DATEBOOK

Smart Growth Speaker Series [TBA].

Other Smart Growth Events: 3/14/2010:
Institute of Transportation Engineers 2010 Technical Conference and Exhibit

3/15/2010:
2010 Green California Summit and Expo

Thursday, February 11, 2010

CANCELLED: Smart Growth Speaker Series: Urban Green--Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities

Event Theme/Description: IMPORTANT UPDATE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER CONDITIONS. THE EVENT WILL BE RESCHEDULED AT A LATER DATE.

For many years urban parks across the U.S. sank into decay and disuse. However, as cities have begun to rebound — and as evidence of the economic, cultural, and health benefits of parks continues to grow — investment in these valuable facilities has swelled. But many of the best examples do not fit the conventional park model. They are being built in surprising places, like rooftops, old railyards, highway decks, covered reservoirs and widened stream valleys. And by serving duty as everything from community gardens to schoolyard parks to cemeteries-for-the-living to recreational retention ponds, the urban parks movement is transforming cities for residents, families, commuters and visitors alike.

Peter Harnik, director of the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land, will give a sneak preview of his forthcoming book, Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities, showing all of the newest ideas for "built out" cities to add much-needed parkland. Using photographs and interviews from his extensive travels to American cities, Mr. Harnik will highlight the country’s most exciting and innovative approaches, and reveal the real-life challenges and solutions are to creating more urban parks. Harnik, a long-time environmentalist, co-founded the City Parks Alliance, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail, and served many years as president of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

Register for the event through the Calendar at www.nbm.org.

Audio and Video are coming soon!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Smart Growth Speaker Series: The Business Side of Smart Growth--Local Assets, Local Approaches

Event Theme/Description: Smart growth and sustainable communities are most successful when they respond to the needs of their residents. Small businesses are frequently nimble and creative responders to those needs. They are often the first indicators of changing market tastes, and can lead the way towards more green, sustainable market options. Their entry into a redeveloping community can signal new private investment, and catalyze greater and continued development. In many cases, they become fixtures of community that both attract residents and businesses, and help to identify and galvanize community character.

Dale Roberts, owner of The Java Shack coffeehouse in Arlington, VA, will discuss the role of small businesses like his in creating successful, vibrant communities which cater to and support a range of transportation alternatives. Dale is a community and business leader, and has been featured in the Washington Post (and other media) for his green, sustainable approach to business. Dale has partnered with other small/locally-owned businesses to help create a true urban village where people are able to live, work, shop and dine in their neighborhood. His approach to creating a successful, locally-owned, neighborhood anchor begins – but does not end – with location.

Register for the event through the Calendar at www.nbm.org.

Audio and Video are coming soon!

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

2009 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement

Event Theme/Description: Presented by EPA, this event will recognize communities using principles of smart growth to create better places. The ceremony includes a panel discussion with experts from each community.

The series, which is free to the public, is held at the National Building Museum, 401 F Street N.W, Washington D.C. (Judiciary Square Metro). Although the event is free, registration is required. Register for the event through the Calendar at ago.nbm.org/site/Calendar.

Continuing education credits: 2.0 LU (AIA) /2.0 CM (AICP)

Audio and Video are coming soon!

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Greening the Ghetto, and How Much It Won't Cost Us

Event Theme/Description: After decades of increasing and unprecedented philanthropic giving in the U.S., public health, income disparities, educational outcomes, and incarceration and recidivism are all getting worse. Decisions about growth and development -- rather than addressing these issues -- often exacerbate these problems. As a result, communities are left with the high costs associated with helping people overcome generational poverty, recover from traumatic combat and/or prison experiences, and generally attain a better quality of life.

Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx, will speak from her experience revitalizing the Hunts Point area to explain how "horticultural infrastructure" is not only a key component of successful and efficient stormwater runoff management -- it can also simultaneously address the issues associated with healing the people mentioned above. Ms. Carter will describe how the manner in which we distribute jobs in horticultural engineering -- and to whom -- can have multiple social, economic and environmental benefits if done with intelligence and care.

Majora Carter is a MacArthur "Genius" Fellow, host of Eco-Heroes on Sundance Channel and The Promised Land on NPR. She was awarded the National Building Museum's "Visionaries in Sustainability" award in June 2009, and is currently President of her own economic development consulting group.

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Monday, September 21, 2009

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Beyond Zipcar -- Using Technology to Share Time, Space, and Information

Event Theme/Description: Not enough money, space, innovation? The answer is sharing.

Most of America has lived in a world of abundance, and we have built and spent and aspired to a particular embodiment of these values -- with dramatic environmental consequences as a result. Climate change, burgeoning world populations, increasing urbanization, and tightening wallets (personal, corporate, government) all point the way to a necessary new era of constraint.

Robin Chase, founder and former CEO of Zipcar (car-sharing) and GoLoco (ride-sharing), and recently named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People, will offer up a different perspective. A fresh look at sharing -- of time, of space, of assets, of information -- can deliver us a future that is not just palatable but exciting.

This presentation has been made available in a video format. View to the Presentation in its entirety or [open it in a new window]

Friday, July 17, 2009

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Retrofitting the Suburbs: A New Urbanist Perspective

Event Theme/Description: Smart growth, new urbanism and green building have aligned a set of principles for change in the built environment. These address solutions for the evolving problems of energy resource depletion, climate change, and metropolitan growth. In contrast, much of the public discourse on these topics, including with regard to federal policy, focuses on technological solutions for alternative sources of energy and emissions reductions. Little attention is being given to fostering behavioral change for energy need or use, in particular with regard to the effect of land use patterns generating vehicular dependence and emissions. Changing technology appears to be easier than changing the already built environment.

Nevertheless, there are encouraging advancements in recent urban projects that provide hope for building reform as an energy conservation strategy. To illustrate how the regulatory framework can induce private investment to make the land use changes needed to encourage reduction of vehicular dependence, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture and partner in Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., will present a series of examples of design and policy that are succeeding in retrofitting suburban sites to make walkable, transit-oriented urban centers.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Neighborhood-Level Sustainability: Bringing it All Together with LEED

Event Theme/Description: Rising consciousness about global environmental crises combined with a faltering real estate market have rapidly mobilized localities and developers to search for a way to create places that will be both environmentally responsible and financially profitable. How can developers choose the right locations and design strategies, while also navigating the processes of gaining public and regulatory approval? At the same time, how can jurisdictions alter their zoning codes and ordinances to remove barriers to smart neighborhood design and incentivize green development?

Sophie Lambert, Director of LEED for Neighborhood Development at the U.S. Green Building Council, will explain how the LEED-ND rating system tackles these issues by combining the principles of smart growth, new urbanism, and green building into the first national standard for neighborhood design. Sophie will be joined by Tony Greenberg from the JBG Companies, who will share his experience taking the new, Gold-level certified Twinbrook Station project through the LEED-ND process.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Monday, May 18, 2009

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being

Event Theme/Description: Does the world make you sick? If the distractions and distortions around you, the jarring colors and sounds, could shake up the healing chemistry of your mind, might your surroundings also have the power to heal you? Dr. Esther Sternberg, physician and author, explores these questions in her talk on Healing Spaces, a scientific look at the marvelously rich nexus of mind and body, perception and place. Dr. Sternberg will discuss how our place in nature is of critical importance both to the health of the environment, as well as to our own personal health. She will also describe ways in which hospitals, communities, and neighborhoods can be designed that promote healing and health for all.

Dr. Sternberg will be available to sign copies of her book, “Healing Spaces” following the talk. This event is free and open to the public. No registration is required.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Smart Growth Speaker Series: The Opposite of Traffic

Event Theme/Description: Public dialogue about community vision is often derailed by a nearly all-consuming focus on traffic delay. The result can be the downsizing of project proposals, or the upsizing of local streets and roads -- both of which may undermine a community's plans to implement smart growth. Ellen Greenberg, independent consultant and former Research Director for the Congress for New Urbanism, offers eye-opening perspectives on different ways to define transportation success -– some of which assign tackling congestion a surprisingly minor role.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Smart Growth and Green Building in the Media

Event Theme/Description: A decade ago, the frequency of the terms "smart growth" and "green building" used in popular media could be measured in single digits. Now they are considered mainstream as shorthand for a different approach to growth and development. Does this reflect a shift in the national consciousness about how and where communities grow? To what degree does it signal a willingness in the market for an alternative to the conventional suburban real estate product? How many Americans have made the connection between where they live, how they get around, and the environmental challenges we now face on a global scale? Haya El Nasser, Staff Reporter for USA Today and frequent writer on growth issues, will discuss these shifts and the prospects for coverage of new and emerging issues related to growth in the future.

This event is part of a mini-series within the Smart Growth Speaker Series (now in its 12th year), focusing on Green Communities, in support of the NBM’s exhibit of the same name. This event is free. No registration is required.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Monday, February 09, 2009

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Enterprise's Green Communities Program

Event Theme/Description: Dana Bourland, senior director of Green Communities for Enterprise Community Partners, presents the organization's national initiative to bring the economic, environmental, and health benefits of green building to affordable housing.

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Tuesday, January 06, 2009

S.G. Speaker Series: Post-Election Analysis -- What the Outcomes Mean for Smart Growth

Event Theme/Description: Geoff Anderson, President and CEO of Smart Growth America, analyzes the November election results and the implications for state and local governments' ability to implement a more sustainable approach to growth.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Thursday, December 04, 2008

S.G. Speaker Series: Greening Streets and Cities -- The Copenhagen Experience

Event Theme/Description: Jan Gehl, noted author, architect, and urban design expert from Denmark, will discuss how cities and neighborhoods can transform car-dominated streets into zones that support vibrant pedestrian and bicycle activity.

Copenhagen's well-known Stroget car-free zone is the result of Mr. Gehl's effort, and provides a model for DC and other cities to follow as they re-imagine their street network as places that improve life for pedestrians and cyclists. This talk illustrates many of the concepts highlighted in the NBM's new Sustainable Community exhibit, which demonstrates the many environmental, economic, and community benefits associated with a more sustainable approach to growth and development.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

S.G. Speaker Series: National Achievement in Smart Growth Awards Presentation

Event Theme/Description: Across the country, communities are using a variety of innovative development tools to build neighborhoods that provide safe and decent places to live and work, protect natural and historic places, offer balanced transportation systems, and expand residential choices including green buildings and affordable housing. At the seventh annual ceremony for the National Award for Smart Growth Achievement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honors four communities for their forward-thinking smart growth projects and programs.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

S.G. Speaker Series: Partnering to Create Green Communities -- San Francisco's Treasure Island

Event Theme/Description: Jack Sylvan, Director of Joint Development in the San Francisco Mayor's Office, will present the City's work to redevelop former Naval Station Treasure Island, located in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The project plans have been recognized as an innovative and comprehensive model of environmentally sustainable master planned development, and reflect the ambitious goal of creating the most sustainable large development project in U.S. history.

The redevelopment process utilizes a public/private partnership development model between the City of San Francisco and Treasure Island Community Development, LLC. The presentation will focus on the overall project vision, the spectrum of policies, strategies and technologies that will be implemented, as well as the nature of planning and implementation via a public/private partnership.

This talk happening in coordination with the launch of the National Building Museum's new, year-long exhibit on Green Communities. A free 45-minute, docent-led tour of the new exhibit will be available to the first 50 Speaker Series attendees immediately following the conclusion of the talk.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Thursday, September 11, 2008

Smart Growth Speaker Series: The Land Use Code Challenge, and the House on the Corner

Event Theme/Description: Jeff Speck, AICP, LEED-AP, former Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts, Director of Town Planning for Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., and co-author of Suburban Nation and the forthcoming Smart Growth Manual, will discuss the often anti-urban nature of today's land-use codes, and propose alternative rules for the creation of more livable communities.

Mr. Speck will also share the story of his attempt to build a new infill house in the District, and how he overcame half a dozen legal barriers to ultimately build a 2000-square-foot solar-powered home on a 500-square-foot lot at the tip of the L'Enfant plan.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Megaregions

Event Theme/Description: Petra Todorovich, Director of America 2050, a national planning initiative based at the Regional Plan Association in New York, will present on her organization’s research on population trends and the relevance of those findings for local and regional land use planning and investment decisions.

America 2050 projects that in the next 40 years the U.S. population will increase by nearly half from its 2000 level, 70 percent of which will live in an ever-growing number of "megaregions" across the country. Megaregions -- agglomerations of metropolitan regions linked by labor markets, infrastructure, and land use systems -- are expected to replace metropolitan regions as the new competitive unit in the global economy. Ms. Todorovich will discuss these trends and the importance of investments in infrastructure systems, including transportation networks, to energy use and climate impacts.

Read more at the resource link below.

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Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Smart Growth Speaker Series: EPA/NRDC's Green Infrastructure Strategy

Event Theme/Description: Jennifer Molloy, of EPA's Office of Wastewater Management, and Nancy Stoner, of Natural Resources Defense Council, will discuss their new collaborative effort to develop and implement a Green Infrastructure Strategy. This strategy, to which 40 organizations have already committed support, promotes onsite stormwater management through native plantings, sidewalk planter gardens, green roofs, and other green infrastructure elements -- all of which lead to better community design and environmental management.

Read more at the resource link below.

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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.

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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.

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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: Presented by Rick James: Research in the 1970s demonstrated a connection between land use patterns and crime. Since that time, a deeper understanding of the interplay of community, land use, and crime has emerged. This presentation will discuss successful efforts to reduce crime through planning better neighborhoods.

Click here to view the PowerPoint file that accompanied this Speaker Series event.

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Monday, March 10, 2003

Smart Growth Speaker Series: The Role of Aging in Place in Achieving Smart Growth

Event Theme/Description: Presented by M. Scott Ball, Co-Executive Director of the Community Housing Resource Center, and Kathryn Lawler, Project Director of Aging Atlanta.

Senior Americans, whether rich, poor, or somewhere in the middle, face many barriers to an old age in which very basic human desires for physical safety, appropriate health care, and maximal independence are met. The maturity of the "baby boomer" generation will require more than just the increased supply of a specific housing type. It will require a series of programs and zoning practices to maximize the functional independence of senior citizens by making neighborhood-based housing and healthcare alternatives possible. Strategies that facilitate "aging in place" must be part of a comprehensive and holistic approach to support the needs of an aging individual and an aging community.

Click here to view the PowerPoint file that accompanied this Speaker Series event.

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Thursday, February 13, 2003

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Rebuilding Neighborhoods: Community Development and Smart Growth

Event Theme/Description: Community development and smart growth advocates have mutual interests. Both seek to increase investments in existing neighborhoods, reverse urban flight, and advance revitalization of core city, inner ring, and rural communities. This presentation will answer questions critical to long term metropolitan sustainability: Why are built communities so vital to the stemming of sprawl? What is the role of community development in the smart growth agenda? Can smart growth and community development be partners in the development of compact, mixed income, mixed use communities? How can the ties between community development and smart growth be strengthened?

Click here to view the PowerPoint file that accompanied this Speaker Series event.

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Tuesday, January 21, 2003

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Smart Growth Alliance Recognition Program

Event Theme/Description: Presented by Robert Harris, Lee Epstein, and Robert Peck.

Successful smart growth initiatives have relied on a simple but powerful fomula based on collaboration. Here in the Washington, DC region, five groups who represent developer, civic, and environmental interests, and who often sit on opposite sides of the table when it comes to development issues, have elected to put aside their differences and work together on common goals for smart growth. The Smart Growth Alliance (SGA) is a joint effort to research, identify, and encourage land use, development and transportation policy and practice that protects environmental assets and enhance our regional quality of life.

Click here to view the PowerPoint file that accompanied this Speaker Series event.

Monday, November 18, 2002

2002 National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement

Event Theme/Description: What towns and regions in the U.S. are making smart growth happen? What built projects exemplify the principles of smart growth? What innovative policies are saving open space and leading to less air pollution??

To find out the answers to these questions, please join EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman on November 18, 2002 at the National Building Museum for the presentation of EPA's first National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement. The awards will recognize state, regional and local governments that promote and achieve smart growth. This National recognition program was created by EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman in 2002. Winners will be announced in the following categories 1) Built Projects; 2) Policies and Regulations; 3) Community Outreach and Education; and 4) Overall Excellence in Smart Growth.

Each award recipient has incorporated principles of smart growth to create places that respect community culture and the environment, foster economic development, and enhance quality of life. Winning entries were selected based on their replicability and effectiveness in advancing smart growth and also reflect appropriate citizen and stakeholder participation or partnerships. Smart growth development practices support national environmental goals by preserving open space and parkland and protecting critical habitat; improving transportation choices to reduce emissions from automobiles; promoting brownfield redevelopment; and reducing polluted runoff.

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Tuesday, October 22, 2002

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Solving Sprawl

Event Theme/Description: How and where development occurs has impacts on our environment and the way we live. Too often, poorly planned development results in mind-numbing traffic, strip development, fragmented communities, and loss of open space. NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), one of the nation's leading environmental groups, offers an inspiring constrast to these grim trends in the recent book, "Solving Sprawl." Through 35 real-world stories, the book illustrates how people in cities, suburbs, and rural areas have found profitable, community-oriented alternatives to sprawl.

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Monday, September 30, 2002

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Placemaking and Smart Growth

Event Theme/Description: The development of lively and pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use environments in America's cities and suburbs has emerged as one of the most important trends in real estate and planning today. Placemaking--local efforts involving the city government, the business community, residents, and other stakeholders to identify and revitalize underutilized public spaces--can provide a framework for design improvements that will transform a community's public spaces into a network of vital, comfortable community places. Fred Kent, President of the Project for Public Spaces, will discuss how this concept has become an increasingly viable and preferred strategy for development, among public and private interest, for creating successful new town centers, transit villages, and main streets.

Fred Kent is the President of the Project for Public Spaces (PPS), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create and sustain public places that build communities. He will discuss the importance of great public spaces to smart growth, and he will explain why public spaces are so hard to get right. Mr. Kent will also highlight PPS's "Principles for Public Spaces."

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Tuesday, August 06, 2002

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Corporate Location and Smart Growth

Event Theme/Description: Jack H. Schron, Jr. is President of Jergens, Inc., a light industrial manufacturer, which is sited on a former brownfield in Cleveland, OH. He will discuss how his firm is contributing to the city's economic future and smart growth by opting to locate his company's operations in town rather than on the urban fringe. Mr. Schron will also highlight how the transformation and redevelopment of the property where his company located is contributing to the rejuvination of neighboring communities.

Mr. Schron will discuss how an important driver of sprawl and traffic congestion is the relative lack of balance between the location of jobs and the location of homes. Many corporate employers choose to locate their facilities in surburban fringe locations in low density or even rural surroundings that are only accessible by automobile. Through careful planning and the formation of partnerships, the real estate needs of many companies may be met in existing communities and settings that are more consistent with smart growth principles. Smart growth can help balance the needs of corporations and their employees, the communities that host them, and the environment.

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Thursday, June 06, 2002

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Ten Principles for Reinventing Suburban Business Districts

Event Theme/Description: "Ten Principles for Reinventing Suburban Business Districts," presented by Geoffrey Booth, Director of Retail Development for the Urban Land Institute and co-author of the Urban Land Institute report "Ten Principles for Reinventing America's Suburban Business Districts." The key to successful real estate development and community building is to understand the psyche of the American people and move deftly to satisfy changing market demands and needs in the places we create. Changing demographics, a time-short population, and traffic congestion are driving the redevelopment of suburban business districts. These social and market trends offer the potential to transform America's suburban business districts into vibrant, pedestrian friendly live-work-shop places, making them the emerging focus of smart growth.

Click here to view the PowerPoint file that accompanied this Speaker Series event. You may also download the publication Ten Principles for Reinventing America's Suburban Business Districts, a PDF document (1.2mb).

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Wednesday, May 01, 2002

S.G. Speaker Series: Forging Alliances between Environmental and Affordable Housing Interests

Event Theme/Description: Jaimie Ross, the Affordable Housing Director for 1000 Friends of Florida, will discuss the value in connecting environmentalists and affordable housing advocates together under the smart growth umbrella. For over a decade, the efforts of 1000 Friends of Florida and its unlikely coalition of allies have contributed to the state leading the nation with its statewide dedicated revenue for affordable housing.

Ms. Ross will explain what it took to make this happen and how that coalition continues today as a very real force in shaping state policy and spending on housing and smart growth. She will highlight the recent defeat of the Governor's proposal to divert housing funds to the clean-up of the Everglades and discuss the pivotal role that a smart growth organization can and should play to forge alliances between environmental and housing interests.

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Tuesday, April 02, 2002

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Comprehensive Planning, Takings, and the Supreme Court

Event Theme/Description: Are the concepts of land-use planning and individual property rights at odds in America? The "takings" of "property rights" has become a prominent issue facing the implementation of many smart growth strategies. John D. Echeverria, Executive Director of the Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute, will discuss how sound community planning and regulation can play an important role in providing a stable environment which encourages profitable real estate investment and development. He will use the case of Tahoe Regional Planning Agency v. Tahoe Sierra Preservation Council, now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, as a backdrop for this discussion. His presentation will examine how the Supreme Court might resolve the issues in the case, and the implications for the use of planning moratoria and other growth control measures across the country.

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Monday, March 11, 2002

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Ten Principles for Reinventing America's Suburban Strips

Event Theme/Description: "Ten Principles for Reinventing America's Suburban Strips," presented by Michael D. Beyard, Senior Resident Fellow of the Urban Land Institute. Increasingly, suburban residents are calling for a greater sense of community and convenience in their lives. Suburban strip shopping centers represent incredible economic vitality, but typically lack a sense of place or community. Suburban strips are increasingly plagued by problems of commercial sprawl, deterioration, inefficiency, visual blight and traffic congestion. While suburban strips are the places where most Americans shop, they are terra incognito in terms of understanding the ways they are evolving, the forces that are buffeting them, the shapes they are taking, and the roles they will play in the new economy.

Click here to view the PowerPoint file that accompanied this Speaker Series event.

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Tuesday, February 19, 2002

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Smart Growth, Dumb Growth, and Not-Quite-So-Dumb Growth

Event Theme/Description: W. Paul Farmer is Executive Director of the American Planning Association. He will discuss the popularity of smart growth as an approach for responding to run away patterns of growth of the past half century. His talk will present perspectives regarding the level of change required locally, regionally, and nationally to ensure increased community livability and economic competitiveness for the nation's cities and metropolitan regions. He will consider whether smart growth can be achieved by making modest changes to current planning systems or if it will require a fundamental shift in public policy.

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Tuesday, January 15, 2002

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Why Johnny Can't Walk to School

Event Theme/Description: "Why Johnny Can't Walk to School," Presented by Constance Beaumont. Rescheduled from September 2001. She will explain how public policy sometimes promotes school sprawl at the expense of vibrant neighborhoods through policies such as acreage and siting standards, and school funding structure. Her talk will describe how small community centered schools, that have anchored older neighborhoods for generations, are being replaced by large schools on large campuses accessible only by car or bus. She will discuss recent policy innovations aimed at overcoming these problems, and describe how parents and communities are mobilizing to save and modernize historic schools so that they meet state of the art standards.

Click Here to view the summary of this presentation, as well as view full documents, on the National Trust for Historic Preservation web site.

Thursday, November 08, 2001

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Loudoun County Reigns in Sprawl

Event Theme/Description: Julie Pastor, planning director for Loudoun County, will discuss the revised comprehensive plan for one of America's fastest-growing counties, which seeks to combat suburban sprawl by concentrating development near the Dulles Corridor and preserving farmland and open space.

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Tuesday, October 02, 2001

Smart Growth Speaker Series:

Event Theme/Description: Smart Growth Speaker Series: "Faith Based Development: Building the Community from the Inside Out" Reverend Dr. Floyd H. Flake, former U.S. Congressman, author, and senior pastor of Allen AME Church, will discuss the roles of churches (and other faith-based institutions) in equitable development of communities. During his 21-year pastorate, Allen has become a model for faith-based development across the country. His presentation will share how faith-based development corporations can fill in the gaps that are left unattended by business and government to spur economic development within neighborhoods and improve community character. He will share how the commercial and residential development projects of Allen AME's development corporation have transformed South East Queens, NY, and helped to achieve smarter growth.

Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Why Johnny Can't Walk to School, with Constance Beaumont

Event Theme/Description: This Event rescheduled for January 15, 2002.

Wednesday, August 08, 2001

Why Sprawl is a Conservative Issue

Event Theme/Description: Why Sprawl is a Conservative Issue, presented by Michael Lewyn. Michael Lewyn, columnist, author and Associate Professor at John Marshall Law School will argue that conservatives should fight sprawl as a threat to conservative values such as limited government, freedom, lower taxes, and social stability. His talk will describe how sprawl is the direct result of big government, education policies, and housing regulations that still favor suburban construction on previously undeveloped land. He will also discuss what conservatives can do about sprawl and how smarter growth can encourage conservative solutions, increase individual choice, free market activity and economic development

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Tuesday, July 17, 2001

Parking Lot Nation: the Coming End of Suburbia

Event Theme/Description: Parking Lot Nation: the Coming End of Suburbia. Presented by Jim Kunstler. Mr. Kunstler's illustrated talk describes America's development patterns of the past half century, the cultural consequences of our attempt to build a drive-in utopia, and the means at hand to begin the reform and repair of our human ecology. In his book The Geography of Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler, gave voice to the feelings of Americans unhappy with "the tragic sprawlscape of cartoon architecture, junked cities, and ravaged countryside" where we live and work. Kunstler argued that the mess we've made of our everyday environment was not merely the symptom of a troubled culture, but one of the primary causes of our troubles. His new book, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, is scheduled for publication in December of 2001 by Simon & Schuster. Mr. Kunstler will sign copies of his books following his presentation.

Wednesday, June 13, 2001

Smart Growth Speakers Series: Donovan Rypkema on Property Rights and Community Values

Event Theme/Description: Property Rights and Community Values Presented by Donovan Rypkema. Comprehensive approaches to smart growth frequently include some form of land use controls. Discussion of land use regulations often generates resistance from proponents of the "property rights" movement. Many argue that restrictions on privately owned land have an adverse impact on property values and are alien to American political tradition. Donovan Rypkema will argue that sensible land use policies enhance rather than diminish property values, and that public constraints on private property such as zoning have been central toAmerican political society for three centuries.

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Monday, May 14, 2001

The Media Role in Growth and Development Issues

Event Theme/Description: The Media Role in Growth and Development Issues Presented by David Goldberg. David Goldberg, who serves on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial board, will examine the many angles the media has taken on sprawl in a key battleground on development issues -- Atlanta. Mr. Goldberg will discuss "message strategies" used by groups on various sides of the growth debate in Atlanta as well as strategies for journalists covering issues related to suburban sprawl.

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Tuesday, April 10, 2001

Robert Lang -- Edgeless Cities: Exploring the Elusive Metropolis

Event Theme/Description: Robert Lang, Director of Urban and Metropolitan Research at the Fannie Mae Foundation will discuss "Edgeless Cities," a form of sprawling office development that never reaches the scale, density or cohesiveness of edge cities, and now accounts for the bulk of office space found outside of downtowns. The term "edgeless city" captures the fact that most suburban office areas lack a physical edge. In contrast to edge cities, which combine large-scale office development with major retail, edgeless cities feature mostly isolated office buildings spread across vast swaths of urban space. The talk will conclude with a discussion on the policy implications that result from the emergence of edgeless cities.

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Monday, March 19, 2001

Joel Garreau The Technological Revolution Downtown and on the Suburban Fringe

Event Theme/Description: Joel Garreau, author of Edge City: Life on the New Frontier will discuss how the urban fabric of the 21st century is beginning to look like the 18th century, only cooler. He will examine the premise that all cities through history have always been shaped by the state-of-the-art technology of the time, and the networked computer is now enabling both urban villages and enormously dispersed "sprawl" at a pace that is faster and more profound than the revolution caused by the automobile

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Thursday, February 15, 2001

Smart Growth Block-by-Block -- The Role of Community-Based Organizations

Event Theme/Description: Betty Weiss, Executive Director of the National Neighborhood Coalition, will discuss the findings of the recent NNC report that details how community-based organizations are successfully linking neighborhood redevelopment to smart growth. Mtamanika Youngblood, Executive Director of Atlanta's Historic District Development Corporation, will then describe the experiences of her organization which combines historic preservation, affordable housing, and anti-displacement protections to help revitalize inner-city neighborhoods.

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Tuesday, January 30, 2001

Planning Tools for the Next Century

Event Theme/Description: Among the challenges to creating better communities is building community support for smart growth projects. For this reason, it is important for citizens, builders, and planning professionals to use tools to gain a greater understanding of the way planning decisions will look and affect us over time. For example, computer simulation can show the maturing of 50-year-old trees in just a second, or GIS modeling tools can generate alternative scenarios for the growth of a region 25 years forward to help communities achieve public consensus for innovative plans. Bill Becker, Director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Denver Regional Office will demonstrate and discuss some of the planning tools of the next century.

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Monday, November 20, 2000

Mass Transit -- A Conservative Reappraisal

Event Theme/Description: Concerns related to how this country grows have emerged in the last several years as a mainstream topic in our national conversation. One area of debate is whether investments in mass transit systems are justified. Some feel that mass transit is an expensive and ineffective strategy for reducing traffic congestion and addressing transportation problems in our cities. However, more and more commuters are choosing public transportation, according to a September 2000 report by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). Ridership increased by 4.3 percent in the second quarter of 2000, compared to the same period last year in the U.S.

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Monday, October 30, 2000

Smart Growth at the Ballot Box: Elections, Referenda and Initiatives to Watch in November

Event Theme/Description: Improving livability was a goal of citizens in many communities in the last election cycle. Even greater voter interest in livable communities and growth-related issues can be expected in the 2000 elections. The increasing presence and success of smart growth candidates and ballot initiatives indicate that voters have become more aware of and educated about growth-related issues and the impact they have on our lives. Bruce Katz, Director of the Brookings Institution's Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy will share his insights on elections and initiatives being considered by voters nationwide this November and what they may mean for future growth and development patterns

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Wednesday, September 13, 2000

Smart Growth in the DC Area: Transit-Oriented Development in Arlington

Event Theme/Description: Examples of policies that reflect key principles of smart growth exist in the Washington region. One primary example of successful transit-oriented development is the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor in Arlington, Virginia. Bob Brosnan, Director of the Arlington County Planning Department will describe this accomplishment and examine the challenges it faced, how they were overcome, and how it might be replicated.

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Tuesday, July 25, 2000

Potomac Yard: A Model of Smart Growth?

Event Theme/Description: Lee Quill, principal with Cunningham + Quill Architects PLLC, will present his firm's master plan for Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Virginia, which will be implemented over the next two decades. The plan's orthogonal grid, which connects to the adjacent streetscapes of surrounding neighborhoods, is designed to create a pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented environment of streets, parks, and mixed-use development. Discussion will focus on how and why plans for the project evolved over time and challenges overcome to implement the project. Community opinions and local government perspective on the project will also be discussed.

Wednesday, June 28, 2000

New Trends in Transportation Spending --What they Mean for Smart Growth

Event Theme/Description: A newly-released analysis of transportation spending by the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) shows significant changes in the way transportation money is being used. This could have major effects on the ability to acheive smart growth in many places around the country. Roy Kienitz, Director of STPP, will present this analysis and describe the possible effects of these new trends.

Monday, May 22, 2000

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Better Site Design: How can communities reach consensus?

Event Theme/Description: In 1997, the Center for Watershed Protection convened a National Site Planning Roundtable to address how to make better site design happen. The Roundtable crafted 22 model development principles endorsed by a wide range of national and local organizations that are involved in the site planning process. Representatives from the Center will present these principles and research used to address both perceived and real barriers to better site design.

Wednesday, April 12, 2000

Smart Growth Speaker Series: Connecting Rails, Trails and Greenways to Smarter Growth

Event Theme/Description: Mr. Burwell will discuss the links between greenways, trails and broader development patterns. He will explain the growing emergence of trails and greenways as the backbone of a new transportation infrastructure which connects people to their communities. By designing greenways that are more than green spaces, rivers are protected, ecosystems are restored, and habitat is created.

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Monday, March 20, 2000

Jeff Gersh and Chelsea Congdon, co-producers of "Subdivide and Conquer"

Event Theme/Description: Viewing and Discussion of "Subdivide and Conquer: A Modern Western" Free. Registration not required. Join Jeff Gersh and Chelsea Congdon, co-producers of "Subdivide and Conquer: A Modern Western" for a viewing and discussion of the documentary film. Set against the mythic, fast-changing landscapes of the Rocky Mountain West, Subdivide and Conquer explores the consequences of sprawl, the history of this automobile-centered pattern of development, and alternatives to the status quo; it also examines some of American¹s most strongly held notions about the endless frontier and rugged individualism. Subdivide, which won "Best Environmental Film" at the 1999 Telluride Mountain Film Festival, is the first independent television production to humanize a complicated story which is front-page news across the country. The film will be broadcast on many PBS stations beginning spring 2000. Copies are now available in both a one-hour and a 28-minute version, from Bullfrog Films 1-800-543-3764.

Tuesday, February 15, 2000

Smart Growth Speakers Series with Amory B. Lovins

Event Theme/Description: Mr. Lovins will share his insights on how ecological and economic goals can be reconciled, so that the world can grow simultaneously richer and greener. That is the challenge Mr. Lovins and his co-authors address in their recently released book, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. His remarks will focus in particular on land use issues and sustainable growth and development. Mr. Lovins together with his wife, Hunter, has written dozens of books on resource policy and business, including Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use (1998). Together or individually, they have received the Lindbergh Award, the Nissan Prize, the Right Livelihood Award, and many other top honors.