DATEBOOK

5/14/2008
Smart Growth Speaker Series: Philadelphia's Central Delaware Riverfront Vision Plan

Other Smart Growth Events: 5/12/2008:
National Bike to Work Week

5/13/2008:
National Wetlands Awards

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Philadelphia's Central Delaware Riverfront Vision Plan

Event Theme/Description: Harris M. Steinberg, FAIA, executive director of Penn Praxis (the University of Pennsylvania's School of Design clinical outreach practice), will discuss his involvement in redeveloping a seven-mile stretch of the Philadelphia waterfront.

A new civic vision has been created to return public access to the central Delaware riverfront, much of which is currently blighted, inaccessible, and/or dominated by large-scale residential and commercial projects and proposals, including two state-mandated 5000-slot machine casinos. The key to the redevelopment strategy: extending the existing grid of the city's streets all the way to the water.

Mr. Steinberg will discuss the current vision for redevelopment and the year-long civic engagement process to achieve the vision, which involved 4,000 citizens, public officials, and private developers and led Philadelphia to re-think development practices and how to better focus future growth on people. See article related to visioning process.

Location: National Building Museum, 401 F Street N.W, Washington D.C. (Judiciary Square Metro)

Contact: To get regular announcements about the Smart Growth Speaker Series, please e-mail your name, organization, address, phone, fax, and e-mail address to the U.S. EPA's Development, Community, and Environment Division (DCED) c/o Danielle Arigoni, e-mail: arigoni.danielle@epa.gov; tel: 202.566.2859; fax: 202.566.2868.

Visit the National Building Museum website at http://www.nbm.org/home.html

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Celebrating 10 Years

Event Theme/Description: Harriet Tregoning, director of the Washington, D.C. Office of Planning, celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Smart Growth Speaker Series with a discussion about the evolution of the smart growth movement and the current and future implementation of smart growth principles locally and nationally.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Revitalizing Urban Neighborhoods

Event Theme/Description: Jair Lynch, President and CEO of the Jair Lynch Companies in Washington, DC, will discuss his firm's experience implementing smart growth in DC's revitalizing neighborhoods. JLC has been recognized for its comprehensive and inclusive process with different affinity groups in creating the Solea project in Columbia Heights, a mixed-income, mixed-use, live/work property that will be the first of its kind in DC.

The discussion will focus on the ability of smart growth development approaches to respond to partner needs for growth and investment, as well as on lessons learned on how to engage local area residents to shape specific infill development projects.

This is the third in a four-part series focusing on Smart Growth in DC. This mini-series will culminate in April with an event marking our 100th speaker, and the 10-year anniversary of the Speaker Series program at the National Building Museum.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Thursday, February 07, 2008

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Revitalizing Washington, DC Through Mixed-Use Infill

Event Theme/Description: Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of Coalition for Smarter Growth, and Eric Price, VP of Abdo Development and former Deputy Mayor of Washington, DC (invited), will discuss the revitalization of DC's Gallery Place/Penn Quarter neighborhood, and its relationship to its principal anchor, the Verizon Center. City leadership helped establish the Verizon Center downtown, which in turn spawned the transformation of this historic yet largely neglected neighborhood into a vibrant example of the "live, work, and play" approach to mixed-use, infill redevelopment.

This is the second in a series of discussions focusing on Smart Growth in DC, and will be followed by an optional walking tour of the Gallery Place neighborhood. Registration for the walking tour is available to participants in the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference, which will be held concurrently in Washington, DC, February 7-9, 2008.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Business Improvement Districts in Washington, DC

Event Theme/Description: Rick Reinhard, Deputy Executive Director of the Downtown DC Business Improvement District will discuss the rapid growth of BIDs in the DC metro area (numbering eight in the District alone, and growing) and their role in creating vital, successful downtown and neighborhood centers. The discussion will focus on the role of BIDs in linking the private and public sectors and to create opportunities for vibrant communities where people can live, work, and play. Highlights from Downtown DC BID's work over the past decade in contributing to the renaissance of many downtown neighborhoods will be shared.

This is the first in a sequence of four Speaker Series events focusing on Smart Growth in Washington, D.C. This mini-series will culminate in April with an event marking our 100th speaker, and the 10 year anniversary of the program.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement

Event Theme/Description: Please join the Environmental Protection Agency at the presentation of EPA's 2007 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. This year, awards will be given in five categories: Overall Excellence, Built Projects, Policies and Regulations, Equitable Development, and Waterfront and Coastal Communities.

The National Award for Smart Growth Achievement recognizes communities that use the principles of smart growth to create better places. This competition is open annually to local or state governments and other public sector entities.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Right Sizing America's Shrinking Cities

Event Theme/Description: "Right Sizing America's Shrinking Cities through Land Banking and Green Infrastructure" is the theme for the October 2007 Smart Growth Speaker Series.

Joe Schilling of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute and Dan Kildee, Treasurer of Genesee County, Michigan will discuss innovative strategies employed by communities that are seeking to address their shrinking populations and declining investments in center cities. Strategies and tools to be discussed include green infrastructure and urban greening, land banking, land trusts, and collaborative community planning processes.

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Thursday, September 27, 2007

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Cultivating Neighborhood Development through Medical Leadership

Event Theme/Description: Matthew Enstice, Executive Director of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, will describe how this nonprofit achieves its mission "to cultivate a world-class urban medical center by facilitating collaboration among the region's major health care and research-related institutions located on the campus" through implementing a strategic plan that integrates campus locations with surrounding neighborhoods. Its efforts relate to planning, development, and enhancement within the medical campus; addressing issues of common concern to its member institutions; cultivating a sense of place within its 100-acre footprint; and promoting an awareness of community among its members and with the surrounding neighborhoods.

It is through this work that the city of Buffalo, New York has been able to leverage its investment in an institutional resource resulting in a positive economic benefit for the entire community.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Monday, July 30, 2007

Smart Growth Speaker Series: How to Win with Smart Growth

Event Theme/Description: Greater Ohio has been advancing smart growth issues for only three years yet has produced a candidate briefing book that has redefined how political leaders address planning issues. State Director Gene Krebs will use humor, polling data, statistics, and real examples of how to communicate, in order to demonstrate how campaign managers, speechwriters, and candidates, in that order, can frame smart growth issues in a compelling way.

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Thursday, June 28, 2007

S.G. Speaker Series: Mapping the Impacts of Economic Development Incentives

Event Theme/Description: Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, will discuss results from three unique studies mapping the geographic distribution of 5,000 economic development incentive deals in Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois. The data helps to analyze the land use and social equity implications. Finding that they clearly contribute to sprawl, the studies conclude with promising policy innovations from a few states that begin to integrate economic development with land use planning.

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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

S.G. Speaker Series: Bright Lights, Small Cities -- Large-Scale Revitalization in Small Communities

Event Theme/Description: Bill Niquette, project developer for the City of Winooski, Vermont's $250 million downtown revitalization effort, will discuss how a mill town of 6,800 forged a public-private partnership to create 1.5 million square feet of pedestrian-scaled, mixed-use development in the heart of its downtown, and how the key elements of their success can be widely applied to other smart growth revitalization efforts in communities of all sizes.

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Thursday, April 26, 2007

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Smart Growth Strategies for Colleges and Universities

Event Theme/Description: Approximately $15 billion of construction occurs on and near campuses across the country each year. A profound opportunity exists for schools to grow and expand in a smart and sustainable manner by encouraging compact, walkable, mixed-use development patterns while re-using existing property. David Bagnoli, an Associate with Cunningham + Quill Architects will discuss the benefits for universities to incorporate smart growth strategies into their master planning and construction. This will result in places that serve a variety of users and help to create better connections between campus and the community.

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Thursday, March 29, 2007

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Conservation Lessons from the Cascade Agenda

Event Theme/Description: Gene Duvernoy, President of the Cascade Land Conservancy, will speak about the progress CLC is making in three fronts: 1. Having a good understanding of the market forces at play when trying to acquire conservation easements; 2. Taking a truly regional approach to land conservation and working to accommodate more growth in existing places, and 3. Working with rural communities to ensure that land that is not slated for conservation easements gets a development pattern that can accommodate greater densities.

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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

S.G. Speaker Series: Clarksburg Town Center Lessons: Keeping Implementation and Planning Aligned

Event Theme/Description: Three community advocates will share their perspective of a highly publicized planned development where the built project was not consistent with the smart growth plans approved by County officials. The story that unfolded in Clarksburg, Maryland serves a model example that residents, planners and developers all need to work in concert throughout the entire development and building process to ensure integrity of design and expectations.

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Monday, January 29, 2007

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Connections Between Public Health and Community Design

Event Theme/Description: Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association, is a well-known leader, practitioner and administrator in the world of public health. He will talk about the connections between land use and public health. He will discuss the important role that community design plays in protecting and improving health. In addition, he will discuss ways public health practitioners can bring value to discussions in partnership with those engaged on designing and building more livable communities.

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Wednesday, November 15, 2006

National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement

Event Theme/Description: The National Award for Smart Growth Achievement recognizes communities that use the principles of smart growth to create better places. This competition is open annually to local or state governments and other public sector entities. Non-profit or private organizations or individuals are not eligible for the award. However, if a superior project is developed through a public-private or a public-non-profit partnership, EPA will make the award to the public sector entity while noting the other participants in the activity.

Through the National Award for Smart Growth Achievement, EPA seeks to recognize and support public entities (from cities to state governments and the many types of public entities in-between) that promote and achieve smart growth, while at the same time bringing about direct and indirect environmental benefits.

Smart growth development practices support national environmental goals by preserving open spaces and parkland and protecting critical habitat; improving transportation choices, including walking, bicycling, and transit, which reduces emissions from automobiles; promoting brownfield redevelopment; and reducing impervious surfaces, which improves water quality.

Free, advance registration requested. Read more at the resource link below.

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Thursday, October 19, 2006

S.G. Speaker Series: The Main Street Program as a Smart Growth Tool

Event Theme/Description: The title of this lecture is "The Main Street Program as a Smart Growth Tool." The National Trust's Main Street Program turned 25 last year with an impressive record of success in working with small towns and urban neighborhoods to revive commercial districts. Main street revival can be an important component of smart growth.

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Monday, September 18, 2006

S.G. Speaker Series: Bringing Buildings Back -- From Abandoned Properties to Community Assets

Event Theme/Description: "Bringing Buildings Back: From Abandoned Properties to Community Assets," is the title of both this lecture and speaker Alan Mallach's book, which has just been published by the National Housing Institute. Alan will show how communities have met the challenge posed by abandoned properties in declining urban cores. The book will be available for sale and signing after the talk.

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Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Smart Growth Speaker Series: The Need for Smart Growth in South Florida

Event Theme/Description: Michael Grunwald, reporter for The Washington Post and author of The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise, will outline the need for smart growth in south Florida.

The Miami Herald writes of The Swamp: "A tale of man's naive conquest of nature and the unprecedented effort to reverse some of the damage, The Swamp arrives at a fascinating point in Florida's history. . . . How did we get to this point? Michael Grunwald, an award-winning national reporter for The Washington Post, provides a lot of the context in this ambitious, deeply researched blend of environmental, social and political history of the Manifest Destiny forces that built Florida."

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Thursday, June 01, 2006

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Making Smart Growth Work on the Ground

Event Theme/Description: William Fulton -- president of Solimar Research Group and senior scholar at the University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning, and Development, and a Ventura, California, City Council member -- will analyze the political and technical difficulties many localities face when trying to implement smart growth. In particular, he will focus on how to develop effective local leadership on growth issues that leads to practical improvements rather than political stalemate.

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Monday, May 15, 2006

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Smart Growth -- The Massachusetts Experience

Event Theme/Description: Anthony Flint, Director of Smart Growth Education in Massachusetts' Office of Commonwealth Development, spent 16 years as a reporter for the Boston Globe focusing on growth issues, a year as a visiting scholar at the Harvard School of Design, and is now head of smart growth education in the Massachusetts commonwealth government. Mr. Flint recently published a book, This Land: the Battle Over Sprawl and the Future of America, with the Johns Hopkins University Press. He will discuss the impacts of the Massachusetts smart growth initiative, which has been a priority for Governor Romney.

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Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Green Infrastructure -- Linking Landscapes and Communities

Event Theme/Description: Green Infrastructure is a strategic approach to integrating natural areas into plans for growth that focus on maintaining ecosystem functions. This minimizes the need for "grey infrastructure" such as storm drains, as well as providing open space amenities.

Ed McMahon, Senior Resident Fellow, Urban Land Institute and author of Green Infrastructure: Linking Landscapes and Communities, is the speaker for this event.

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Thursday, March 02, 2006

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Is Smart Growth “Zoned Out”?

Event Theme/Description: Zoned Out: Regulation, Markets, and Choices in Transportation and Metropolitan Land-Use (Resources for the Future, 2005), Jonathan Levine's new book, addresses how land use regulations often inhibit smart growth development. Professor Levine will address the myth that conventional development is the result of the free market, and show how some communities have changed their land use regulations to give smart growth a level playing field in local development decisions.

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Thursday, February 02, 2006

S.G. Speaker Series: The State of Growth in the Commonwealth of Virginia

Event Theme/Description: For the past several years Virginia has experienced very rapid growth, particularly in northern Virginia. The consequences of the this growth for traffic, school expenditures, and quality of life have brought growth issues to the forefront of Virginia's politics, where they were a key factor in last year's governor's race. Lately, the highly polarized discussion about growth has become more nuanced.

Patrick McSweeney, former chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, will share his thoughts on the policy changes Virginia needs to make to better accommodate its rapid and continuing growth.

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Thursday, January 12, 2006

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Five Steps Toward Affordable Housing

Event Theme/Description: In the Washington, DC region and across the country, housing is becoming less affordable. More families are spending a greater proportion of their income on housing than ever before as home prices and rents have risen during recent years. Smart growth principles advocate a greater mix of housing types and prices, and promote compact development that reduces everyone's cost of infrastructure. More and more localities are experimenting with specific strategies that focus on affordable housing while also supporting multiple smart growth goals.

Basing his remarks on many years of experience as an architect, a professor of architecture, and a member of state and local government housing commissions, Ralph Bennett will present 5 measures that can increase affordable housing.

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Thursday, December 01, 2005

Smart Growth Speaker Series: LEED® -- New Standards for Neighborhood Development

Event Theme/Description: Over the past ten years, the US Green Building Council (USGBC) has developed and implemented LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating systems for the construction of new buildings, major reconstruction, building operations, commercial interiors, and other aspects of buildings. Over the past two years USGBC has partnered with the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to establish a rating system for entire neighborhoods.

LEED-ND (LEED for Neighborhood Development) is the first national standard to address how the relationship among buildings affects environmental performance, integrating the principles of smart growth, urbanism, and green building. The first public draft of LEED-ND was released for comment earlier this year and the comment period recently closed.

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Thursday, October 27, 2005

S.G. Speaker Series: Sustainable Places and Walkable Urbanity

Event Theme/Description: Christopher Leinberger, Partner, Albuquerque’s Historic District Improvement Company and Visiting Fellow, Brookings Institution, is currently focusing on research and practice that helps to transform traditional and suburban downtowns and other places that provide walkable urbanity.

Research includes the national rankings of downtowns based upon market and financial viability, social equity, and other methods.

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Thursday, September 15, 2005

S.G. Speaker Series: Next Steps for the Washington Region's Reality Check

Event Theme/Description: "Next Steps for the Washington Region's Reality Check." Reality Check is a region-wide visioning exercise that took place on February 2nd, 2005 to consider ways our region could grow by an additional 2 million new people and 1.6 million new jobs over the next 25 years. Three hundred elected officials and community, environmental, housing and business leaders in 20 jurisdictions around the Beltway met to consider where we grow, while future efforts on the local level consider how we grow as a region.

Mr. Forkas will describe the outcomes of the February meeting, where the Reality Check process is now, and where it’s going.

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Thursday, July 14, 2005

S.G. Speaker Series: Reflections on the National Politics of Smart Growth

Event Theme/Description: Who are some of Congress's current leaders on livable communities, and what may be effective strategies and leverage for creating a stronger federal partnership? Maria Zimmerman will share her observations about changing views and opportunities for advancing smart growth policies in Congress.

Zimmerman will also highlight the growing demand for transit-oriented communities and new provisions within the current federal transportation reauthorization bill.

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Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Implementing Smart Growth Lessons from the Smart Growth Leadership

Event Theme/Description: The reasons for smart growth are compelling, but the implementation remains challenging. A team from the Smart Growth Leadership Institute has been working with communities that are grappling with specific local challenges to creating smart growth.

The team has drawn from experience in 13 communities to create a Smart Growth Implementation Kit for national distribution. Harriet Tregoning, Smart Growth Leadership Institute, will describe the tools developed in this project, including a Policy and Code and Zoning Audit, Smart Sites Template, and Smart Growth Design Checklist.

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Monday, April 04, 2005

Smart Growth Speaker Series: The Challenges of Success -- The Next Generation of Smart Growth

Event Theme/Description: As the "urban village" has matured, it faces new and ongoing challenges to create vibrant places, house its workers, and complete the streets. Chris Zimmerman, Vice Chairman, Arlington County (VA) Board, will describe Arlington's successes and challenges in this update on the County that created the winner of the 2002 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement for Overall Excellence in Smart Growth.

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Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Building A Sweet Home in Birmingham

Event Theme/Description: In 1997, the citizens of the Birmingham region began working toward a shared vision of their future. As an architect and urban designer by training, Larry Watts helped to shape the process and bring transportation, land use and urban form together. In 2004, the effort has bloomed to include a progressive regional vision, an influential citizen-business-government regional partnership, and a downtown home for collaborative planning and design. Mr. Watts will share the Birmingham story as the region moves into creating a regional growth framework and transit plan, and confronts critical issues of water availability.

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Monday, February 07, 2005

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Life in a College Town

Event Theme/Description: Theme: Life in a College Town: Rediscovering and Rebuilding the Classic American Campus

The American college town and campus presents a familiar and classic type of place, one that is being constantly rediscovered and reinvented. College towns can accommodate high density mixed use developments, and these edge conditions are being rediscovered, rejuvenated, and rebuilt.

The challenges of town and gown are familiar, however, these places possess diverse, educated, talented, and technologically savvy inhabitants that are the underlying economic and cultural engine for the new economy.

Dhiru Thadani will present his research, documentation, and proposed master plans for several college town across the country. The work gracefully integrates a variety of housing types, national and local retailers, and cultural and civic institutions.

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Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Smart Growth Speaker Series: "Smart Growth for Small Towns: The Bypass vs. the Main Street"

Event Theme/Description: Phil Hardwick's work in community and economic development has helped numerous small towns in Missippippi to grow in creative and smart ways. Under his leadership, the Mississippi Main Street Association (MMSA) was recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as the most successful Main Street program in the nation. MMSA includes 47 communities that range in population from 1000 to 55,000. In addition, Phil works with the Stennis Institute to train local officials in economic development techniques that preserve and enhance existing towns.

Phil will discuss his work with MMSA, the overlapping goals of the Main Street program and smart growth principles, and, in particular, the efforts to grow and maintain viable small-town downtowns in the age of the bypass.

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Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Smart Growth Speaker Series: "Protecting Water Resources: Smart Growth and Low Impact Development"

Event Theme/Description: Smart growth communities can help protect water resources at both the regional and site scales. John Tippett, Executive Director, Friends of the Rappahannock, will present current best-practices in the integration of low impact development (LID) design techniques with smart growth projects.

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Wednesday, November 17, 2004

National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement

Event Theme/Description: Successful communities are identifying characteristics of new development that can build vibrant neighborhoods rich in natural and historic assets with jobs and housing for all types of people. Their growth and development strategies have enhanced existing neighborhoods, leveraged existing infrastructure, and reaped environmental benefits.

Join the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Great Hall for presentation of the EPA's third annual National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement. This highly competitive program honors public agencies that have successfully met their community goals by applying smart growth techniques.

This year, awards will be given in five categories Overall Excellence, Built Projects, Policies and Regulations, Community Outreach and Education, and Small Communities. Up to five winners will be honored at this ceremony.

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Thursday, October 14, 2004

Smart Growth Speaker Series: "Toward the Sustainable City: Developing Green Urbanism"

Event Theme/Description: Tim Beatley's work focuses on creating more sustainable urban environments. His research into European and American experience highlights creative strategies by which cities and towns can fundamentally reduce their ecological footprints, while at the same time becoming more livable and equitable places. His contributions help to illuminate the critical role that creating quality human habitat plays in enhancing quality natural habitats. Tim's books include Native to Nowhere, The Ecology of Place, Ethical Land Use,and Green Urbanism.

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Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Envision Utah: Lessons from the Front

Event Theme/Description: Before joining Administrator Leavitt's leadership team at the U.S. EPA, Natalie Gochnour served on the Envision Utah Steering Committee and managed the technical work for the Envision Utah partnership. Envision Utah is a groundbreaking public/private partnership formed to guide development and implementation of a quality growth strategy for the Greater Wasatch Area around Salt Lake City. The community has worked for five years to build a voluntary partnership, prepare meaningful analysis, inform community leaders and adopt a preferred approach. This approach applies many smart growth principles such as mixing land uses, providing transportation and housing choices, and preserving critical lands. Natalie will report on the key lessons that Envision Utah offers to other regions seeking to tap local citizen expertise to create a shared vision for life quality.

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Monday, August 16, 2004

Smart Growth Speaker Series: The Smart Money Is On Smart Growth

Event Theme/Description: More compact development patterns, and investments that strengthen urban center, should save taxpayers' money and improve the economic performance of metropolitan regions. Mr Puentes and colleague Mark Muro recently published a report summarizing current evidence of the fiscal savings created by smart growth. The study finds that fiscal savings combine with increased economic performance to improve the fortunes of regions pursuing smart growth. In times of tight budgets, smart growth make ever more sense for regions seeking competitive advantage.

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Thursday, July 08, 2004

S.G. Speaker Series: Mount Joy, Pennsylvania -- Small Town Main Street with a Smart Growth Future

Event Theme/Description: Terry Kauffman will describe how a small town can reach economic development and community goals through smart growth strategies. He is a former Chairman of The Board of Commissioners of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where Mount Joy is located. He also serves as Chairman of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, a coalition of 240 organizations committed to the revitalization of our cities and towns.

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Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Smart Growth Is Smart Business -- Boosting the Bottom Line & Community Prosperity

Event Theme/Description: Business leaders are supporting smart growth policies and projects, with significant results for their communities, customers, employees and profitability. NALGEP and SGLI recently examined businesses who have reaped rewards from investing resoures in smart growth. This event launches the new report, and profiles the initiative taken by business leaders who recognize that smart growth provides quality of life, market opportunities, and stable investments, among other benefits.

Speakers at this event include:
- Ken Brown, Executive Director, National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals (NALGEP);
- Randy Muller, Environmental Services Director, Bank of America
- Paul Weech, Director for Market Research and Policy Development, Fannie Mae
- Joe Molinaro, Smart Growth Program Manager, National Association of Realtors

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Monday, May 17, 2004

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Linking Land Use, Transportation, Economy and the Environment

Event Theme/Description: Harrison Rue currently runs the transportation and regional planning organization for Charlottesville, and previously founded the Citizen Planner Institute. His work has successfully integrated grassroots planning and the regional transportation process, incorporating lessons from smart growth, new urbanism, and healthy communities to meet the goals of diverse partners. Through such techniques, Charlottesville offers lessons to other communities working to meet economic and environmental goals through smart growth.

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Monday, April 12, 2004

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Overcoming the Legal Obstacles to Smart Growth

Event Theme/Description: One of the significant barriers to widespread creation of better communities is the extensive permitting process they must undergo in the regulatory world that produces conventional suburban-style development. Dan Slone has led numerous projects through the important steps of land assembly, permitting and construction, to creation of design codes and community governance. In addition, he also serves as counsel to national advocacy groups including the Congress for the New Urbanism and the U.S. Green Building Council. His work gives him unique insights into the progress of smart growth on the ground and lessons on how to make better communities exceptional without being "exceptions."

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Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Streets and Walkable Communities

Event Theme/Description: Dan Burden is a nationally recognized authority on streets that work for people -- whether on foot, on bikes, or in motor vehicles. For twenty five years he has developed, evaluated, and promoted transportation facilities that promote smart growth. Working intensively with communities across the country, he uses his unique skills and extensive library of images to build consensus for improving our greatest community-owned asset, the public streets. Dan will explain his successful approach and illustrate the state of the practice in successful streets to support smart growth.

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Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Building a Better Los Angeles

Event Theme/Description: Since 2000, the Transportation & Land Use Collaborative of Southern California (TLUC) has worked to ensure balance between growth, economic development and environmental stewardship in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Under the leadership of Executive Director Katherine Perez, TLUC has begun to influence policy in the region, and they recently organized a groundbreaking forum on "Latino New Urbanism: Synergy Against Sprawl." Ms. Perez will offer lessons from TLUC and her prior work on how to build broad support for better development patterns and community design in a rapidly growing, changing metropolis. Find out more about TLUC's work at www.tluc.net.

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Smart Growth Speaker Series: The New Transit Town

Event Theme/Description: Shelley Poticha is the Executive Director of the new Center for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), which will help build the institutional infrastructure to bring TOD to scale nationally. TOD can improve housing affordability and choice, revitalize downtowns and urban and suburban neighborhoods, and provide value capture and recapture for individuals, communities and transportation agencies. The Center's first publication, The New Transit Town, examines the first generation of these new communities, highlighting best practices and deriving lessons for the next generation.

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Monday, October 27, 2003

Smart Growth Speaker Series: The Developer-Entrepreneur

Event Theme/Description: New development that seeks to heal and enhance the urban fabric can provide substantial financial and social returns. Atlanta-based Green Street Properties applies this principle in its projects. The firm's chairman, Charles Brewer, also founder and CEO of MindSpring Enterprises, will discuss how his firm recognized the market for smart growth in Atlanta. By replacing an abandoned brownfield in Glenwood Park with a graceful mix of 400 residences, offices, retail space, schools, and parks, Brewer's company has captured national recognition and is helping develop a more cohesive community.

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Thursday, September 25, 2003

Smart Growth Speaker Series: A Better Way to Code

Event Theme/Description: Conventional zoning codes often impede smart growth development. In their place, planners and architects have developed new types of codes that encourage adaptable, mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly communities.

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Smart Growth Speaker Series: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Smarter

Event Theme/Description: This presentation will focus on the economic, social, and environmental benefits of preserving community character. Ed McMahon, Vice President and Director of Land Use Programs at The Conservation Fund, will highlight the keys to successful communities. The presentation will address the role that historic preservation, urban design, landscape preservation, open space planning and other issues play in fostering economic vitality and community revitalization.

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Wednesday, June 25, 2003

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Paving Our Way to Water Shortages

Event Theme/Description: Presented by John Bailey, Deron Lovaas, and Betsy Otto. The summer of 2002 will be remembered for putting Americans from coast to coast through one of the worst droughts in decades. While experts discussed the links between water shortages, erratic weather conditions and population growth, there is also evidence that the way we grow -- development patterns -- can exacerbate problems with both water quality and quantity. Increases in impervious surface cover from sprawling development impair the landscape's ability to recharge aquifers and surface waters. This presentation will examine how policies to promote "smart growth" and low-impact development techniques can help to ensure adequate water supplies and to protect aquatic resources into the future.

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Tuesday, May 27, 2003

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Planning for Growth in Rural Areas

Event Theme/Description: Presented by Keith Schneider. Suburban and urban communities increasingly recognize and use the principles of smart growth such as collaborative planning, mixed-use development, downtown revitalization, and open space conservation, but these tools are not as widely applied to rural areas. It may be difficult for rural communities to embrace and implement smart growth if they are not experiencing rapid growth pressures or if they believe they have an inexhaustible land supply to develop. This presentation will focus on the role smart growth has to play in rural areas.

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Monday, April 28, 2003

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Addressing Security by Creating a Sense of Community

Event Theme/Description: Pr