to address the future of Last Chance Gulch, Helena’s mainstreet.

“It’s just been difficult to figure out how to make the most important historic mile in the state of Montana (a) sustainable, (b) multi-use and multi-purpose, (c) accessible to our business community and merchants here in town, and (d) how to revitalize it so that it might include any number of other uses including residences along the gulch, or uses for non-motorized people,” said Helena Mayor Jim Smith.

The city hopes to solve these issues with the grant.

Frankfort, Ky.; Des Moines, Iowa; Baton Rouge, La.; and Indianapolis, In. also received grants for similar efforts.

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Governor Glendening to be keynote speaker at APA Idaho Annual Conference

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On October 10-12, the Idaho chapter of the American Planning Association will host its 2012 Annual Conference in Boise, ID. Parris Glendening, President of Smart Growth America’s Leadership Institute and of the Governors’ Institute on Community Design will provide the keynote address. As President of the Governors’ Institute, Glendening works with state leaders across the … Continued

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Partnership in the News: Downtown Memphis to receive $5.6M more for development

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The Main Street to Main Street Multimodal Connector project, a joint regional project between Arkansas and Tennessee, has recently shifted its funding, with $5.6M more going towards Memphis’ downtown development. The money is being re-allocated from Arkansas’ portion of the project.

The money is being provided by the Department of Transportation through a fourth-round of TIGER grants.

Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) lobbied for the funding, saying “The $5.6 million in funds being redirected to Downtown Memphis will play an important role in revitalizing downtown,” after the change had been approved.

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Smart growth stories: Local planning for global competitiveness in Carmel, IN

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A snapshot of Carmel’s City Center. Photo courtesy of the Mayor’s office.

Carmel, IN wasn’t always the best place to live. As a suburb contiguous to Indianapolis, it faced the same challenges to development that many suburbs near large cities confront.

However, under the leadership of Mayor Jim Brainard, Carmel has managed to become the kind of place that appeals to families and businesses alike. By anchoring its redevelopment efforts around an Arts & Business District and a City Center, Carmel has found a way to boost economic development while bettering quality of life.

“We had to figure out how we were going to compete,” Brainard says. “We realized that if we wanted to succeed, we had to make Carmel a place that the best and brightest – from around the country and around the world – would want to live in. And we had to do it through the built environment.”

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Partnership in the News: Secretary LaHood visits TIGER-funded Spokane site

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On the afternoon of August 23, Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA., visited Spokane County, WA to tour the construction being done on the U.S.-395 North Spokane Corridor.

This project is ongoing, funded by a DOT TIGER grant and about halfway completed, and has also recently received another $10m TIGER grant to continue construction, totaling $45m in grants thus far.

LaHood also took the opportunity to announce a new national Freight Policy Board, with the hope of double American exports within three years.

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Partnership in the News: The Partnership celebrates its third anniversary

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On August 29, the Partnership for Sustainable Communities celebrated its third anniversary in Atlanta, GA, with officials from the DOT, EPA, and HUD in attendance.

Speaking about the great help that the Partnership has been to the city of Atlanta, Mayor Kasim Reed said,

“This partnership has allowed us to do the kind of essential projects that invest directly in our neighborhoods, reduce transportation costs for our families, [and] improve affordability for housing.”

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Smart growth stories: Growth that benefits all residents on Greenville, SC’s West Side

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A view of the Reedy River from downtown Greenville. Photo courtesy of Walter Ezell.

Greenville, South Carolina’s West Side is growing rapidly, and planners in the city are using a comprehensive plan to make sure that growth creates better neighborhoods for all the area’s residents.

Currently, the West Side is a cluster of low- to moderate-income neighborhoods adjacent to Greenville’s downtown. Planners from the City of Greenville are considering a number of different strategies to better link the West Side with the rest of the city, while still ensuring that current residents can reap the benefits of the growth that will ensue.

“The West Side is adjacent to downtown so it has a lot of potential,” says Greenville planner Wayne Leftwich. “Growth is heading this way, with a lot of interest from potential developers in this area, and we want to make sure that when these things happen, they’re not disconnected from current residents.”

City planners are bringing concerted planning to the West Side’s robust growth, and are working to ensure that new development meets the needs of as many residents as possible. To achieve that goal, planners are developing a comprehensive plan for the West Side and its three main commercial corridors.

“We are thinking about the potential for revitalization and economic development, because the West Side neighborhoods are not as viable as they could be,” Leftwich says. “Our hope for the plan is to look at how we can make connections between the neighborhoods in this area, but also with the rest of the city.”

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Governing Magazine: Stretching Limited State Budgets With The Innovative DOT

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Here’s what Governing magazine has to say about “The Innovative DOT: A Handbook of Policy and Practice,” released today by Smart Growth America and the Smart State Transportation Initiative:

A group of state Department of Transportation directors has teamed up with the smart growth movement to release a new best-practices report that offers recommendations and case studies on how to stretch limited transportation dollars.

The partnership might seem to be something of an unusual relationship. Historically, the smart growth movement has made close inroads with city transportation planners and the transit community, who line up closely with the movement’s goals of encouraging transit-oriented development, finding alternatives to driving and designing walkable communities while combating sprawl.

State departments of transportation, meanwhile, spend the bulk of their time on highways.

But Smart Growth America CEO Geoff Anderson says his organization’s mission is broader than just encouraging transit and is more about moving people most efficiently. At a time when state transportation departments are strapped for cash, that’s a message that could resonate. The report’s goal is to highlight ways that transportation departments can get the most bang for their buck, and it highlights innovative techniques across the country.

“If you start to put them all together, it’s a pretty interesting package of stuff that includes smarter, cheaper ways to get at the same, better outcomes,” says Anderson.

The Innovative DOT includes 31 recommendations transportation officials can use as they position their agencies for success in the new economy. The handbook documents many of the innovative approaches state leaders are using to make systems more efficient, government more effective and constituents better satisfied.

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