Housing is a critical part of the way communities grow, as it is constitutes a significant share of new construction and development. More importantly, however, is also a key factor in determining households’ access to transportation, commuting patterns, access to services and education, and consumption of energy and other natural resources. By using smart growth approaches to create a wider range of housing choices, communities can mitigate the environmental costs of auto-dependent development, use their infrastructure resources more efficiently, ensure a better jobs-housing balance, and generate a strong foundation of support for neighborhood transit stops, commercial centers, and other services.

No single type of housing can serve the varied needs of today’s diverse households. Smart growth represents an opportunity for local communities to increase housing choice not only by modifying their land use patterns on newly-developed land, but also by increasing housing supply in existing neighborhoods and on land served by existing infrastructure. Integrating single- and multi-family structures in new housing developments can support a more diverse population and allow more equitable distribution of households of all income levels across the region. The addition of units -- through attached housing, accessory units, or conversion to multi-family dwellings -- to existing neighborhoods creates opportunities for communities to slowly increase density without radically changing the landscape. New housing construction can be an economic stimulus for existing commercial centers that are currently vibrant during the work day, but suffer from a lack of foot traffic and consumers in evenings or weekends. Most importantly, providing a range of housing choices allow all households to find their niche in a smart growth community – whether it is a garden apartment, a rowhouse, or a traditional suburban home – and accommodate growth at the same time.

Resources

59th annual AIA Honor Awards

The 59th annual Honor Awards will be hosted by The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Seattle chapter on November 9, 2009. The event honors architects for their creative solutions and resourceful projects. With the theme “Improv\Improve,” this year’s Honor Awards will celebrate the agility, inventiveness and foresight architects bring to their work in this era of change – improvising and reacting quickly to new constraints, and going above and beyond to improve the built environment.

AIA Seattle received over 175 submissions — both envisioned and realized — ranging from commercial to residential and beyond. Projects are reviewed by a distinguished jury. Winning projects are first announced at the live Awards presentation. All projects submitted will be available to view online beginning October 20th at the link below.

Tickets also can be purchased online at the link below. Advance ticket sales end at 5pm, Sunday, November 8, 2009. Tickets also are available at the door the night of the event.

“Show You’re Green” Award Winning Projects

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Housing and Custom Residential Knowledge Community has selected eight “Show You’re Green” projects as examples of outstanding housing that is both affordable and green. The knowledge community invited Show You’re Green submissions from architects and developers around the nation.

Housing Policy Debate Journal

Housing Policy Debate (HPD) from the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech is an online journal that provides a venue for original housing and urban affairs research on a broad range of domestic and international topics. Subjects include the analysis of real estate and market trends, land use regulations, and metropolitan development patterns.

This Is Smart Growth Showcases Development at its Best

Many people want to know what smart growth looks like. This Is Smart Growth, a publication from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and the Smart Growth Network, illustrates and explains smart growth concepts and outcomes. This full-color booklet describes how, when done well, development can help create more economic opportunities, build great places where people want to live and visit, preserve the qualities people love about their communities, and protect environmental resources.

1000 Friends of Wisconsin ''Ten of the Best'' Awards

As part of its 10th year celebration, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin is recognizing ''10 of the Best'' individuals, organizations, companies, and efforts to promote better communities through land use and transportation ideas, policies, projects, and investments.

20 Actions Governors Can Take

The National Governors Association's (NGA) Health and Dignity Task Force provides this issue brief on ways to improve long-term health care issues in America.

2003 Advocates' Guide to Housing and Community Development Policy

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) publishes the Advocate's Guide to Housing and Community Development Policy each year to help keep advocates current on a wide range of issues, programs and tools at play in the world of housing policy, and to serve as a primer for those new to the field.

2003 Metlife Awards Case Studies

Community Safety Initiative (CSI) staff have produced case studies for seven 2003 MetLife Awards projects; these case studies are available online in PDF format at the Local Initiative Support Corporation website.

2003 Phoenix Awards

The 2003 Phoenix Awards for Excellence in Brownfield Redevelopment will be one of the highlights of the National Brownfields Conference, Brownfields 2003, in Portland, Oregon on October 27-29, 2003.

2004 American Community Survey

Smart Growth America and the National Association of Realtors® prepared this survey in October 2004 on Americans’ preferences for the type of communities they want to live in and the policies they support for creating those communities. The preferences and other opinions expressed in the survey suggest a direction for solving the conflicting pressures of the desire to develop and the wish to preserve communities.

2005 APA Planning Awards

The American Planning Association (APA) has announced the winners of its 2005 National Planning Awards. These awards honor the cutting-edge achievements of the planning profession and those involved in creating communities of lasting value.

2005 Better Community Awards -- Florida

Each year, 1000 Friends of Florida honors successful efforts to save special places, fight sprawl, and build better communities in our rapidly growing state. The 2005 Better Community Awards recognizes individuals, organizations, public-private partnerships, local governments, and agencies that, through visionary leadership and planning, have brought about positive and lasting change in their community or region or the state.

2005 Housing Awards

Join the 2005 award recipients as the American Institute of Architects honors and celebrates excellence in housing and community design.

2005 ULI Awards of Excellence -- Americas

Eleven outstanding developments from the Americas have been selected as winners for the 2005 Urban Land Institute's first ever (ULI) Awards for Excellence: The Americas competition.

2006 Changemakers Innovation Awards -- How to Provide Affordable Housing

''How to Provide Affordable Housing'' is the theme of this 2006 Changemakers Innovation Award. This competition is open to all types of organizations (charitable organizations, private companies, or public entities) from all countries, and the scope is actual housing solutions for a significant number of people, not only in the location of origin but also at the country, regional, or global level.

2006 Massachusetts Smart Growth Conference Proceedings

Conference proceedings and presentations from the 2006 Massachusetts Smart Growth Conference are now available online at the conference website. More than 750 people from the private, public, and non-profit sectors attended this event, co-hosted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Planning Association.

2006 Maxwell Awards of Excellence

The Fannie Mae Foundation, in partnership with the National Vacant Properties Campaign, has announced the 2006 Maxwell Awards of Excellence. The 2006 awards honor exemplary projects that reclaimed vacant and abandoned sites in the production of affordable housing. Four organizations doing outstanding work turning vacant properties into parts of vibrant communities were selected for the Awards.

2006 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement

On November 15, 2006, EPA announced five winners of the 2006 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. This award recognizes outstanding achievement in smart growth by tribal, state, local, or regional governments in five categories: Overall Excellence, Built Projects, Policies and Regulations, Small Communities, and Equitable Development.

2006 Neighborhood of the Year Award

Neighborhoods, USA (NUSA) invites applications to its 2006 Neighborhood of the Year Awards Program. Application deadline for the 2006 award is March 1, 2006.

2006 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference -- Audio Recordings

Audio compact discs from the 2006 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference are available for purchase. The fifth annual conference drew more than 1,200 attendees and offered dozens of seminars, symposia, workshops, and other events.

2006 Vision Long Island Smart Growth Awardees

Vision Long Island hosted more than 375 leaders, experts and advocates at the 5th Annual Smart Growth Awards on June 16, 2006. The event put a spotlight on the cutting edge people, projects and policies that are shaping the future of Long Island’s landscape. Categories were based on Vision Long Island's “Principles of Smart Growth,” and included awards for green development and regional leadership.

2006 Vision Long Island Smart Growth Awards Nominations

Vision Long Island is seeking nominations for its fourth annual Smart Growth Awards. This special event will honor individuals and organizations taking leadership in advancing Smart Growth projects, policies, regulations and initiatives. Deadline for submission is February 28, 2006.

2007 AIA/HUD Secretary’s Awards

The Housing and Custom Residential Knowledge Community of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announce the 2007 AIA/HUD Secretary’s Awards Program. New categories and guidelines have been added for this year's awards.

2007 Award for Smart Growth Excellence -- New York State

The New York State Association of REALTORS Award for Smart Growth Excellence was created to recognize the successful efforts of New York's communities to incorporate the principles of smart growth into their projects, policies and programs. Its purpose is to promote the continued advancement of smart growth in the state, in accordance with the principles adopted by REALTORS.

2007 Eagle Awards -- Colorado

Housing Colorado NOW! will celebrate the 19th anniversary of the Eagle Awards at the 2007 Housing Colorado NOW conference, October 1-4, 2007, in Vail, Colorado. This prestigious award recognizes outstanding leadership or accomplishments related to affordable housing and/or supportive services in Colorado.

2007 Energy Star Awards Nominations

Each year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) honor organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through superior energy efficiency. Award winners will be recognized at the ENERGY STAR Awards Ceremony on March 21, 2007 in Washington, DC.

2007 Growth and Transportation Survey

Three-fourths of Americans believe that being smarter about development and improving public transportation are better long-term solutions for reducing traffic congestion than building new roads, according to the 2007 Growth and Transportation Survey sponsored by the National Association of Realtors® and Smart Growth America.

2007 National Planning Awards -- Call for Entries

Good planning helps create communities of lasting value. Creating such communities takes effort, vision, and dedication.

2007 Virginia Go Green Awards

The James River Green Building Council (JRGBC) hosted the Virginia Go Green Competition and Awards Forum on April 20, 2007. The event was created to highlight design that supports the principles of sustainability in Central Virginia.

2007 Vision Long Island Smart Growth Awardees

Vision Long Island honored a dozen individuals and organizations in their 2007 Smart Growth Awards ceremony, held on June 15, 2007, at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury, New York.

2008 Annual Green Innovation Awards

The Virginia Sustainable Building Network (VSBN) announced the fourth annual Virginia Green Innovation Awards at its Annual Meeting on June 25, 2008. Each year, VSBN members are asked to nominate Green businesses, organizations, design firms, and community programs that represent ''the best Green projects or programs in Virginia.''

2008 Awards for Excellence -- Europe

Five outstanding developments have been selected as winners of the Urban Land Institute's (ULI) 2008 Awards for Excellence: Europe competition. The Awards for Excellence competition is widely recognized as the land use industry's most prestigious recognition program.

2008 Benchmarking Sustainability Awards

Green Building Pages has announced winners of its 2008 Benchmarking Sustainability Awards. This competition recognizes product manufacturers for achievements in minimizing their global environmental impacts in order to create a sustainable building industry and world.

2008 Better Community Awards Nominations -- Florida

Each year, 1000 Friends of Florida honors successful efforts to save special places, fight sprawl, and build better communities in this rapidly growing state. The 2008 Better Community Awards will recognize Florida's leading citizens, public servants, programs and communities that are contributing to an enhanced quality of life in this state.

2008 Comprehensive Planning Grants -- Wisconsin

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has announced comprehensive planning grants for 149 local governments throughout Wisconsin, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin reports. This funding will help communities develop and adopt locally created plans to address long-term needs, promote economic development, and guide future land use decisions.

2008 National Preservation Conference Speeches

Speeches from the 2008 National Preservation Conference are now available on the National Trust for Historic Preservation website. If you missed any of these key sessions, or just want to revisit a great talk, streaming audio from the Plenary Sessions and Special Lectures can be accessed at your convenience.

2008 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has released its 2008 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, a comprehensive approach to scoring and ranking states on the adoption and implementation of energy efficiency policies and programs.

2009 Detroit Community Development Awards

The 2009 Detroit Community Development Awards will be presented September 18, 2009. This event, sponsored by Detroit LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation), will recognize the individuals and organizations working tirelessly to achieve success in Detroit neighborhoods.

2009 Livable Communities Award

The Coalition for Smarter Growth will present its Sixth Annual Livable Communities Leadership Award to Congressman Gerry Connolly at an awards ceremony on February 25, 2009.

2009 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement Winners

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson presented the 2009 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement on December 1 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Through the awards, four communities were recognized for their comprehensive approach to improving access to affordable housing, providing more transportation options and protecting the local environment for residents.

The four recipients of the 2009 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement are:

Overall Excellence: Lancaster County Planning Commission for Envision Lancaster County. Lancaster County, in south-central Pennsylvania, is known for its historic towns and villages, and its fertile farmland. To maintain the county’s character, its diverse economy, and its natural resources for future generations, the Lancaster County Planning Commission established a countywide comprehensive growth management plan, which protects valuable farmland and historic landscapes by directing development to established towns and cities in the county.

Policies and Regulations: City of Charlotte for Urban Street Design Guidelines. As the central city in a rapidly growing metropolitan area, Charlotte, N.C., is under intense development pressures. Rather than continue the automobile-dominated development patterns of the last 50 years, Charlotte adopted Urban Street Design Guidelines to make walking, bicycling, and transit more appealing and to make the city more attractive and sustainable.

Built Projects: Chicago Housing Authority, FitzGerald Associates Architects and Holsten Real Estate Development Corporation for Parkside of Old Town. Parkside of Old Town sits on eight city blocks that were once home to a public housing complex notorious for criminal activity. The redevelopment has transformed the neighborhood by reconnecting it to downtown Chicago and tying together mixed-income housing, parks, and new shops and restaurants.

Smart Growth and Green Building: City of Tempe, Ariz. for the Tempe Transportation Center. The Tempe Transportation Center is a model for sustainable design, a vibrant, mixed-use regional transportation hub that incorporates innovative and green building elements tailored to the Southwest desert environment. The Tempe Transportation Center is a true multi-modal facility that integrates a light rail stop, the main city bus station, and paths for bicyclists and pedestrians.

2009 New Partners for Smart Growth Session Proposals

The Local Government Commission (LGC) is conducting a ''Call for Session Proposals'' (CFSP) for the 2009 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference program. This process will be open from May 19 through June 25, 2008. The submittal review process will take place from early-July through late-August 2008.

2009 Smart Growth Design & Reuse Competition

The Valley Development Council, in collaboration with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, invites you to participate in the 2009 Smart Growth Design & Reuse Competition.

Architects, designers, landscape architects, planners and students are invited to prepare concept plans for the redevelopment of three strategic sites in the Pioneer Valley, a region of Western Massachusetts defined by the Connecticut River Valley. These sites are located in Southampton, Palmer and Hadley.

The goal for this international design competition is to create a local example of sustainable development and redevelopment, and to provide a model of how communities in the region can grow smarter. With the partnerships formed through this competition process, there will be significant momentum for turning the winning concept plan idea into reality.

Deadline for submissions is January 15, 2010.

2009 Smart Growth Vermont Awards

Smart Growth Vermont announces its 2009 Smart Growth Awards and Art Gibb Award Ceremony. This awards program honors projects, initiatives, and plans anywhere in the state of Vermont that demonstrate smart growth principles in action.

2010 Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition

The ULI/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, now in its eighth year, offers graduate-level students the opportunity to form their own multidisciplinary teams and engage in a challenging exercise in responsible land use. Student teams comprising at least three disciplines will have two weeks to devise a comprehensive design and development program for a real, large-scale site fraught with challenges and opportunities. Submissions will consist of boards that include drawings, site plans, tables, and market-feasible financial data.

ULI will announce this year’s competition site on January 18, 2010, which is the day the competition officially gets underway.

The winning team will receive $50,000 and the finalist teams $10,000 each.

2010 IAHH International Student Design Competition

The International Association for Humane Habitat (IAHH) has announced its eighth International Student Design Competition, which is based on the theme of “Affordable Housing in Sustainable Humane Habitats.” The competition is open to students of architecture, housing, planning, urban design, landscape architecture and related disciplines of anthropology, sociology, engineering, economics, geography, social work etc. However, the design team must be led by a student of architecture. The student participants are required to identify a site in a city of their own choice anywhere in the world for planning and designing affordable housing in sustainable humane habitat project.

The site for the project shall be about 5-10 ha, which will be a brownfield site located in an urban area that is presently neglected. The site may have dilapidated housing stock. The project shall aim at providing affordable housing to about 1,000 families belonging to various income and social groups. A high priority shall be given to provide housing for the urban poor and low-income families. The project shall aim at sustainable urban renewal of the area with a mixed land-use strategy.

Final submissions are due: January 25, 2010.

2010 Metropolis Next Generation Design Competition

Metropolis's 2010 Next Generation Design Competition is now accepting entries based on the theme is One Design Fix for the Future. The competition is looking for one small (but utterly brilliant!) design fix that can be made now, and that will have a lasting postive impact on the designed environment. The competition is open to all designers and architects in practice ten years or less (including design students), and the winner will receive $10,000 to help make his or her idea a reality.

Deadline: January 29, 2010.

2010 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now accepting applications for the 2010 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. This competition is open to public- and private-sector entities that have successfully used smart growth principles to improve communities environmentally, socially, and economically.

The application period is open from February 8, 2010 to April 5, 2010.

Up to five awards will be given in the following categories:

• Programs, Policies, and Regulations
• Smart Growth and Green Building
• Civic Places
• Rural Smart Growth
• Overall excellence

2010 New Partners for Smart Growth: Building Safe, Healthy and Livable Communities

February 4-6, 2010 – Seattle, WA

The 9th Annual 2010 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Seattle, Washington, boasted record-breaking attendance. Some 1,600 people from across the country gathered for three days of presentations, discussions, and information sharing. For more information about the conference, see www.newpartners.org.

The conference was produced by the Local Government Commission (LGC), with support form a very impressive and multi-disciplinary group of partners and sponsoring organizations, agencies, and companies. Without their collective support, this dynamic event would not have been possible. For a complete list of sponsors and cosponsors, see

The conference was produced by the Local Government Commission (LGC), with support form a very impressive and multi-disciplinary group of partners and sponsoring organizations, agencies, and companies. Without their collective support, this dynamic event would not have been possible. For a complete list of sponsors and cosponsors, visit the conference website.

PDF files of available PowerPoint presentations are now available on the conference program page at the link below. These files are available for FREE download.

Please note: some presentation files are large and may take time to download.

2010 Opportunity to Register and Other Important Information for Electronic Application Submission for the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program

On February 10, 2010, HUD published an Advance Notice (75 FR 6689) announcing its intent to offer funding through competitive NOFA under its Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program. Through the Advance Notice, HUD sought input from state and local governments, regional bodies, community development entities, and a broad range of other stakeholders on how the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program should be structured in order to have the most meaningful impact on regional planning for sustainable development.

HUD is publishing this new Notice to inform potential applicants of the multi-week time frame for the registration requirements that must be met before an application can be submitted, as well as the application procedures to follow once the NOFA itself is published.

HUD is using this notice to request entities interested in applying for the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program to notify HUD of their intent to submit an application. Providing HUD with this information will allow HUD to properly access the workload anticipated during the review process and plan accordingly to ensure timely decision-making.

If your organization is interested in applying for the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program, please call the HUD NOFA Information Center as soon as possible at 1-800-HUD-8929. The NOFA Information Center will ask for your organization name and address, contact name, email, and telephone number, including area code. Notification of intent to apply is not a requirement for application. If you are an eligible applicant, you may still apply – notification merely helps HUD determine staffing requirements for review and evaluation of applicants.

The full Notice is available at the link below.

21st Century Land Development Code

In 21st Century Land Development Code from APA Planners Press, two of the nation's leading experts in land-use law and planning provide a comprehensive guide to drafting and updating land-use regulations.

30 Great Places in America

The American Planning Association (APA) has announced its 2008 list of Great Neighborhoods, Great Streets, and Great Public Spaces -- in 21 states and the District of Columbia -- that offer better choices for where and how people work and live.

50 Greenest Cities in the United States

The March 2008 issue of Popular Science Magazine has ranked America's 50 Greenest Cities. Popular Science used raw data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Geographic Society's Green Guide, which collected survey data and government statistics for American cities over 100,000 people in more than 30 categories, including air quality, electricity use, and transportation habits.

A Blueprint for Action: Developing a Livable Community for All Ages

A Blueprint for Action was created to provide local leaders with tools to build the collaborations needed to create livable communities for people of all ages. The guide can be used as a quick-reference kit for practitioners looking for tools, resources, and best practices. It includes information based on community experiences in building local leadership and offers tools to prepare for the needs of a maturing America, drawing on the most innovative and effective practices of communities throughout the country.

A Citizen’s Guide to Participating in Florida’s Growth Management Process

1000 Friends of Florida have produced A Citizen’s Guide to Participating in Florida’s Growth Management Process, a handbook that provides a brief overview of the Florida's Growth Management Act, and then focuses on how citizens can become effective advocates for better planning in their communities.

A Civic Gift

This report documents how entrepreneurs, investors, and insightful communities across Michigan are preserving historic assets and reaping greater economic activity and a higher quality of life.

A Global Urban Agenda: Highlights from the 2005 World Cities Forum

A Global Urban Agenda from the Urban Land Institute highlights issues discussed at ULI’s World Cities Forum in June 2005.

A Greener Plan for Affordable Housing

A Greener Plan for Affordable Housing: How States are Using the Housing Credit to Advance Sustainability is a report with a national focus that summarizes elements in state plans for allocating federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits in the areas of smart site locations, energy and resource efficiency, and healthy living environments.

A Guide for Collaborative Action

This report examines how community development organizations often overlook the importance of involving youth and delinquency prevention in their programs.

A Guide for Property Owners Returning to New Orleans

The National Trust for Historic Preservation offers this two-page guide for property owners returning to New Orleans. This overview is designed as an initial guide in helping property owners minimize structural and cosmetic flood damage.

A Guide to Affordable Housing Funding in New Jersey

A Guide to Affordable Housing Funding in New Jersey outlines the affordable housing funding sources available at the Federal, State and Local levels as well as private sources.

A Guide to Aging in Place

The National Aging in Place Council (NAICP) has create an online Guide to Aging in Place. This resource, indexed by topic, provides detailed information about things to consider if you want to remain living independently in your own home throughout retirement.

A Guide to Preserving Agricultural Lands in the Chesapeake Bay Region

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) has released A Guide to Preserving Agricultural Lands in the Chesapeake Bay Region: Keeping Stewards on the Land, a report on how the loss of prime farmland is threatening the region's agricultural industry, and ways to preserve farmland for the future.

A Guide to Smart Growth and Cultural Resource Planning

A Guide to Smart Growth and Cultural Resource Planning, prepared by the Wisconsin Historical Society's Division of Historic Preservation, is now available.

A Guide to Tax-Advantaged Rehabilitation 2009

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is updating its A Guide to Tax-Advantaged Rehabilitation, featuring the latest information on the historic rehabilitation tax credit in an easy question-and-answer format. Sample worksheets help readers estimate the value of the credit for their projects.

A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families

Low- to moderate-income working families are finding that as they move further from work to afford housing they end up spending as much, or more, on transportation costs than they are saving on housing, according to a new study of 28 major Metropolitan areas nationwide entitled A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families.

A Legal Guide to Urban and Sustainable Development for Planners, Developers and Architects

Written by pioneering attorneys in the emerging fields of urbanism and green building, A Legal Guide to Urban and Sustainable Development for Planners, Developers and Architects offers you practical solutions for legal issues you may face in planning, zoning, developing, and operating such communities.

A Long Way Home: The State of Housing Recovery in Louisiana 2008

Three years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered the homes of hundreds thousands of Louisianans, too many residents are still unable to afford to rebuild their homes or find an affordable place to rent, according to a new housing report by the national research and advocacy group PolicyLink. The new report, A Long Way Home: The State of Housing Recovery in Louisiana 2008, shows that while some progress has been made during the past year, thousands of residents who want to return home are facing a critical rental housing shortage, inadequate rebuilding grants and a recovery plagued by red tape and ever-changing rules.

A National Model for Smart Growth

''A National Model for Smart Growth'' is the title of this PowerPoint presentation from Ventura, California, on how the city is making smart growth central to its planning.

A New Housing Policy: Imagine the Possibilities

A New Housing Policy: Imagine the Possibilities is a PowerPoint based on the keynote speech given by National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) President Doug Bibby to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors on April 28, 2009.

A New Path Forward: Action Plan for a Sustainable Washington
Achieving Long-Term Economic, Social, and Environmental Vitality

From the Executive Summary:
Governor Gary Locke convened the Sustainable Washington Advisory Panel in September 2002 because of the widening gap between our state’s current reality and a Washington that is equitable, healthy, and prospering. The Panel concluded that it is imperative to initiate significant changes now if we want Washington’s quality of life to improve, not diminish, over the next generation.

A Plan for Tomorrow: Creating Stronger, Healthier Communities

A Plan for Tomorrow: Re-Thinking Density to Create Stronger, Healthier Communities is a free PowerPoint presentation jointly prepared by the Urban Land Institute, the National Multi-Housing Council, and the Sierra Club, that shows how density can transform neighborhoods, and offers compelling research to allay conventional fears about density.

A Reporter’s Resource and Media Guide to Growth in CA

Unprecedented population pressures throughout California are threatening the state’s natural values and pristine landscapes. The threat is largely the result of land use policies that favor low-density development over carefully planned growth within existing urban boundaries.

A Residents' Guide to Creating Safe and Walkable Communities

People need walkable communities where sidewalks, trails, and street crossings are safe, accessible, and comfortable for people of all ability levels. A Residents' Guide to Creating Safe and Walkable Communities from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, provides examples from communities that are working to improve pedestrian safety. It includes information, ideas, and resources to help residents learn about issues that affect walking conditions; find ways to address or prevent these problems; and promote pedestrian safety.

A Roadmap to Revitalizing Urban Neighborhood Business Districts

This report describes methods that the Local Initiatives Support Corporation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation have used to successfully revitalize urban neighborhood districts.

A Smart Growth Reader

A Smart Growth Reader, prepared by the American Planning Association (APA), is designed as an aid to understanding the various elements that make up Smart Growth. This on-line publication draws on articles that have appeared in APA publications over the past two years, and is intended as a rich compendium of perspectives on the smart growth.

A Strategy for Saving Rhode Island from Sprawl and Urban Decay

This briefing book from Grow Smart Rhode Island provides background information about issues that are critical for the state’s healthy economic and physical development, quality of life, and social well-being.

A Toolkit for Tomorrow’s Schools

This analysis examines how schools and development can be planned together using common population projections, facility budgeting, comprehensive plans, and even common review staff.

A Toolkit for Tomorrow’s Schools

This analysis examines how schools and development can be planned together using common population projections, facility budgeting, comprehensive plans, and even common review staff.

A Toolkit for Tomorrow’s Schools

This analysis examines how schools and development can be planned together using common population projections, facility budgeting, comprehensive plans, and even common review staff.

Accessory Apartments: An Affordable Housing Strategy

GrowSmart Maine offers this two-page fact sheet on Accessory Apartments (also called ''granny flats,'' ''accessory dwelling units'' (ADUs), ''secondary units,'' or ''single-family conversions'') that serves as both an introduction to the idea of spreading affordable housing units throughout a community while providing an improved quality of life for elderly citizens who choose to continue to live in their homes, or for families who wish to have elderly relatives live at home with them.

Accessory Dwelling Units: A Guide for Homeowners

Vermont’s law on equal treatment of housing and town bylaws changed in 2005, creating a new opportunity for homeowners to add an apartment to their house.

Achieving Equity and Inclusion in America

PolicyLink has developed Achieving Equity and Inclusion in America: Policy Principles for the Obama Administration and New Congress, a framework of principles that can guide federal decision-making to maximize the return on national investment for all Americans, especially low-income people and communities of color. These principles reflect the knowledge and experience PolicyLink has developed through its decade-long partnership with local leaders working to foster economic and social inclusion in communities across America.

Achieving Smart Growth in New Hampshire

The New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning (OEP) has produced a report and website, Achieving Smart Growth in New Hampshire. This project documents how New Hampshire is changing and highlights some positive examples of development and conservation throughout the state.

Across Local Borders

This 45-page report documents some of the conditions under which local governments have found regional coordination of brownfields redevelopment to be strategic, the different forms of regional coordination that are taking place, and case study examples describing why and how communities are meeting brownfields challenges through regional approaches.

Active Living Approaches by Local Government

Active living -- the integration of physical activity into daily routines -- is one innovative approach to making communities healthier. This survey by the National Association of Counties and the International City/County Management Association seeks to understand how local government leaders view their role in enabling active living in communities.

Active Living Research -- Call for Abstracts 2006

Active Living Research has issued a Call for Abstracts for their Third Annual Conference, to be held in Coronado, California, February 16-18, 2006.

Active Living Research -- Childhood Obesity

Active Living Research is a $12.5-million national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that stimulates and supports research to identify environmental factors and policies that influence physical activity. Childhood obesity is one topic that Active Living Research has pursued, and to this end issued a call for proposals is to increase our understanding of how environments and policies affect children's physical activity in community and school settings.

Active Living Resource Center Library

The Active Living Resource Center (ALRC) is an online resource designed to help citizens take charge in their neighborhoods and make them more physically active by making them more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. The ALRC Library provides dozens of resources that support this goal.

Active Neighborhood Checklist

Active Living Research grantees have developed an objective and practical checklist to help residents, community groups, local government officials and advocacy organizations determine whether their neighborhoods are activity friendly. The checklist rates communities on land use, presence of public recreational facilities, availability of public transportation and quality of the environment.

Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances in Maryland

Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances in Maryland are being applied in ways that often deflect development away from the very areas designated for growth, contrary to both the state’s Smart Growth land use policy and the underlying intent of the ordinances, according to a new report by the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education.

Affordable Housing and Community Development

Washington Mutual teams up with nonprofit organizations by investing in their efforts to build stronger communities. One program offers grants on affordable housing and community development.

Affordable Housing and Smart Growth: Making the Connection

This report identifies a range of policies and approaches that help achieve both smart growth and affordable housing objectives. The report provides case studies of towns, cities, and states that have benefited from linking these two interrelated goals.

Affordable Housing Built Responsibly Grants

Through the Affordable Housing Built Responsibly grant program, The Home Depot Foundation administers millions of dollars in grants each year to nonprofit organizations whose missions align with the Foundation's interests in supporting the production and preservation of affordable, efficient and healthy housing.

The Home Depot Foundation makes grants to 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charities in the United States and to charitable organizations in Canada. Support is given to programs and projects that align with the Foundation's mission and grant criteria.

To better support its mission, The Home Depot Foundation awards most of its grants by directly soliciting proposals from high-performing nonprofit organizations with the demonstrated ability to create strong partnerships, impact multiple communities and leverage grant resources. In order to identify potential future nonprofit partners or respond to unique community revitalization opportunities, a limited amount of unsolicited grant funding is set aside to be awarded through a competitive process.

UPDATE: Community Tree Grants
The Home Depot Foundation has combined its community trees grant program with its Affordable Housing Built Responsibly grant program. The Foundation remains firmly committed to supporting the planting of trees and the development of greenspace in order to provide communities with the many economic, social and environmental benefits of the urban forest. This change in programming structure reflects the foundation’s understanding that it is more effective to support the creation of healthy and sustainable communities through the integration of our focus areas.

Preference is given to proposals that include community engagement that result in the production, preservation, or financing of housing units for low- to moderate-income families. The most promising proposals incorporate a number of “green” building design practices. Also, proposals that clearly demonstrate how tree strategies integrated with affordable housing production/preservation create healthier, more vibrant communities will have a distinct advantage.

For this grant cycle, letters of inquiry are due July 1, 2010. Full project proposals are due September 15, 2010.

Affordable Housing Design Advisor

This web site is described as a tool, resource, idea bank and step-by step guide to Design in affordable housing.

Affordable Housing Development 101

PolicyLink, a national nonprofit research, communications, capacity building, and advocacy organization, works to advance policies to achieve economic and social equity. PolicyLink collaborates with a broad range of partners to implement strategies to ensure that everyone -- including those from low-income communities of color -- can contribute to and benefit from economic growth and prosperity.

Affordable Housing Grantmaking

The MacArthur Foundation announced plans to provide $35 million in new funding for innovative public sector initiatives to preserve and improve the existing stock of privately owned affordable rental homes.

Affordable Housing Grantmaking

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation offers on its website guidance for Affordable Housing grantmaking through its Program on Human and Community Development.

Affordable Housing Grants

WAMU.com, a Washington Mutual, Inc., web site, partners with nonprofit organizations by investing in their efforts to build stronger communities. One program offers grants on affordable housing and community development.

Affordable Housing Resource Center

The Affordable Housing Resource Center is an online resource offered by Novogradac & Company LLP that features policy and legislation, state information, financing tools, and more.

Affordable Housing Solutions

The Affordable Housing Solutions resource includes several affordable housing programs from Fannie Mae that qualify buyers for higher mortgages if they choose energy efficient features in their home, or if their home is located near public transportation.

Affordable Housing: Designing an American Asset

Affordable Housing: Designing an American Asset is a new book from The Urban Land Institute and National Building Museum that will help you make the case for affordable housing and demonstrate that low-cost housing need not be of low quality.

Affordable Housing's Green Future

Affordable Housing's Green Future by Tony Proscio describes the remarkable efforts of funders, policymakers, researchers and community-based developers in Minnesota to make all affordable housing in the state environmentally sustainable. Minnesota Green Communities has made substantial progress in just two years, putting the initiative's ambitious goal to make all the affordable housing in the state green within cautious reach in the near future.

Affordable Rental Housing

Window of Opportunity: Preserving Affordable Rental Housing is a $50 million initiative to preserve and improve affordable rental housing across the United States. The initiative's immediate goal is to help large nonprofit housing organizations purchase and maintain 100,000 units of existing, affordable rental housing that might otherwise deteriorate or become too expensive for low- and moderate-income households.

Age Friendly Manitoba Initiative

The Canadian Province of Manitoba has launched an Age Friendly Initiative with numerous partners to address the challenges facing the growing population of seniors.

Aging in Place

Aging in Place from the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Community Housing Resource Center is a tool designed to help local governments plan and prepare for their aging populations. It presents a series of programs and zoning practices that expand the alternatives available to older adults living in the community.

Aging in Place Initiative

The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) and Partners for Livable Communities (PLC) have launched a joint initiative to work with cities and counties over an 18-month period to facilitate a community dialogue on ''aging in place,'' and to assist community leaders in developing an action plan to ensure programs and services are in place so that communities are good places to grow old.

Aging in Place Reading List

The National Aging in Place Council (NAIPC) publishes an Aging in Place Reading list featuring recommended books and articles. Featured titles include ''The Senior Solution: A Family Giude to Keeping Seniors Home for Life'' and ''Retirement Life By Design.''

Aging in Place: A Toolkit for Local Governments

Aging in Place: A Toolkit for Local Governments from the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Community Housing Resource Center is a tool designed to help local governments plan and prepare for their aging populations. It presents a series of programs and zoning practices that expand the alternatives available to older adults living in the community.

Aging Initiative Awards

The U.S. EPA is inviting eligible candidates to submit applications for the Excellence in Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging award. Applications are due September 12, 2008.

Agriculture and Farmland Protection Programs

This report to the New York State Advisory Council on Agriculture summarizes results from six regional round table discussions on Agriculture and Farmland Protection held between May and September, 2003. These discussions were held to obtain informed stakeholder views on current State programs designed to promote the agricultural industry and maintain the agricultural land base.

Ahwahnee Principles for Climate Change

At the 17th Annual Yosemite Conference for Local Elected Officials, a process was set in place by the Local Government Commission's (LGC's) Board of Directors to develop a set of guiding principles for local governments to use in response to global warming. A draft of Ahwahnee Principles for Climate Change was distributed at the conference for comments by all attendees.

AIA 50to50

50to50 from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a how-to resource intended to assist architects and the construction industry in moving toward the AIA's public goal of a minimum 50 percent reduction of fossil fuel consumption in buildings by 2010 and carbon neutrality by 2030.

AIA Chicago Sustainable Design Awards

The Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Chicago) has announced its first-ever Sustainable Design Awards as part of its annual Design Excellence Awards program, which honors the construction and renovation work of local architects.

AIA Connecticut Design Awards

The American Institute of Architects Connecticut (AIA Connecticut) Design Awards celebrate the accomplishments of Connecticut architects and the excellence of Connecticut architectural projects.

AIA Green Building Awards -- 2008

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) has announced winners of its 2008 ''Top Ten Green Projects.'' Each project was evaluated on ten measures, documented extensively on the COTE Web site, which include design innovation, community context and land use, longevity, bioclimatic design, water and energy conservation, materials, and indoor environment.

AIA Housing and Community Design Awards -- 2010

Applications are currently being accepted by the Housing and Custom Residential Knowledge Community of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), in conjunction with the Office of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, for the 2010 AIA Housing and Community Design Awards. These annual awards recognize excellence in residential housing design, particularly in affordable housing, community-based design, participatory design, and housing accessibility.

AIA Housing Awards 2007 -- Call for Entries

The AIA Housing and Custom Residential Knowledge Community and the American Institute of Architects announce the new face of the Housing Awards Program. Previously known as the AIA Housing Committee Awards, the program is now called the AIA Housing Awards. New categories and guidelines are now available for the 2007 program.

AIA Recorded Presentations -- Convention '09

Did you miss the 2009 AIA convention? The American Institute of Architects is offering through its website a video stream of select presentations and workshops from the 2009 National Convention and Design Exposition.

AIA Seattle 2009 Honor Awards

AIA Seattle is accepting nominations in its 2009 Honor Awards. This year's awards follow the theme ''Improv/Improve'' -- celebrating the agility, inventiveness and foresight that AIA Seattle members bring to their work in this era of change.

AIA Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) Program

The SDAT is a community assistance program that focuses on the principles of sustainability. SDATs will bring a team of volunteer professionals (such as architects, urban designers, planners, hydrologists, economists, attorneys, and others) to work with community decision-makers and stakeholders to help them develop a vision and framework for a sustainable future.

AIA Sustainable Design Assessment Team RFP -- 2008

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Center for Communities by Design announces the 2008 Sustainable Design Assessment Team Program (SDAT) Request for Proposals. The RFP solicits applications for inclusion in the Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) 2008 program.

AIA Sustainable Design Assessment Team RFP -- 2009

The American Institute of Architects Center for Communities by Design announces the 2009 Sustainable Design Assessment Team Program Request for Proposals.

AIA Sustainable Design Assessment Team RFP -- 2010

The AIA Center for Communities by Design announces the 2010 Sustainable Design Assessment Team Program Request for Proposals. The RFP solicits applications for inclusion in the Sustainable Design Assessment Team 2010 program.

AIA Top Ten Projects and Measures -- 2008

Each year the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment hosts a 2008 Top Ten Green Awards competition. In addition to posting award recipients and project summaries, AIA produces a webpage featuring information on the ten measures and supporting metrics used to evaluate the entries.

AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Project Awards -- 2008

The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment has posted results from their 2008 Top Ten Green Awards.

AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects -- 2009 Nominations

The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA/COTE) invites your entry to the 2009 Top Ten Green Projects Awards.

Alcan Prize for Sustainability 2007

The Alcan Prize for Sustainability is a $1 million prize that recognizes organizations demonstrating a comprehensive approach to addressing, achieving and further advancing economic, environmental and/or social sustainability. The Alcan Prize for Sustainability is one of the world’s most significant, privately funded Prizes. One Prize is awarded annually.

Alternatives for Coastal Development

NOAA Coastal Services Center offers an extensive online library of information and tools for coastal development, mapping, and restoration. In Alternatives for Coastal Development: One Site, Three Scenarios, the Center examines design scenarios in terms of Smart Growth.

America 2050 Planning Initiative

America 2050 is a national initiative to meet the infrastructure, economic development and environmental challenges of the nation as we prepare to add about 130 million additional Americans by the year 2050.

American Makeover

American Makeover is a new web-exclusive series that explores growth and development alternatives in communities across America, looking at what can be done to help our communities grow in such a way that gives us the kind of neighborhoods and choices we're increasingly looking for.

The first episode ''sounds the alarm bell on Atlanta’s sprawl.'' No one who has ever been to Atlanta will argue their status as poster child of sprawling growth, but it's encouraging that the filmmakers spend most of the short episode taking a closer look at the alternatives in Atlanta — focusing on those growing millions of people who are looking for places to live that are walkable and connected and dontt entail hour-long car commutes to work, school, or the local market.

The series is expected to include episodes of four to five more cities.

AMPO -- 2004 Conference Presentations

Presentations from the 2004 Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations Conference are available online as PowerPoint files through the AMPO website.

AMPO Annual Conference Presentations

The AMPO Annual Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, October 2-4, 2007, drew close to 300 attendees from MPO's, state and federal agencies, and consulting firms. Presentations from many conference events are now available online at the AMPO website.

An Alternative Future: Florida in the 21st Century 2020 2040 2060

An Alternative Future is a comprehensive look at an alternate trend for development that would accommodate the predicted doubling of Florida's population by 2060 without changing the character of the landscape. By creating an efficient transportation infrastructure, a significant cost-savings can be realized -- up to $526 billion dollars -- over the current development trends.

Annotated Resources for Green Multifamily Rehabilitation

Annotated Resources for Green Multifamily Rehabilitation from Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) is a summary of resources available on the topic of green building/rehabilitation for multifamily homes.

APA Affordable Housing Reader

With the support of the Fannie Mae Foundation, the American Planning Association (APA) has assembled more than 100 documents and articles from APA publications that examine the affordable housing problem in the U.S. and identify and evaluate various solutions.

APA Audio Conferences

The American Planning Association (APA) offers the Audio Conference Training Series comprised of thematic audio and visual training programs. Topics during the current series include Economic Development for Small Towns, Planning and Public Health, and Planning for Safe Growth.

APA National Plan of the Year Award -- 2006

With northeastern Illinois expected to grow by 1.9 million people over the next 25 years, a new vision -- one that will accommodate this anticipated growth in an efficient, coordinated and sustainable manner -- is guiding decision making around the region. This vision is a key component of the 2040 Regional Framework Plan, recipient of the 2006 Outstanding Planning Award for a Plan from the American Planning Association (APA).

APA National Planning Conference Coverage 2007

The American Planning Association has created a website featuring resources and information from their 2007 National Planning Conference. Session reports, photos from various events, media coverage, and more can be found at this resource.

APA Releases Report on Regional Affordable Housing Programs

The American Planning Association's new report, Regional Approaches to Affordable Housing, evaluates 23 programs across the nation to find out if they actually resulted in housing production and, if so, how. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Fannie Mae Foundation, and APA funded the study.

APA's 2009 Planning Conference -- Call for Proposals

The American Planning Association (APA) is seeking proposals for providing educational content at the 2009 APA National Planning Conference in Minneapolis, April 25–29, 2009.

April 2007 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The April 2007 issue of Getting Smart! focuses on three case studies of faith-based organizations and religious institutions that have been pivotal in the success of smart growth efforts.

April 2009 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The April 2009 Getting Smart e-newsletter features articles on energy-related topics. With the Obama Administration declaring energy a priority and investing billions of federal dollars in new and existing programs, this edition offers some ideas for broader consideration.

April Planning Magazine

The April 2009 issue of Planning, the magazine of the American Planning Assocation, contains features on energy, stalled growth in suburbs, the stimulus bill, and more.

Arizona Smart Growth Scorecard

The Arizona Smart Growth Scorecard is a valuable tool for community self-assessment developed by a working group of the Growth Cabinet with input from public and private stakeholders. It is designed to strengthen the ability of local officials to plan for future growth and development and to adopt comprehensive strategies that address growth-related pressures. As Arizona continues to attract unprecedented population growth, all levels of government must play a role in wisely planning and managing both the challenges and opportunities that new growth and development present.

Recognizing that communities measure and track how well they are implementing smart growth and look for areas of improvement, the Growth Cabinet prepared this Scorecard to help communities assess whether they have the right tools in place to promote smart growth. Executive Order 2007-05, directed state agencies to identify how state discretionary funds might provide incentives to communities for growing smarter and technical assistance for those needing support. The intent is to provide communities, counties, and Tribal governments - small or large, rural or urban - with a simple, clear, usable means of evaluating how well prepared they are for the pressures of growth. In addition, the Scorecard can help spur action on local and regional approaches to address growth issues and provide incentives and assistance to communities wanting to effectively and efficiently manage development. Cities, towns, counties, and Tribal governments will be evaluated by the set of smart growth criteria and indicators contained within the Scorecard.

Arlington's Smart Growth Journey: Documentary Film

Arlington's Smart Growth Journey is a documentary film that traces the dramatic history of the past half-century of growth and development in Arlington, Virginia.

Association of Bay Area Governments: Theory in Action - Smart Growth Case Studies in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the nation

This online document catalogs smart growth initiatives such as compact development, urban revitalization, affordable housing, and open space protection at the local, regional, and state level in the Bay Area, elsewhere in California, and in the rest of the country.

Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) Livable Centers Initiative -- Georgia

The Atlanta Regional Commission’s (ARC) Livable Centers Initiative encourages local jurisdictions to plan and implement strategies that link transportation improvements with land use development strategies to create sustainable, livable communities consistent with regional development policies.

Atlanta Regional Commission Public Affairs Show

''The Shape of Things to Come'' is a quarterly, 30-minute public affairs program produced by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC). The show focuses on the issues, challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the Atlanta region.

Atlanta's Fifty Forward Initiative

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has launched an ambitious initiative, called ''Fifty Forward: Metro Atlanta Futures Forum,'' to explore possible future scenarios for metro Atlanta and forge an action plan to ensure future livability, prosperity and sustainability.

Audio from Three Winter 2008 Smart Growth Speaker Series Events

New audio recordings are now available from three Smart Growth Speaker Series events at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. These lectures are part of a four-part series focusing on Smart Growth in Washington, D.C., which will conclude with the April 23, 2008 event celebrating 10 years of the Smart Growth Speaker Series.

August 2007 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The August 2007 issue of Getting Smart! focuses on one of the hottest -- no pun intended -- issues of the day: climate change. The transportation sector is one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. To effectively reduce emissions from the transportation sector, we must reduce the number of miles U.S. residents drive; in other words, land use patterns must change. Smart growth will play a critical role in making this change happen.

August 2008 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The latest issue of Getting Smart! is now available for all Smart Growth Network members in the Members Section. This edition of Getting Smart! examines how the most public of places -- our community's streets -- can be transformed to serve not only vehicles but also pedestrians and cyclists.

Awards for Excellence in Affordable Housing

In partnership with the MetLife Foundation, The Enterprise Foundation offers the MetLife Foundation Awards for Excellence in Affordable Housing. The awards program recognizes 501(c)(3) community-based or regional nonprofit organizations and Tribes or Tribally Designated Housing Entities that excel in property and asset management or provide housing to people with special needs.

Awards for Municipal Excellence -- 2008 Call for Nominations

The National League of Cities (NLC) is pleased to announce the 2008 Awards for Municipal Excellence, an awards competition that identifies and showcases outstanding city and town programs that improve the quality of life in America's communities.

Awards of Excellence for Sustainable Community Development

The Home Depot Foundation’s Awards of Excellence for Sustainable Community Development recognizes public-private partnerships that have successfully developed projects and/or initiatives that promote and exemplify a more sustainable community. Truly sustainable projects take a holistic, integrated approach, whereby sustainability planning, affordable housing and the creation of green spaces and planting of trees are inextricably linked.

Projects that qualify for the Awards of Excellence in Sustainable Community Development program exhibit thoughtful construction of a neighborhood which includes green affordable housing and tree plantings and have gone beyond to address overarching community issues. These projects have contributed to creating a stronger connection among the residents and addressed many broad-scale issues, including treatment of stormwater, economic development, reducing urban heat island effect, disaster preparedness, carbon reduction strategies, abandoned and foreclosed properties, pedestrian friendliness, traffic calming, transit oriented development, and resident health and quality of life.

The Awards of Excellence go to both the cities and their non-profit partners representing the partnership that completed the local initiative. The Foundation will recognize a National Winner ($75,000 grant), National Runner-up ($25,000 grant), and up to three Honorable Mentions ($2,500 grant).

The grants are to be used at the discretion of the non-profit to further the sustainability goals of the community.

Responses are due March 31, 2010.

Balancing the Land Use/Transportation Equation

Balancing the Land Use/Transportation Equation, from the American Institute Of Certified Planners, discusses recent research and examples of the integration of land-use and transportation policies.

Bank of America Community Development

Bank of America has established several programs that support sustainable community regional planning.

Bank of America Neighborhood Excellence Initiative -- 2005

Bank of America's Neighborhood Excellence initiative consists of three distinct investing programs in select markets: Neighborhood Builders, Local Heroes, and Student Leaders.

Bank of America Neighborhood Excellence Initiative -- 2006

Bank of America's Neighborhood Excellence initiative consists of three distinct investing programs in select markets: Neighborhood Builders, Local Heroes, and Student Leaders.

Bank of America Neighborhood Excellence Initiative -- 2007

Bank of America's Neighborhood Excellence initiative consists of three distinct investing programs in select markets: Neighborhood Builders, Local Heroes, and Student Leaders.

Bargaining for Development

This unique, 312-page volume from the Environmental Law Institute features an extensive categorization of land development conditions by type of public facility and an extensive discussion of ways in which impact fees can be calculated.

Bay Area Burden: Examining the Costs and Impacts of Housing and Transportation on Bay Area Residents, Their Neighborhoods, and the Environment

Bay Area Burden provides a comprehensive analysis of the “cost of place” in nine counties located throughout the San Francisco region by examining the costs and impacts of housing and transportation on Bay Area residents, their neighborhoods, and the environment.

Bay Area households spend an average of more than $28,000 annually on housing—about 39 percent of the area median income. In addition to the high cost of housing, Bay Area households spend nearly $13,400 annually on transportation. Combined, this cost burden of $41,420 per year represents 59 percent of the median household income in the Bay Area. The high combined costs of housing and transportation leave many Bay Area households with insufficient remaining income to comfortably meet their basic needs. This underscores the importance of broadening our understanding of housing affordability to consider the combined costs of housing and transportation, as well as the impacts of longer commutes on the environment and quality of life.

This report exposes the complexity of the interaction of housing and transportation choices as well as expenditures, and the unintended consequences on the natural environment when they work at cross purposes. The report also highlights the importance of “location efficiency” — the proximity of housing to transportation hubs, employment, and retail centers — as a driver of both affordability and environmental sustainability. Land use decisions play a critical role in determining the availability of housing that is affordable to Bay Area working families in locations that are near employment centers and transit. By strengthening the coordination of land use, housing, and transportation policies, Bay Area jurisdictions could create, preserve, and expand communities that are both environmentally sustainable and affordable to Bay Area households.

Bay Area Focused Growth

Four San Francisco, California Bay Area regional agencies have joined forces in a Joint Policy Committee. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) are working together to create complete, livable communities.

Bay Area Smart Growth Fund -- San Francisco Bay Area, California

The Bay Area Smart Growth Fund I, LLC invests in retail, office, commercial, industrial, multi-family and select single-family housing opportunities that may make a measurable impact on the economic and social revitalization of neighborhoods in the 46 targeted communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

BEES 3.0 -- Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability

Designers, builders, and product manufacturers can use this program to help select cost-effective, environmentally preferable building products.

Beltway Burden: Housing and Transportation Costs Squeeze Working Families

Housing located far from transit and employment centers places a heavy financial strain on working families in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region, according to a 2009 publication from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing. Beltway Burden: The Combined Cost of Housing and Transportation in the Greater Washington, DC Metropolitan Area, documents the challenges faced by area working families who are forced to ''drive 'til they qualify'' for housing, incurring higher transportation costs that eventually erode their housing cost savings. It finds that area families are victim to combined housing and transportation costs that constitute, on average, nearly 47 percent of the area median income.

Best and Worst Developments in the Bay Area

The Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC) has produced this report that rates 18 projects in nine counties of the San Francisco Bay area.

Best Development Practices

APA Planners Press. 1996. In this book Reid Ewing argues that the best development is both profitable and sustainable. APA Planners Press.

Best Practice in Regeneration Awards

The theme for the 2005 BURA Awards for Best Practice in Regeneration is Imagination, innovation, inspiration and determination. The British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA) invites entries from across Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and all regions of England for the 2005 awards.

Best Practices for Preservation Organizations

Best Practices for Preservation Organizations from the National Trust for Historic Preservation provides preservation easement holding organizations with guidance on the operation of easement programs and organizational best practices by applying Land Trust Standards and Practices.

Best Practices in Development: ULI Award Winning Projects 2009

This lavishly illustrated, hardcover awards book profiles 48 top development projects throughout the world. Each project description includes photos, the development story, and project data and is a winner or finalist for the prestigious ULI Awards for Excellence. The annual prize is based on financial viability, the resourceful use of land, design, relevance to contemporary issues, and sensitivity to the community and environment.

Best Practices in the Production of Affordable Housing

Best Practices in Producing Affordable Housing, an Urban Land Institute/Fannie Mae Foundation Policy Forum held in Washington, D.C., in March 2005, sought to identify and explore current best practices and learn from companies that are doing an exemplary job of providing affordable housing. This document reports on the initial findings from that event.

Best Urban Development Award 2008

A project funded by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) in Boston was named a finalist in the ''Best Affordable Housing Developments of 2007-08'' award given by Affordable Housing Finance.

Better Models for Development in California

Better Models for Development in California is a one of a kind publication for creating, maintaining and enhancing livable communities in California.

Better Models for Development in Maryland

Authors Edward McMahon and Shelley Mastran offer practical advice on key issues facing communities throughout Maryland in Better Models for Development in Maryland, published by the Conservation Fund.

Beyond 50.05: A Report to the Nation on Livable Communities

Beyond 50.05 -- Livable Communities: Creating Environments for Successful Aging takes a fresh look at the adequacy of communities to serve the needs of persons of all ages, especially those 50 and older, and provides AARP’s prescription for improving them.

Beyond Green Awards 2008: Call for Entries

The Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC) invites you to participate in the 2008 Beyond Green™ High-Performance Building Awards. This unique program recognizes the initiatives that shape, inform and catalyze the high-performance building market, as well as the real-world application of high-performance design and construction practices.

BGreen 2020

The City of Bridgeport and Bridgeport Regional Business Council have released BGreen 2020, a Sustainability Plan that outlines the policies and actions to be implemented in the next decade to improve the quality of life, social equity, and economic competitiveness of the city while reducing carbon emissions and increasing the community's resilience to the effects of climate change and increasing energy costs. The program management team, led by Regional Plan Association, convened the efforts of more than a hundred stakeholders in a Community Advisory Committee and working groups to develop strategies to address brownfields and land use, pedestrian and transit access, renewable energy production, and environmental protection while supporting the growth of green jobs in the region.

BGreen 2020 is the result of a public-private partnership between the City of Bridgeport and the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, a consortium of local business groups. By building on Bridgeport's existing strengths, BGreen will modernize the city's infrastructure, create wealth, intensify urban amenities, enhance environmental quality, enable revitalization without gentrification, and retain Bridgeport's historic character. Early priorities are the creation of an Energy Improvement District to support energy efficiency and production, adopting a ''Transit First'' policy, developing a plan for open space use and maintenance, expanding recycling, and protecting the region's waterways through enhanced stormwater management. A Green Collar Institute will train workers and act as an incubator for developing green industries.

More information, and a download link, can be found at the link below.

(Reprinted with permission from Regional Plan Association)

Bike and Build

Bike and Build raises funds for affordable housing projects through. Riders select one of several coast-to-coast routes and receive sponsor pledges for the trip. Over five seasons, Bike and Build has contributed $1,144,231 to housing groups to fund projects planned and executed by young adults; this includes $391,327 donated from the summer of 2007.

Blueprint Buffalo

Blueprint Buffalo is a report from the National Vacant Properties Campaign (Campaign) and Local Initiatives Support Corporation -- Buffalo (LISC-Buffalo) that outlines a strategy to rebuild the Buffalo, New York region using smart growth development principles, with an emphasis on reclaiming and reusing vacant and abandoned properties.

Blueprint for a Better Region: Putting Development in the Right Places

This PowerPoint presentation promotes Smart Growth principles in the Greater Washington, D.C. metro area.

Blueprint for America

Blueprint for America is a comprehensive community service program of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) initiated by AIA members in their local communities.

Blueprint for America Initiatives

Blueprint for America Initiatives are part of the nationwide community service program launched by American Institute of Architects to mark the organization's 150th anniversary. In communities across the country, AIA members donating their time and expertise are collaborating with citizens to find and implement ways to enhance their communities.

Blueprint for American Prosperity

The Blueprint for American Prosperity is a multi-year initiative from Brookings to promote an economic agenda for the nation that builds on the assets -- and centrality -- of America's metropolitan areas.

Blueprint for Oregon's Future

From 2005-2007, 1000 Friends of Oregon, the Bus Project, and more than 50 other organizations hosted a series of town hall forums in 16 locations across the state. Called ''Envision Oregon,'' these forums challenged more than 2,200 participants from over 140 towns and places in Oregon to describe their vision for Oregon's future, and to help create strategies for making that vision a reality. They also formed the foundation for Blueprint for Oregon's Future.

Blueprint Houston

Blueprint Houston is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building community support for a planning process that makes improvements to Houston's quality of life and place.

Blueprints for Successful Communities

Blueprints for Successful Communities is an education and technical assistance program of The Georgia Conservancy that is designed to facilitate community-based planning efforts across the state.

Boston Architects -- 2009 Call for Design Awards Program Nominations

Each year the Boston Society of Architects (BSA), often in collaboration with other organizations, sponsors awards programs to honor design excellence in Massachusetts, throughout New England and elsewhere.

Boston Indicators Report

The Indicators Report provides high quality data and information about Boston by engaging hundreds of participants and experts in presenting data in 10 categories, drawn from the wealth of research and information generated by public agencies, civic institutions, researchers, think tanks and community-based organizations.

Breaking the Codes

Breaking the Codes is a report from Good Jobs First that documents the ways that states are revising their building codes to encourage more rehabilitation of existing structures, especially in urban areas.

Breaking the Development Logjam

Breaking the Development Logjam from the Urban Land Institute explains in plain terms how developers and planners can involve the community in the development process using the latest community engagement tools.

Breakthroughs, May 2010

This year's third edition of Breakthroughs has just been released by HUD’s Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse. In this issue, you'll read about Maryland's efforts to promote affordable housing for military households, a new California law that focuses on the environment and affordable housing, and impact fee cuts to increase housing affordability.

Bringing Buildings Back

Abandoned properties are a plague across the United States, from rust belt cities like Detroit and Buffalo to small towns like Lima, Ohio, and Waterloo, Iowa. Even in Sunbelt cities such as Houston and Las Vegas, abandonment is a major problem, as investment flows to the periphery, leaving the older, inner neighborhoods behind. In Bringing Buildings Back, author Alan Mallach provides policymakers and practitioners with the first in-depth guide to understanding and dealing with the many ramifications that this issue holds for the future of our older cities.

Bringing Home the Benefits of Energy Efficiency to Low-Income Households

A new study by Enterprise Community Partners, Bringing Home the Benefits of Energy Efficiency to Low-Income Households: A Case for a National Commitment, calls for a national commitment to rehabilitate and retrofit low-income housing with energy-efficient features that will offer substantial financial savings for the residents and ensure long-term gains in environmental and energy sustainability.

Brookings Greater Washington Research Program Outlines Vision for Capital Renewal

''Revitalizing Washington's Neighborhoods: A Vision Takes Shape,'' a new discussion paper by Alice Rivlin and others, provides a roadmap for revitalizing the District of Columbia and boosting its population by targeting development resources on key neighborhoods.

Brookings Institute Releases Reports on Vacant Properties, Urban Land Reform

The Brookings Institute Center on Urban and Metropolitan Studies has released several reports on vacant properties and policy reforms.

Brownfields 2009-2013 Annual Conference RFP

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting proposals from eligible entities and non-profit organizations for financial assistance to assist non-federal personnel in participating in three national Brownfields conferences to be planned and held over a five-year period, beginning in 2009.

Brownfields Case Study: Hercules, California

This case study from the Local Government Commission examines how the town of Hercules, California, reclaimed a 426-acre brownfield site in the middle of town.

Brownfields Economic Development Initiative

The Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI) is one of the key competitive grant programs that HUD administers to stimulate and promote economic and community development activities under Section 108(q) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, as amended. BEDI is designed to assist cities with the redevelopment of abandoned, idled and underused industrial and commercial facilities with expansion and redevelopment of real or perceived environmental contamination.

Brownfields Financing Basics

This presentation introduces newcomers to the brownfields financing issue -- local officials, developers, congressional staff, and others -- to basic terms, programs, and opportunities for public sector initiatives.

Brownfields Funding Programs -- Connecticut

The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) offers flexible tools to deal with all brownfield issues, including gap financing, seed capital programs, corporate tax credits and its own environmental liability insurance program.

Brownfields National Site Revitalization Award

Orlando's Baldwin Park community, the largest single-phase demolition and recycling project in history that has resulted in one of the nation's most successful residential real estate developments, has added yet another prestigious award to its trophy case. The Phoenix Award™ was presented to Baldwin Park Development Company during the Brownfields 2006 environmental conference in Boston.

Brownfields Policy and Research

The February 2009 Brownfields Policy Research Newsletter from Northeast/Midwest Institute (NEMW) includes links to recent reports and white papers plus a feature article, ''Infill, Historic Preservation, and Infrastructure Savings.''

Brownfields Redevelopment -- Massachusetts

MassDevelopment works to strengthen communities, stimulate job creation and create housing starts through financial assistance in the forms of loans and bond financing programs.

Brownfields: State of the States

Elected officials and program staff across the country have endeavored to make certain that their programs reflect local brownfield project needs, run smoothly, and take advantage of opportunities to tie brownfield cleanup and redevelopment assistance with regulatory incentives. This updated report highlights their successes and challenges over the past year.

Building a Better Urban Future

Building a Better Urban Future: New Directions for Housing Policies in Weak Market Cities, from Local Initiatives Support Corp., looks at how U.S. cities have not shared equally in the economic gains of the past decade.

Building a Greener Future: Zero-Carbon Housing

This 2006 report from the United Kingdom's Department for Communities and Local Government outlines a plan to provide zero carbon housing for new residential construction in England by 2016.

Building Better: A Guide to America's Best New Development Projects

Building Better: A Guide to America's Best New Development Projects from the Sierra Club reports on the current state of development in the United States and highlights some of the best new developments that are producing healthy neighborhoods and livable communities.

Building Communities and Entrepreneurs

The Citigroup Foundation's Building Communities and Entrepreneurs program supports community development corporations, intermediary organizations and community development financial institutions that focus on affordable housing, economic development, welfare-to-work initiatives, community infrastructure improvements, and environmentally sustainable growth to local economies.

Building Community Case Study

Building Community: A Post-Occupancy Look at the Maryvale Mall Adaptive Reuse Project is the topic of this February 2006 IssueTrak from CEFPI, (the Council of Educational Facility Planners International. Find out how an aging subdivision uses a vacant mall to rebuild community and create opportunities for residents.

Building Florida's Future

Building Florida’s Future: Strategies for Regional Cooperation, a report from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Florida Initiative on Regional Collaboration, outlines how the state's communities can benefit economically and in maintaining a high quality of life by working closely together during the substantial growth expected in the next 15 years.

Building for the Future

Building for the Future demonstrates the critical need for more affordable housing in San Francisco, summarizes recent affordable housing production, and underscores the benefits of new city funding to help create much-needed housing for our lowest income residents.

Building from the Best of the Northern Rockies

In response to unprecedented growth in the Northern Rockies, the Sonoran Institute launched an innovative effort to guide a vision for development that reflects and protects the unique natural and architectural assets of the West. Building from the Best of the Northern Rockies (BBNR) promotes this alternative vision for growth, highlighting what good development looks like in the West. It documents and celebrates new developments in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho that embody this vision.

Building Green Sustainable Communities

Building Green Sustainable Communities, a special report from Local Initiatives Support Corporation, highlights the group's green projects, including training for green jobs; construction of new affordable housing and retrofit of existing homes; urban farms and farmers markets; and green schools and environmental education programs.

Building Green: Onus or Bonus

A Green Buildings Matrix is available from the April 2005 Zoning Practice, the American Planning Association's newsletter that helps guide you as you write and administer smart development codes.

Building Green: Overcoming Barriers in Philadelphia

Building Green: Overcoming Barriers in Philadelphia is a report from the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) that identifies obstacles to green building in Philadelphia and recommends solutions to dissolving those barriers.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging -- 2007

The U.S. EPA is inviting eligible candidates to submit applications for the Excellence in Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging award. This award recognizes communities for their outstanding comprehensive approaches to implementing principles of smart growth, as well as strategies that support active aging.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging -- 2008 Applications

The U.S. EPA's Aging Initiative is spearheading the multi-agency Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Award. The The principal goal of the is to raise awareness across the nation about healthy synergies that can be achieved by communities combining Smart Growth and Active Aging concepts.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging -- 2009 Applications

The principal goal of the Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Award program is to raise awareness across the nation about healthy synergies that can be achieved by communities combining Smart Growth and Active Aging concepts.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Assessment Tool

The U.S. EPA's Aging Initiative website provides a wealth of information about the Agency's efforts to protect the environmental health of older persons. The Initiative's Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Assessment Tool consists of a series of questions that address concerns for an aging population in terms of overall health, quality of life in terms of accessibility within the community -- and how smart growth practices provide solutions to these questions.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Award

The U.S. EPA's Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Award recognizes communities for their outstanding comprehensive approaches to implementing principles of smart growth, as well as strategies that support active aging.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Awards 2008

The U.S. EPA has produced a booklet for recipients of its Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Awards 2008. Included in this booklet are details on the 2008 Achievement Award Winner, 2008 Commitment Award Winners, and 2007 BHCAA Winner Updates.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Awards Nominations

Nominations are now open for the 2009 Excellence in Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Awards. This award from the U.S. EPA's Aging Initiative program recognizes communities for their outstanding comprehensive approaches to implementing principles of smart growth, as well as strategies that support active aging.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging: Grant Winners

The U.S. EPA has announced winners of its Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging: Training and Demonstration Projects. EPA has awarded the Training Grant to the Univeristy of Maine, and the Demonstration Grant to Portland State University.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging: Training and Demonstration Projects

The EPA Aging Initiative, located in the Office of Children's Health Protection and Environmental Education, is seeking proposals for a new grant opportunity for Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging: Training and Demonstration Projects.

Building Livable Communities: a Policymaker's Guide to Infill Development

Local Government Commission/The Center for Livable Communities. 1995; updated 2001. This guide suggests a number of ways to create infill development in your community and helps to answer two of a policymaker's most frequently asked questions: ''Why build in town?'' and ''What can local government do to encourage infill development?''

Building Successful Communities in the Sierra Nevada

Planning for Prosperity: Building Successful Communities in the Sierra Nevada is designed to help decision-makers in the Sierra Nevada plan wisely and effectively for their communities' futures.

Building Sustainable Communities

Building Sustainable Communities is the Local Initiatives Support Corporation's (LISC's) plan to help community residents transform distressed neighborhoods into healthy and sustainable communities of choice and opportunity -- good places to work, do business and raise children.

Building Sustainable Communities: Duluth

Building Sustainable Communities is an LISC website feature that includes a focus on the Duluth, Minnesota, neighborhood of Central Hillside -- one of the oldest and most historic neighborhoods in Duluth, where efforts to preserve the past and secure the future are paying off.

Building the Line to Equity

PolicyLink and Action! offer Building the Line to Equity: Six Steps for Achieving Equitable Transit Oriented Development in Massachusetts, a report that lays out a set of principles for achieving transit development without displacement.

''Building Together'' Highlights

The Enterprise Foundation's 2004 Annual Network Conference, ''Building Together: Partnerships for Successful Community Development,'' examined how the community development industry can accomplish more for low-income families by strengthening relationships with current partners and reaching out to new ones.

Built Environment and Obesity Research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are accepting applications for grants to research relationships in two specific areas related to the built environment and obesity: First, understanding the role of the built environment in causing/exacerbating obesity and related co-morbidities; and second, developing, implementing, and evaluating prevention/intervention strategies that influence parameters of the built environment in order to reduce the prevalence of overweight, obesity and co-morbidities.

Califia Sketchbook Design Competition

The Califia Sketchbook Design Competition will demonstrate what life will be like in Califia, a proposed next generation eco-city. People from around the world are invited to enter a conceptual sketch conveying their view of ''slices-of-life'' within Califia, revealing smarter ways of building, powering, and maintaining the urban fabric. The program sponsors believe that allowing for more direct public involvement in the design of future living spaces is the first step in a successful eco-city project.

California Brownfields Funding

California's Proposition 1C, approved by voters in 2006, authorized the sale of bonds to fund existing affordable and support housing programs. In addition, Proposition 1C establishes funds totaling $1.15 billion to promote three types of housing projects that have never before received public support in such a targeted way: 1) infill development 2) transit-oriented development (TOD), and 3) brownfield development.

California Smart Growth Initiative

The California Smart Growth Initiative, initiated in September 2000 by the Urban Land Institute, is designed to examine growth and development trends in California, determine the barriers to smart growth, and identify specific local, regional, and state solutions that advance a collaborative smart growth agenda.

California Sustainable Community Planning Grant Program

On behalf of the Strategic Growth Council, the California Dept. of Conservation is administering a $22.3 million competitive planning grant program for sustainable community plans.

The primary purpose of this grant program is to implement the vision of the Governor and Legislature to foster and support development of sustainable communities. Local governments will need to adopt land use plans and integrated strategies that can transform communities and create long term prosperity. Such communities shall promote equity, strengthen the economy, protect the environment and promote healthy, safe communities.

Under SB 732, approximately $60 million will be awarded to cities, counties, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), Joint Powers Authorities (JPAs), Regional Transportation Planning Agencies (RTPAs), and Council of Governments (COGs). The Council anticipates two or three funding cycles.

Funds will be used to encourage sustainable regional and local actions that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, promote water conservation, reduce automobile use and fuel consumption, encourage infill and compact development, protect natural resources and agricultural lands, promote public health, and revitalize urban and community centers. Proposals must help achieve state planning priorities and environmental goals, as well as promote cooperative and scale-appropriate methods and strategies that reflect the interdependence of environmental, economic and community health.

Workshops will be conducted to provide technical assistance in preparing grant applications and vetting project proposals for eligibility and competitiveness.

Applications are due by August 31, 2010.

California Transit-Oriented Development Searchable Database

The State of California offers the internet-based Transit-Oriented Development Searchable Database. Access and search detailed information on 21 Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) in California -- also called transit villages -- such as: land uses, site maps, implementation processes, financing, facilities, zoning, design features, pedestrian access, transit services, photos, travel benefits, contact information, and other valuable data.

Call for Abstracts -- Urban Down Under 2005

Urbanism Down Under 2005 -- Creative Urban Futures, an international urban design conference with an Australasian focus, has issued a Call for Abstracts for their August 2005 conference.

Call for Entries: 2006 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the fifth annual National Award for Smart Growth Achievement.

Call for Entries: National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education Best Masters Thesis Award 2007

The National Center for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland will grant one award in the amount of $1000 for the best masters thesis focused on urban growth and development issues completed in the 2007 academic year. Masters students in urban planning, public policy, civil engineering, public and community health, economics and finance, political science or related fields are encouraged to apply.

Call for Papers -- International Sustainable Development Conference -- Sustainable Cities

The Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management (CUPEM), The University of Hong Kong, in association with ERP Environment, have announced the 12th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference 2006 will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong on April 6-8, 2006.

Call for Pilot Projects: LEED for Neighborhood Development Pilot Rating System

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is soliciting projects to be part of the pilot program for its LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System. Up to 120 pilot projects will be selected to participate in the pilot program.

Call for Program Ideas -- New Partners for Smart Growth 2008 Conference

The Local Government Commission is conducting a ''Call for Program Ideas'' for the 2008 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference program. This process will be open from June 6th through July 11th, 2007. The submittal review process will take place from mid-July through late-September 2007, and those selected for inclusion in the final program will be notified by late September.

Call for Smart Growth Model Courses

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has received requests from communities and universities for help in developing model courses that incorporate smart growth into hands-on, applied course offerings.

Call for Submissions: Affordable Green Housing Projects

Submit your affordable green housing projects for a juried selection and posting on the new Green Housing section of the Affordable Housing Design Advisor, sponsored by the AIA.

Campus Building Design Projects

Sterling College recently began to renovate its facilities and dorms to make these historic Vermont buildings more energy efficient. In keeping with the mission of the college, it was apparent that this development should be done in an ecologically sustainable way.

Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework

The Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework (CSAF) examines campus sustainability by looking at the interconnectedness of People and Ecosystems in maintaining the balance of life on this planet.

Campus Sustainability Leadership Awards -- 2007

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) presented its Campus Sustainability Leadership Awards on September 7, 2007, at the 7th biennial Greening of the Campus conference, ''Partnering for Sustainability: Enabling a Diverse Future,'' held at Ball State University September 6-8, 2007, in Muncie, Indiana.

Campus Sustainability Report -- Indiana University 2007

The Indiana University Task Force on Campus Sustainability has released the Campus Sustainability Report, a collective work of more than 100 IU faculty, staff, and students who have been engaged, over the past six months, in developing a sustainability plan for the IU-Bloomington campus.

Campus Sustainability Report -- Michigan State University 2007

The Michigan State University Committee for a Sustainable Campus (UCSC) has released the 2007 Campus Sustainability Report, a collective work that builds on the initial report from 2003. The report presents the latest trends in interdependence between the social, environmental and economic components of the campus -- and adds several new indicators.

Canada's Sustainable Cities 2009

Corporate Knights Magazine has issued its 2009 Sustainable Cities Report, the third annual report detailing which Canadian cities have the smallest environmental footprint.

Canons of Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism

The Charter of the New Urbanism is the guiding document of the new urbanist movement. Although it offers an encompassing vision of sustainable urbanism from the scale of the region to the block and building, three leading CNU members, including two who had a central role in drafting the original Charter, undertook an effort to clarify and detail the relationship between New Urbanism and sustainability. The resulting document, The Canons of Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism, is designed to serve as a set of operating principles for human settlement that reestablish the relationship between the art of building, the making of community, and the conservation of our natural world.

Caring for Your Historic Buildings

Technical Preservation Services (TPS) helps home owners, preservation professionals, organizations, and government agencies by publishing printed pamphlets and books -- easy-to-read guidance on preserving, rehabilitating and restoring historic buildings.

Cascadia Scorecard

Northwest Environment Watch (NEW) offers the Cascadia Scorecard, a new gauge of regional progress that monitors seven key trends--health, economy, population, energy, sprawl, forests, and pollution--that are profoundly shaping the region's future.

Case Studies for Transit-Oriented Development

Case Studies for Transit-Oriented Development, a report prepared for Local Initiatives Support Corp. by Reconnecting America, is a short summary of the TOD tools that are used by communities all across the country.

Case Studies in Smart Growth

The New Jersey Smart Growth Gateway, a project of New Jersey Future, is an online resource to provide the information necessary to begin implementing Smart Growth Strategies in their communities. Included on this website are links to on- and off-site case studies from a variety of organizations.

CDC Livability Listserv

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) facilitates a Listserv that addresses issues related to health and the built environment. An e-newsletter that includes related news articles, latest studies, and updates on conferences and events related to livability is sent to all subscribers once a month.

Center for Infrastructure Equity

The PolicyLink Center for Infrastructure Equity advocates for fair and inclusive policies and provides community and grassroots leaders, advocates, and public officials with the tools, training, and consultation needed to ensure that public investments in infrastructure create economic opportunity and health in all communities. The center has evolved out of several years of action-oriented research and partnerships by PolicyLink with state and local organizations, and is poised to continue that work while also addressing key new federal infrastructure policy opportunities.

Center for Sustainable Communities

Center for Sustainable Communities, part of the National Association of Counties (NACo) website, provides a forum for county officials to work with other government leaders, the private sector, and communities to develop policies and programs that lead to economic enhancement, environmental stewardship and social well being -- the three pillars of sustainable communities.

Center for Transit-Oriented Development: Five Years of Progress

The Center for Transit-Oriented Development (CTOD) is celebrating its fifth year in 2009, and has published a brochure detailing its projects, partnerships and intellectual capital.

Center for Urban and Rural Affairs Funding

The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) is an all-University applied research and technology center at the University of Minnesota that connects faculty and students with community organizations and public institutions working on significant public policy issues in Minnesota.

Central Florida Champions Awards

The Urban Land Institute-Orlando will honor exceptional community leaders, initiatives and projects dedicated to sustainability and excellence at its Central Florida Champions Awards 2008, to be held September 24, 2008, in Orlando, Florida.

Central Florida Regional Indicators Report 2005

The Central Florida Regional Indicators Report 2005 establishes a regional key indicator system that not only measures progress in the myregion priority areas but indicates the region’s success in becoming less fragmented and more coordinated.

Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida

The Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida was established by the Governor and Legislature of Florida to envision the future of Florida -- to help citizens and state leaders prepare for a continued increase in population and to craft a plan that meets the challenges and opportunities this presents. This First Annual Report lays the foundation for the creation of a sustainable Florida.

CEOS for Cities

CEOs for Cities is a membership-based national network of urban leaders dedicated to creating next generation cities that hold the answers to many of the challenges our nation faces. Through its website, members and visitors can keep current on events, publications and projects, meetings, and more.

Champions for Sustainable Communities -- Call for Partners

Forward Scotland is currently developing and looking for partners for Champions for Sustainable Communities. Originally launched in 2008, this is an award that recognizes the achievements of individuals across society who have lead the way in community development with the highest regard for sustainable development principles.

Champions of Sustainability in Communities Awards 2009

A growing number of colleges and universities are reaching beyond their campus boundaries to partner with their local communities in advancing collective sustainability goals. For the College Sustainability Report Card 2009, the Sustainable Endowments Institute solicited nominations to recognize exceptional collaborations, celebrate their successes, and inspire new project ideas.

Changing Metropolitan America

As the nation looks to make significant new federal investments in infrastructure, Changing Metropolitan America: Planning for a Sustainable Future, a new publication from the Urban Land Institute, outlines strategies for building and maintaining infrastructure that fosters sustainable cities and metropolitan areas.

Charles Greeley Abbot Award 2008

While American families struggle with record energy prices and urgently seek alternative sources of energy, the nation's top award in the field of solar energy was presented to Dr. Lawrence L. Kazmerski for his pioneering work to reduce the cost of solar energy.

Charrettes for Sustainable Communities

Charrettes for Sustainable Communities is a PowerPoint presentation that includes slides and a script, describes charrettes and explains how they can be used to improve the planning process in your community.

Charting the Course for Rebuilding a Great American City

A special volunteer six-member team of planners assembled by APA visited New Orleans October 23 to October 28 to assess the city's needs for developing and implementing plans to guide redevelopment in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The team has put its findings and recommendations into a report, Charting the Course for Rebuilding a Great American City.

Chicago Climate Action Plan

The Chicago Climate Action Plan describes the major effects climate change could have on the city and suggests how all city residents can work together to address those challenges.

Chicago's Guide to Completing an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy

Center for Neighborhood Technology recently helped to co-author Chicago's Guide to Completing an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, a guide that will help cities and counties to develop a long-term and sustainable energy efficiency and conservation plan.

Choice Neighborhoods Funding -- 2009

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced the availability of $113 million in HOPE VI funding in a July 14, 2009 keynote address on the future of urban revitalization at the National Press Club during the Brookings Institution's event, ''From Despair to Hope: Two HUD Secretaries on Urban Revitalization and Opportunity.''

Choosing Our Community's Future

Smart Growth America has released Choosing Our Community's Future, a guidebook developed to assist communities in shaping the growth and development of their neighborhoods, towns and regions.

Citistates Weekly Columns

The Citistates Group is a network of journalists, speakers and civic leaders focused on building competitive, equitable and sustainable 21st century metropolitan regions.

Citizen Planners Resource Kit

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy offers U.S. planning boards a complimentary Citizen Planners Resource Kit. The Citizen Planners Resource Kit was developed for distribution to local planning boards and commissions across the U.S. as part of the Lincoln Institute’s mission to reach out to citizen planning commissions through educational programs, publications, multi-media resources, and its website.

City News

CityNews is an interactive website serving the greater Chicago area that allows users to obtain data about properties in their community and indicators about their community. In addition to the specific housing data, overall statistics from Chicago neighborhoods are available.

City of Portland's Green Investment Fund -- Portland, Oregon

The Green Investment Fund (GIF) is a competitive grant program that supports innovative green building projects in Portland.

City Parks Blog

City Parks Blog is a joint effort of the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land and the City Parks Alliance to chronicle the news and issues of the urban park movement. The blog covers a variety of related topics, including green infrastructure, planning, health, transportation, and economics.

City Parks Forum Briefing Papers

The City Parks Forum, a special initiative of the American Planning Association (APA), has published a second series of briefing papers that show mayors, city managers, planners and others how to use healthy parks to create safer neighborhoods, protect and enhance urban environments, improve learning among children, and improve public health.

City Practice Resources

When your city is seeking solutions, avoid reinventing the wheel by using the City Practice Resources compiled by the staff of the National League of Cities. Four City Practice Resources are now available: City Practice Online Database, City Practices Briefs, Municipal Action Guides, and the Municipal Reference Service Inquiry Service.

Civic Trust Awards 2005

The Civic Trust Awards recognize the very best in United Kingdom architecture, urban design, landscaping and public art. They are awarded to projects of the highest quality design, but only if they are also judged to have made a positive contribution to the local environment -- and helped improve the places where we live.

Clean Ohio Fund

The Clean Ohio Fund was established to preserve green space and farmland, improve outdoor recreation, and revitalize blighted neighborhoods by cleaning up and redeveloping polluted properties.

Climate Neutral Campus Report

The Climate Neutral Campus Report contains peer-reviewed white papers, case studies, executive interviews and vendor profiles that share strategies, challenges and solutions for higher education institutions that are striving for climate neutrality.

Climate Protection Success Stories

''Success Stories from our Cities and Counties'' is a project of the Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network Climate Protection Task Force. Formed in May 2007, the Joint Venture Public Sector Climate Task Force includes representatives from every city and county in Silicon Valley, plus several special districts and representatives from Pacific Gas and Electric and SunPower.

Climate@CNU

Climate@CNU is the Congress for the New Urbanism's (CNU's) Low-Carbon Urbanism Campaign, which emphasizes low-carbon neighborhoods and high-quality living.

CNU Athena Award

Sim Van der Ryn became the 10th recipient of the Athena Award when the the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) honored him at its Sustainable Communities 2008 conference in September 2008. Van der Ryn earned an international reputation as the ''father of the green building'' during his tenure as California State Architect during then Governor Jerry Brown's administration.

CNU Audio from 2007 Illinois Charter Signing Ceremony

Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) has provided audio recordings from speakers at the CNU-Illinois Charter signing ceremony, held in March 2007. Speakers at this event included Ray Gindroz, who spoke about Rebuilding Lost New Orleans; Sam Sherman, who spoke about Philadelphia's Exploding Market; and Emily Talen and Neal Payton, who focused on Housing Affordability.

CNU Charter Awards 2006 Honorees

The Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) has honored 19 professional, student, and faculty projects with in their 2006 Charter Awards competition.

CNU Charter Awards 2007 Honorees

The Congress for the New Urbanism announces the recipients of its 2007 Charter Awards, the annual prize honoring the best of the New Urbanism. The 20 winning professional submissions and 5 student/faculty submissions were chosen by a seven-member jury of distinguished urbanists in March 2007.

CNU Charter Awards Nominations 2007

The Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) is accepting nominations for its 2007 Charter Awards, recognizing achievements in design, planning, and development that meet the exacting standards of the Charter of the New Urbanism.

CNU Charter Awards Nominations 2008

The Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) is accepting nominations for its 2008 Charter Awards, recognizing achievements in design, planning, and development that meet the exacting standards of the Charter of the New Urbanism.

CNU New England Awards

The Congress for the New Urbanism-New England recognized five winners at its First Annual CNU New England Awards. These awards recognize the best of new urbanist plans, programs, designs, and projects based upon the principles set forth in the Charter of the New Urbanism.

CNU Project Database

Are you looking for ideas on how other communities are successfully promoting walkable, neighborhood-based development? The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) offers a Project Database that features dozens of new urbanist developments from throughout the United States and other countries.

CNU XIV Multimedia Toolkit

The Congress for New Urbanism offers the CNU XIV Multimedia Toolkit, a collection of materials from sessions and events at the 2006 CNU Congress. The Toolkit includes audio and video from nearly 50 Congress sessions, a similar number of slideshows, and reports from the correspondents who covered the Congress for the online Daily NUws.

CNU XVI Call for Papers

The Congress for the New Urbanism invites academic paper submissions for presentation at CNU XVI in Austin, Texas from April 3-6, 2008. Submissions are welcome on a range of issues and disciplines related to New Urbanism. Selection will be based on the paper's contribution to critical discussion and practice of New Urbanism and for synergies within sessions. Summaries of research results are particularly encouraged.

Coalition for Smarter Growth Awards

The Coalition for Smarter Growth will host its Tenth Anniversary Celebration November 14, 2007 in Washington, DC at the True Reformer Building, with a reception, silent auction, and presentation of the 2007 Capital Region Visionary Awards.

Codifying New Urbanism

Codifying New Urbanism describes New Urbanist essentials, the steps to putting New Urbanism to work in your community, and the successes of 12 communities who have followed the approaches described in the report.

College Sustainability Report Card 2009

GreenReportCard.org is the first website to provide in-depth sustainability profiles for hundreds of colleges in all 50 U.S. States and Canada. Its College Sustainability Report Card is the only independent evaluation of campus and endowment sustainability activities at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

Colorado Brownfields Foundation Due Diligence Grants -- Colorado

The Environmental Due Diligence Pilot Program is seeking communities that are proactively pursuing economic development opportunities. The EDD Program will conduct Phase I Environmental Assessments on a property or multiple properties within selected communities. Alternatively, area-wide assessments could be conducted for a main street, industrial district, business park, or other geographic area.

Colorado Governor’s Awards for Downtown Excellence -- 2005

The Colorado Governor's Awards for Downtown Excellence is an annual program that recognizes the progress being made in revitalizing Colorado's historic downtown and neighborhood business districts and the contributions these districts are making to Colorado's quality of life and economy.

Colorado Heritage Planning Grants

The Colorado Heritage Planning Grant Program is designed to recognize and reward those communities cooperatively planning to manage growth.

Colorado Heritage Planning Grants -- Colorado

The Colorado Heritage Planning Grant Program is designed to recognize and reward those communities cooperatively planning to manage growth. Eligible recipients include: towns, cities, cities and counties, counties, and Title 32, Article 1 special districts.

Combating Problems of Vacant and Abandoned Property

Combating Problems of Vacant and Abandoned Properties is a report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors that details best practices for rehabilitating abandoned properties in 27 U.S. cities.

Commentary Links Economic Vitality to Growth Management

This commentary in the Springfield (MO) News-Leader argues that Springfield's economic resilience depends on the city setting a statewide example of growth management in the Show Me State.

Commonwealth Capital -- Massachusetts

The Commonwealth Capital (CC) policy of the Office for Commonwealth Development (OCD) coordinates Massachusetts capital spending programs that affect development patterns. The state's goal is to invest in projects that are consistent with OCD's Sustainable Development Principles and partner with municipalities seeking to advance the Commonwealth's development and resource protection interests.

Commonwealth Design Awards 2006

Honoring smart growth design, cutting-edge community development, and progressive urban and rural planning in Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth Design Awards recognize design excellence and responsible development in Pennsylvania.

Communities by Design

From the website: Communities by Design is the first in a series of AIA publications addressing livable communities from the architect's point of view. It is meant to stake out the AIA's position and get people to think of architects as integral to livability issues.

Communities by Design Built Works

Built Works, from the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) Center for Communities by Design, is a web resource that demonstrates the expertise architects contribute to community design. Featured projects on Built Works serve as a community design resource and demonstrate the positive impact of thoughtful community design and civic engagement in our nation's communities.

Communities of Tomorrow Partnership

Sustainable community development affects our people, our environment, and our economy. Communities of Tomorrow will make Regina, Saskatchewan a world leader in environmental sustainability, community development and technology commercialization.

Communities Selected for Sustainable Design Assistance -- 2006

The American Institute of Architects' Sustainable Design Assessment Team program brings together multidisciplinary teams of professionals from across the country to provide a road map for communities seeking to improve their sustainability -- as defined by a community’s ability to meet the needs of today without reducing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Community Action Grants

The Gannett Foundation supports local organizations in communities served by Gannett Co., Inc.

Community Action Grants: Washington, DC Region

The Gannett Corporation's Community Action Grants program makes grants to eligible organizations in the communities in which Gannett does business, including the Washington, DC Metro area.

Community Assessment Tools

The Active Living Resource Center offers a collection of community assessment tools on its Web site.

Community Building: How to Do It, Why It Matters

Building a stronger community leads to a higher quality of life—higher educational performance, lower crime, and better physical and mental health. Community building develops trust between residents and governments, and generates a partnership between them.

Community building creates an environment in which there is almost no issue that cannot be resolved, leads to better ideas and solutions, encourages people to be responsible for and committed to improving the quality of life in their communities, and makes the job of the local government manager easier.

In this IQ Report, Ed Everett, former city manager of Redwood City, California describes how we are currently stuck in the “vending machine” form of government, with the public viewing themselves as customers, and why this has caused the public to lose their sense of being responsible citizens and accountable for their community. He describes how local governments need to change the way we view our residents to move them from being customers to being citizens. Discover the various roles of local government in building community and get concrete examples of those roles, and lessons learned. Through this report, you will come to understand not only the power of community building but also the way that community building relates to the reasons why many of us were drawn to the profession of local government management in the first place.

Community Design Centers

Community Design Centers (CDCs) provide planning, design and technical assistance to low- and moderate-income urban and rural communities, many of which have limited resources.

Community Design for Healthy Eating

Community Design for Healthy Eating: How Land Use and Transportation Solutions Can Help, a research paper from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, examines how community design and transportation flaws have contributed to a decrease in physical activity among Americans and an increase in rate of obesity.

Community Design, Active Living and Public Health

Community Design, Active Living and Public Health makes a compelling case for changes in regional and community design to reverse the growing trend toward obesity and its negative effects on health.

Community Development Financing through Deutsche Bank

Through its role as a financial services provider, Deutsche Bank seeks to create economic opportunities in distressed communities. Although Deutsche Bank has no retail branches within the Americas, the Bank's Community Development Group has developed many innovative and effective strategies for bringing capital to communities in need.

Community Development: A Guide for Grantmakers on Fostering Better Outcomes through Good Process

Community Development is a guide for funders on the valuable role of collaborative process in community development initiatives. It draws from the lessons learned by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation during twenty years of funding conflict resolution, collaboration, and civic engagement.

Community for a Lifetime -- Michigan

''Community for a Lifetime'' is a statewide community recognition program offered by the Michigan Office of Services to the Aging, in conjunction with the Michigan Commission on Services to the Aging and in cooperation with Michigan State University Extension.

Community Growth Options -- Minnesota

Community Growth Options, a 1000 Friends of Minnesota program, is designed to deliver to small, fast-growing communities financial and other assistance for community planning, ordinance development and implementation.

Community Housing Partnership Annual Report 2009

Community Housing Partnership (CHP) is a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that develops and operates permanent housing for formerly homeless people with on-site support services, job training, leadership development and employment opportunities.

Community Image Survey CD

The Community Image Survey from the Local Government Commission (LGC) is a tool for helping decision-makers and their constituents address community design, land use and transportation issues. It uses visual images to help participants evaluate their existing environment and envision their community's future. Tailored for the needs of each community, the survey provides a foundation for planning and implementation efforts.

Community Indicators

This report by Rhonda Phillips for the American Planning Association's Planning Advisory Service reviews the use of indicators in planning practice and explores their relationship to citizen participation, quality of life, and sustainability.

Community Innovations Grants

The Boston Foundation announced $19 million in new grant awards to more than 100 nonprofit organizations serving Greater Boston. While the wide range of these grants speaks to the rich complexity of life in the region, each individual funding decision reflects a strategic commitment to increase impact, opportunity and innovation within the organizations that serve area residents.

Community Involvement in Brownfield Redevelopment

Community participation and stakeholder involvement play an essential role in successful brownfield development, as dozens of success stories attest. Yet historically, community participation in federally influenced redevelopment activities has been adversarial.

Community Land Trust Award

The Champlain Housing Trust (CHT) received top honors in the World Habitat Awards 2007/08 for ''Community Land Trust Innovation.'' Established in 1985 by the Building and Social Housing Foundation as part of its contribution to the United Nations International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, two World Habitat Awards are presented each year to projects from the global North as well as the South that provide practical and innovative solutions to current housing needs and problems.

Community Land Trusts: Leasing Land for Affordable Housing

This article from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy's Land Lines newsletter discusses how a community land trust (CLT) can be a useful tool for lower-income families to help purchase and finance housing.

Community Lots Website

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy offers the Community Lots project, an online resource designed to help community-based organizations (CBOs) move beyond their traditional role of housing development and into the community at large.

Community of Choices

This video focuses on the economic, social, and environmental benefits of preserving community character.

Community Planner Pro

The Community Planner Pro™ CD-ROM, included as part of The Enterprise Foundation's Community Development Library, helps nonprofit, community-based organizations engage neighborhood residents in the process of developing practical action plans for their community.

Community Revitalization Resources -- Honolulu

The City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, offers a Community Revitalization Unit, providing information, technical support, and technical assistance for communities and organizations within communities that wish to implement projects, programs and activities that will be a positive influence for that community.

Community Revitalization Stories: On Common Ground

The Summer 2005 edition of On Common Ground from the National Association of Realtors turns its focus to revitalization: success stories of rejuvenation in urban areas and inner-ring suburbs.

Community Rules: A New England Guide to Smart Growth Strategies

Written by the Vermont Forum on Sprawl and the Conservation Law Foundation, Community Rules is a guidebook for local planners, concerned citizens, and others who want to achieve smart growth in their communities through better planning, zoning, and permitting.

CommunityViz Planning Software

The Orton Family Foundation announces that it is making its CommunityViz® planning software available to communities at a new, reduced cost of $185, removing a significant barrier to access to communities across the country in need of effective planning tools and methods.

CommunityViz® Software

CommunityViz® GIS software for land-use planning from Placeways is designed to help people visualize, analyze, and communicate about important land-use decisions. CommunityViz® community planning software provides a real–time interactive environment of 3D visuals, intelligent maps and dynamic analysis tools.

Compendium of Sustainability Indicators

Version two of the Compendium of Sustainable Development Indicator Initiatives is now available online. Use this searchable directory to find initiatives based on location, type, issue areas, and more. Search for topics including quality of life,housing, and transporation.

Connecting Green Trail Packages

Portland, Oregon park providers, local cities and citizens have worked for decades to establish a network of trails linking parks to local communities and other area attractions. In April 2008 the Metro Council appointed a Blue Ribbon Committee for Trails to take the work the community has developed, evaluate where regional trails fit in the region's priorities and recommend potential strategies for expanding the region's trail network.

Connectivity Newsletter: Community Investing on the Move

Community Investing on the Move is the theme of The National Neighborhood Coalition's Summer 2005 issue of Connectivity. This issue examines the sources of capital investment in low income neighborhoods, and features information about socially responsible investing, CDFIs, CRA, and community credit unions.

Conservation Thresholds for Land-Use Planners

Conservation Thresholds for Land-Use Planners provides a review and synthesis of information from the most up-to-date scientific literature to provide basic thresholds to land use planners to rely upon when making decisions affecting biodiversity.

Conservation-Based Affordable Housing

This report from The Conservation Fund spotlights the opportunity to develop housing for low- and moderate-income residents and also protect natural and working landscapes. These case studies, information about limited development as a conservation tool, and a perspective on where this trend may be headed are part of the Fund’s report.

Construction Waste Management Database

The Construction Waste Management Database contains information on companies that haul, collect and process recyclable debris from construction projects.

Contemporary Debates in Urban Planning

Planetizen announces the release of Contemporary Debates in Urban Planning, a new book featuring thought-provoking commentary and insights from the some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the field.

Cooperating Across Boundaries

More than 34 million acres of open space were lost to development between 1982 and 2001, about 6,000 acres per day, 4 acres a minute. Of this loss, over 10 million acres are in forestland.

Counties and Residential Green Building Standards

Counties and Residential Green Building Standards is a fact sheet from the National Association of Counties (NACo) that provides an introduction to green buildings and an overview of green building programs, with examples and links from throughout the United States.

Creating a Sense of Place: A Design Guide

Creating a Sense of Place: A Design Guide forms the third in a series of publications produced by Britain's Affordable Rural Housing Initiative, begun in 2003. It is a collaboration between two charitable organizations: Business in the Community and the Foundation for the Built Environment.

Creating a Vibrant City Center

This book from the Urban Land Institute will give you the key planning and design guidelines you need to create a lively, appealing city center in any metropolitan area.

Creating Great Neighborhoods: Density in Your Community

Creating Great Neighborhoods highlights the success of nine community led efforts to create vibrant neighborhoods through density. Building great dense places with good design is not just an abstract theory -- it is a practical approach to growth that is being used in diverse places across the country.

Creating Great Places

Creating Great Places is an initiative of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) that helps governors design and implement state growth and physical development strategies that promote healthy, economically competitive and sustainable communities.

Creating Great Town Centers and Urban Villages

Creating Great Town Centers and Urban Villages from the Urban Land Institute (2008) is a book that describes the inside story and details on how town centers were developed, what makes them special, and provides facts on costs, rents, land uses, and more.

Creating Housing Opportunity

The Winter 2008 issue of On Common Ground highlights the many efforts nationwide to provide affordable housing for working Americans, including a focus on programs to meet the needs of people in specific occupations, such as police officers, teachers and resort workers, and tools that can help moderate income people with housing costs.

Creating Inclusive Communities in Florida

Creating Inclusive Communities in Florida is a manual that offers local officials and affordable housing advocates tools for overcoming NIMBYism, or the Not In My Back Yard syndrome.

Creating Livable Places

The Creating Livable Places website is provided by the Southern California Association of Governments to promote more livable communities. The site includes ten case studies of regional communities that have made efforts to become livable communities. The site also provides information and resources related to transportation planning, transit, and growth visioning. A calendar of events and list of related links are also available at the site.

Creating Successful Communities: A New Housing Paradigm

The 16-page brochure from the National Multi Housing Council takes on the conventional wisdom about housing preferences and is recommended for use with local planning and zoning boards or to support state and local advocacy efforts.

Creating Successful Communities: A New Housing Paradigm

National Multi Housing Council. 2002. This 16-page brochure takes on the conventional wisdom about housing preferences and can be used with local planning and zoning boards or to support state and local advocacy efforts.

Creating Successful Communities: A New Housing Paradigm

The 16-page brochure from the National Multi Housing Council takes on the conventional wisdom about housing preferences and is recommended for use with local planning and zoning boards or to support state and local advocacy efforts.

Creating the Sustainable Workplace

Originally presented at the American Institute of Architects National Convention in Chicago, IL, June 2004, Creating the Sustainable Workplace describes factors that shape workplace design, how to create long-term value with a sustainable workplace, sustainable planning, design, and construction, and more.

Creating Value: Smart Development and Green Design

In Creating Value: Smart Development and Green Design, a new book from the Urban Land Institute, architect Vernon Swaback argues convincingly that financial success in real estate development will increasingly require design that is smarter, greener, and more sustainable.

Creating Walkable Places

Richly illustrated with color photographs, site plans, and diagrams, Creating Walkable Places: Compact Mixed-Use Solutions is a book from the Urban Land Institute that explains how to create pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use developments.

Crossroads Hamlet Village Town

Crossroads Hamlet Village Town broke new ground by offering specific design guidance to planners, developers, and others involved in laying out, regulating, and reviewing proposals for “traditional neighborhoods.'' This new 2004 edition addresses many particulars of residential site design and the use of open space, parks, squares, greenways, and greenbelts.

Crossroads Resource Center: Tools for Community Self-Determination

Crossroads Resource Center compiles and distributes data at the neighborhood level useful for community-based and asset-based initiatives in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota.

CUI Brownie Awards -- 2007 Award Winners

Winners of the Canadian Urban Institute's (CUI's) annual Brownie Awards were announced at a presentation dinner on October 18, 2007 during the 8th annual Canadian Brownfields Conference in Montreal.

CUI's Urban Leadership Awards Nominations -- 2008

The Canadian Urban Institute's (CUI's) Urban Leadership Awards program honors those that have made a profound and lasting impact on the quality of urban life.

Cultures of Cities: A New Online Data Bank

This online data bank gives a panorama of present transformations in European cities. The reports focus on the main themes discussed at the 4th Biennial of Towns and Town Planners in Europe.

D.C. Historic Preservation Grants

Beginning January 2007, District of Columbia homeowners within specific historic districts will be eligible to receive a grant valued at 35% of applicable D.C. income taxes toward the expenses of rehabilitating their homes.

Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE)

The Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE) is a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and selected federal incentives that promote renewable energy.

DataPlace™ -- Maps, Charts and Statistics for U.S. Communities

DataPlace™ aims to be a one-stop source for housing and demographic data about your community, your region, and the nation. Build maps, create charts, or compare data on any U.S. location.

December 2008 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The December 2008 issue of Getting Smart! is now available for all Smart Growth Network members in the Members Section.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance Project Recognition

Do you have a smart growth project on the horizon? Consider submitting an application for either preliminary or final recognition by the Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance.

To be eligible, the project must be located in Eastern or Central Pennsylvania (including Dauphin County), Southern New Jersey (including Mercer County and south) or Delaware, and not yet under construction.

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance is a collaborative initiative of more than 200 government, private sector and non-profit organizations in the tri-state region. We support and promote good smart growth projects at the earliest stages by helping them get approved at the local level. Each quarter, applications are reviewed by an independent jury of architects, planners, developers, builders, bankers, engineers, and other related disciplines. Projects recognized to be in compliance with the DVSGA's published smart growth criteria receive a letter of endorsement and an offer of testimony before local approval authorities.

DVSGA recognizes projects that will foster regional growth and redevelopment in a manner that achieves important economic, environmental and quality of life objectives. By highlighting the potential of smart growth projects to add value to the region, the DVSGA hopes to encourage developers, business organizations, citizen groups and elected officials to strive for smart growth solutions.

To date, the DVSGA has granted preliminary and/or full recognition to 26 projects, including most recently a group of affordable infill townhomes in downtown Norristown that will soon be under construction.

Download an application, as well as the criteria and the list of more than 200 supporting organizations and companies and examples of recognized projects, at the link below.

The application deadline for the current round is September 1, 2010.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance Recognized Project -- January 2009

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance jury provides on its website a list of project applications as good examples of smart growth development in the region. In January 2009 the Alliance recognized the West Chester Hotel of Pennsylvania.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance Recognized Project -- July 2008

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance jury provides on its website a list of project applications as good examples of smart growth development in the region. In July 2008 the Alliance recognized University Place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance Recognized Projects: April 2009

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance has added to its list of recognized smart growth projects: Kardon Ponds in Chester County, Pennsylvania; and Zurbrugg Mansion Redevelopment in Burlington County, New Jersey.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance Slide Show

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance (DVSGA), an initiative of various government, private sector and non-profit organizations in the Greater Philadelphia tri-state region, offers a free educational PowerPoint slide show on its web site.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Coalition -- Application for Project Recognition

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance (DVSGA) is an initiative of various government, private sector and non-profit organizations in the Greater Philadelphia tri-state region encompassing Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware. The DVSGA promotes smart growth projects by recognizing proposed projects prior to development approval.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Projects Recognized

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance jury provides on its website a list of project applications as good examples of smart growth development in the region. Projects recognized in 2006 include Bell Point in Sussex County, Delaware, and Pembroke North in Radnor Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Projects Recognized -- 2006

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance jury provides on its website a list of project applications as good examples of smart growth development in the region. Projects recognized in 2006 include Towne Center at Haddon in Camden County, New Jersey, and The Village at Valley Forge in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Projects Recognized -- 2007

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance jury provides on its website a list of project applications as good examples of smart growth development in the region. Projects recognized in 2007 include Wyomissing Square, Wyomissing, Berks County, Pennsylvania, and Stafford Park, Stafford Township, Ocean County, New Jersey.

Demonstrating the Economic Benefits of Integrated, Green Infrastructure

This paper will provide a compelling argument for municipalities to pursue means of developing integrated approaches in the development of services and infrastructure.

Denny Park -- Green Communities

Green Communities is a five-year, $550 million initiative to build more than 8,500 environmentally healthy homes for low-income families. Created by the Enterprise Foundation / Enterprise Social Investment Corporation in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Green Communities will transform the way America thinks about, designs, and builds affordable communities.

Density by Design: New Directions in Residential Development

Urban Land Institute. 2000. Fourteen case studies showcase developments of small lot subdivisions, accessory units, housing in new urbanists communities, higher-density and transit-oriented development, mixed-income and mixed housing types, infill, and adaptive use.

Design Center Image Bank

The Design Center Image Bank contains over 17,000 images, including low-level oblique aerial photographs and eye-level images. The focus of the collection is the Twin Cities metropolitan region in Minnesota and dates from the early 1990s through the present.

Design for Aging

Authored by the American Institute of Architects Design for Aging Center, Design for Aging: Post-Occupancy Evaluations features well-researched post-occupancy evaluations for approximately forty senior living facilities previously featured in the AIA's Design for Aging Review.

Design for Aging Review

The Design for Aging Review, 6th edition, is a compilation of over 70 projects submitted for a 2001-2002 competition in the areas of assisted living, continuing care retirement communities, nursing homes and more.

Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods

Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods offers detailed studies of socially diverse neighborhoods and evidence that such neighborhoods are better off than more homogenous neighborhoods. Author Emily Talen's analysis in this book shows planners and urban designers how their work can support diversity.

Design for Livability: Call for Presentations

The American Institute of Architects Seattle (Washington) (AIA Seattle) is seeking provocative presentations and discussion topics from a wide range of viewpoints for ''Design for Livability: Sustainable Cities,'' a forum set for October 15-16, 2009.

Designing a Place-Based Plan for Stabilization

This website from StableCommunities.org will walk readers through eight steps that will lead to a plan for stabilizing a targeted neighborhood impacted by foreclosure.

The first three of the steps start the reader at the broad, citywide or regional geographic level in order to develop strategic partnerships, to understand regional and neighborhood market dynamics, and to group similar neighborhoods into a few general strategic approaches that match their current conditions and long-term market opportunities.

The remaining five steps narrow the reader’s focus to an individual neighborhood, and the process of engaging residents, defining specific outcomes for that neighborhood’s stabilization, choosing from a wide menu of individual strategies to effect change, funding the plan, and measuring progress toward stabilization outcomes.

StableCommunities.org is the centerpiece of NeighborWorks America’s Stable Communities initiative, a national response to the local challenges that arise when foreclosed homes remain vacant or abandoned.

Designing and Building Healthy Places

The Centers for Disease Control offers this website on health and the built environment. Topics include children's and elders' health, accessibility, and physical activity.

Designing Low Energy Buildings with Energy-10®

ENERGY-10® software analyzes and illustrates the energy and cost savings that can be achieved by applying up to a dozen sustainable design strategies, helping professionals deliver high-performance buildings that will operate with, on average, 20-30% lower energy costs.

Designs and Codes That Reduce Crime Around Multi-Family Housing

This four-page fact sheet from the Local Government Commission that discusses how zoning, codes, and designs have an immediate effect on the safety -- and security -- of multi-family dwellings and neighborhoods.

Designs for Walkable Neighborhoods

This 12-minute video provides an introduction to key design concepts of pedestrian friendly development including: compact, mixed-use development, pedestrian-oriented site design, and traditional neighborhood street design.

Developing Around Transit

Developing Around Transit from the Urban Land Institute breaks new ground by going beyond the typical formula of a master-planned mix of retail, offices, and housing to show a variety of ways to tap the vast prospects of undeveloped and underdeveloped areas around transit stations, whether large scale or small scale, downtown or suburban.

Developing Housing for the Workforce -- A Toolkit

Developing Housing for the Workforce -- A Toolkit from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) looks at the problem of providing affordable housing for the workforce. This book describes the problem, includes case studies and examples of financially feasible, for-profit developments, and features a section on public and private programs that are being used to encourage the development of housing for the workforce.

Developing Successful Infill Housing

Urban Land Institute. 2002. This book explains how to develop profitable, market-rate infill housing in urban and inner-ring suburban areas. Twelve case studies describe the development of flourishing multifamily, mixed-use, townhouse, adaptive use, and manufactured home projects throughout the nation.

Development Incentives -- Seattle Department of Planning and Development, Seattle, Washington

The Seattle Department of Planning and Development maintains a Development Incentives section on its website. This feature provides an overview of incentives by project type, as outlined by city Green Building staff, to help you achieve your green building goals.

Development of Excellence Awards

The Atlanta Regional Commission and the Livable Communities Coalition are joint partners in the promotion of the Developments of Excellence Awards program.

Disadvantaged Communities Network: Brownfield Tools and Assistance

The Northeast-Midwest Institute has posted on its website presentations and audio archives from the EPA-sponsored Disadvantaged Communities Network events. The Network was launched in 2006 launched to provide brownfields tools and technical assistance to local communities that are seeking to overcome economic and neighborhood disadvantage.

Diversity: Smart Growth for Inclusion

The Winter 2007 edition of On Common Ground focuses on inclusion and diversity. People who care about inclusion and diversity are viewing Smart Growth, which supports a greater diversity and connectivity in the physical pattern of growth, as one tool to bring people together across racial and class lines.

Dollars and Cents of Multifamily Housing

Based on the largest survey of multifamily housing properties in the industry, Dollars & Cents of Multifamily Housing provides the benchmarks you need to compare properties to evaluate investments, and to prepare appraisals.

Downtown Planning for Smaller and Midsized Communities

''For so long we were floundering and taking ad hoc measures, but the minute I understood what a downtown plan really was I said 'We need one of those!' As it turned out, it was the most fantastic vehicle I've ever seen,'' said Susan Moffat-Thomas of New Bern, North Carolina. Her hometown got a much-needed shot in the arm from a good downtown plan. Does yours need a similar boost?

Philip L. Walker, an experienced downtown-planning consultant, offers practical tips for preserving a sense of place, improving fiscal efficiency, and enhancing quality of life in Downtown Planning for Smaller and Midsized Communities.

Planners and revitalization officials will learn how to address physical components of the downtown, as well as economic development. Walker, an experienced downtown-planning consultant, also explains how to develop an organization to implement a downtown plan; how federal, state, and local policies may influence the planning process; and how to fund a downtown revitalization effort.

Downtowns and Town Centers

The Planning Commissioners Journal is the nation's principal publication designed for citizen planners, including (but certainly not limited to) members of local planning commissions and zoning boards. ''Downtowns and Town Centers'' is an index of journal articles on downtown topics such as Farmers' Markets, Historic Preservation Ordinances, Public Buildings, Parking, and more.

Driven to Action: Stopping Sprawl in Your Community

Driven to Action encourages communities to reshape urban areas by helping to set the rules and making plans for sustainable cities.

EcoDensity -- Vancouver

EcoDensity is a concept being discussed with the Vancouver community. In brief, EcoDensity is an acknowledgement that high quality and strategically located density can make Vancouver more sustainable, livable and affordable.

Ecological Design Manual for Lake County, Florida

The goal of this manual is to illustrate how development objectives and natural resource protection needs within a high-growth area can be addressed through the physical design of residential projects.

Published December 2001. 42 pages; available online as a PDF document at the resource link below.

Ecological Riverfront Design

Ecological Riverfront Design puts forth a new vision for the nation's urban riverfronts and provides a set of planning and design principles that will allow communities to reclaim urban river edges in the most ecologically sound and economically viable manner possible.

Economic Development and Smart Growth

Economic development success and smart growth can go hand-in-hand. The International Economic Development Council's (IEDC's) Economic Development and Smart Growth presents eight case studies on communities that incorporated smart growth principles in their development projects and have experienced economic development improvements in the form of increased tax revenue, more jobs, higher income levels, downtown revitalization, business growth, and other indicators of economic success.

Economics, Equity and the Environment

Economics, Equity, and the Environment, by Stephen M. Johnson, examines major economic incentive and market-based environmental protection programs that are being implemented by governments, including pollution taxes, pollutant trading programs, regulatory waiver programs, subsidies, grants, loans and favorable tax treatment, and deposit/refund systems.

Education Campaign on Policy Barriers to Redevelopment of Vacant Properties (RFP)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking proposals to educate critical state decision- and policy-makers on policy and practical barriers to the redevelopment of abandoned and other vacant properties. Proposals are due August 27, 2007.

Elder Friendly Communities

Elder Friendly Communities is the third component of the Successful Aging Initiative of the Cleveland Foundation, a multi-phased program that supports and promotes the assets and positive aspects of aging. The Successful Aging Initiative is focused on establishing elder-friendly communities, lifelong learning and development centers, and increased prospects for civic engagement, including meaningful volunteering and post-retirement employment opportunities.

Elder Friendly Communities Program

The Elder Friendly Communities Program supports seniors to connect with each other, contribute to their neighbourhoods, and effectively voice their concerns through senior-led initiatives. The Calgary, Alberta program promotes the use of promising practices for collaborative community development work with seniors as identified through research.

Electronic Green Government Network

The National Association of Counties (NACo) Electronic Green Government Network is a source for information on all things green for county officials, staff, and public and private companies with an interest in learning about county activities in this area.

Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development

This new book provides a refreshing look at how American cities are leading the way toward greener, cleaner, and more sustainable forms of economic development.

In Emerald Cities, Joan Fitzgerald shows how in the absence of a comprehensive national policy, cities like Chicago, New York, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle have taken the lead in addressing the interrelated environmental problems of global warming, pollution, energy dependence, and social justice. Cities are major sources of pollution but because of their population density, reliance on public transportation, and other factors, Fitzgerald argues that they are uniquely suited to promote and benefit from green economic development. For cities facing worsening budget constraints, investing in high-paying green jobs in renewable energy technology, construction, manufacturing, recycling, and other fields will solve two problems at once, sparking economic growth while at the same time dramatically improving quality of life.

Fitzgerald also examines how investing in green research and technology may help to revitalize older industrial cities and offers examples of cities that don't make the top-ten green lists such as Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio and Syracuse, New York. And for cities wishing to emulate those already engaged in developing greener economic practices, Fitzgerald shows which strategies will be most effective according to each city's size, economic history, geography, and other unique circumstances. But cities cannot act alone, and Fitzgerald analyzes the role of state and national government policy in helping cities create the next wave of clean technology growth.

Lucid, forward-looking, and guided by a level-headed optimism that clearly distinguishes between genuine progress and exaggerated claims, Emerald Cities points the way toward a sustainable future for the American city.

Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2006

Emerging Trends in Real Estate from the Urban Land Institute is considered the most comprehensive annual forecast available on all categories of the commercial real estate industry.

Energy and Smart Growth (Translation Paper #15)

This translation paper from the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities contends there is much to be gained by expanding the smart growth movement to include greater attention on energy. Through greater use of energy efficient design and renewable energy sources, the smart growth movement could better achieve its goals of environmental protection, economic security and prosperity, and community livability.

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Information Center

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's (EERE) Information Center answers questions about EERE's products, services, and technology programs, and refers callers to the most appropriate EERE resources.

''Energy Efficient Construction'' Technical Bulletins

''Energy Efficient Construction'' is one of a series of Habitat for Humanity's free Energy Technical Bulletins. The documents provide basic how-to information for a variety of sustainable construction methods, materials and techniques.

Energy Efficient Mortgages

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) offer an Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) webpage. An EEM is a mortgage that credits a home's energy efficiency in the mortgage itself. EEMs give borrowers the opportunity to finance cost-effective, energy-saving measures as part of a single mortgage and stretch debt-to-income qualifying ratios on loans thereby allowing borrowers to qualify for a larger loan amount and a better, more energy-efficient home.

Energy Star Awards -- 2008

Each year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) honor organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through energy efficiency in the Energy Star Awards. On April 1, 2008, the EPA and DOE honored award winners at the 2008 ENERGY STAR Awards Ceremony in Washington, DC.

Energy Star Challenge

The ENERGY STAR Challenge is a national call-to-action to improve the energy efficiency of America's commercial and industrial buildings by 10 percent or more. Whether you're associated with a small school or a large corporation, a local government or a national association, a community hospital or a hotel group, a manufacturing plant or an architecture firm -- you can be part of the ENERGY STAR Challenge and help improve the energy efficiency of America's commercial and industrial buildings by 10 percent or more.

Energy Star Nominations -- 2009

Each year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) honor organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through energy efficiency. Award winners will be recognized at the ENERGY STAR Awards Ceremony on March 31, 2009, in Washington, DC.

Energy Star Target Finder

Target Finder from the U.S. EPA's Energy Star program can help you set realistic energy performance goals and receive an energy rating for design projects. By setting and achieving superior energy performance goals, architects can help their clients prevent greenhouse gas emissions associated with burning fossil fuels.

Energy Tax Incentives Website

The Tax Incentives Assistance Project (TIAP) is designed to give consumers and businesses information they need to make use of the federal income tax incentives for energy efficient products and technologies passed by Congress as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Enterprise at Home for Progress at Large: The Economics of Sustainability

This new report focuses on economies in transition—economies that are threatened by the consequences of environmental changes. The report explores how key civic leaders, faced with the challenge of ensuring the future strength of their economies, have employed creative new agendas that not only help reverse the effects of environmental degradation but also leverage the occasion for valuable economic gain.

While national debates rage over which production methods will lead to a stronger, more sustainable environment, and while research and development teams struggle to produce the next revolutionary technology, it is on the local level that incredible progress is being made in advancing sustainability measures beyond rhetoric. City governments and grassroots activists are often the most obvious players, but there is a powerful—and perhaps unexpected—player in the green arena that is leading the charge in cutting emissions and conserving energy while boosting regional economies: the business community.

These activities are not wild expansions of their mission, but are essential to fulfilling it. Businesses that emit little emissions and consume fewer resources are the stronger, leaner and more agile businesses of America’s future and as the organizations that work to support economic development and improve local quality of life, many chambers of commerce have dedicated themselves to aiding in the success of green businesses. The ingenuity and forward thinking exemplified by the chambers highlighted here are the first bold steps toward a more sustainable and robust American economy.

The report provides tells stories of entrepreneurship and success—stories of chambers of commerce throughout the country instituting green business recognition programs, working to attract clean industries, creating green jobs, and providing resources to local businesses to implement more sustainable practices.

Enterprise Community Loan Fund

A variety of short-term loan products are available through the Enterprise Community Loan Fund -- a certified Community Development Financial Institution -- for predevelopment, acquisition, working capital and other financing needs.

Enterprise Community Partners -- Social Enterprise of the Year

Fast Company has named Enterprise Community Partners to its honor roll of 2009 Social Enterprises of the Year.

Enterprise Conference Presentations

Presentations from Enterprise's annual conference, held November 14–16, 2007, in Cleveland, Ohio, are now available online.

Enterprise Conference Presentations

Conference presentations from Enterprise's Community Conference, held in Cleveland, Ohio, November 14-16, 2007, are now available at the Enterprise website.

Enterprise Conference Presentations

Presentations from Enterprise's annual conference, held November 14–16, 2007, in Cleveland, Ohio, are now available online.

Enterprise Green Communities Grants

Enterprise Green Communities is offering several grants to help cover the costs of planning and implementing green components of affordable housing developments, as well as tracking their costs and benefits.

• Planning & Construction Grants
  Grants up to $75,000 to cover planning and construction expenses, including additional costs of architectural work, engineering, site surveys and costs associated with items such as a more efficient HVAC system, green materials and energy-efficient appliances. www.greencommunitiesonline.org/tools/funding/grants/planning.asp
• Charrettes Grants.
  Grants up to $5,000 to assist housing developers with integrating green building systems in their developments and engage in a serious discussion of green design possibilities. Enterprise will award planning grants to affordable housing developers to coordinate a green design charrette. www.greencommunitiesonline.org/tools/funding/grants/planning.asp
• Sustainability Training Grants (post-construction)
  Grants up to $5,000 for affordable housing developers. Funding is available to cover the design and distribution of an operations and maintenance manual and the development as well as the implementation of a training curriculum that supports long-term operations and maintenance. www.greencommunitiesonline.org/tools/funding/grants/sustainability/index.asp

Enterprise Receives HUD Funding to Provide Technical Assistance

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) named Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise) as one of nine national organizations receiving funding to help local communities purchase, rehabilitate and resell foreclosed properties in especially hard-hit neighborhoods. The $7.1 million grant to Enterprise is part of a $50 million effort that HUD has launched to help state and local governments address the inventory of foreclosed properties, using the department's Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).

Enterprise Resource Database

The Enterprise Resource Database is an extensive library of community-based resources from the Enterprise Foundation. Database categories include regional and neighborhood planning, housing, community safety, finance, and community building.

Enterprise Rose Fellows Announced for 2007

Enterprise, a leading nonprofit provider of affordable housing nationwide, has announced recipients of the Frederick P. Rose Architectural Fellowship. This award offers promising young architects a unique opportunity to use their design skills in real-life situations by creating sustainable, affordable housing in underserved communities. The 2007 fellows will be based in the Bronx in New York City; Woodburn, Oregon; and New Orleans, Louisiana.

Enterprise Technical Assistance

Through its local offices, Enterprise provides one-on-one expertise, through its staff or consultants, to help community-based organizations prepare their boards, partners, staff and administration to carry out their work.

Enterprise Wins Energy Star Award

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have awarded Enterprise the 2007 ENERGY STAR Award for Excellence in Energy-Efficient Affordable Housing in recognition of its efforts to provide energy-efficient housing for low-income residents. Enterprise will be recognized at an awards ceremony today in Washington, D.C.

Environmental Characteristics of Smart Growth Neighborhoods

This new study (also conducted for NRDC in cooperation with EPA) continues that research by comparing two neighborhoods in Nashville, Tennessee, and suggests that the combination of better transportation accessibility and a modest increase in land-use density can produce measurable benefits even when both sites are automobile-oriented and suburban in character.

Environmental Hall of Fame

The Environmental Hall of Fame inducted more than 36 honorees into the National, Illinois and Chicago Environmental Halls of Fame at Hotel Allegro Chicago on November 20-22, 2008 during its second awards ceremony. The Hotel Allegro, (171 W. Randolph) across from City Hall, has been rated the greenest hotel in Chicago.

Environmental Health Perspectives: Built Environment

Built Environment is a collection of articles from Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed open access journal dedicated to the effect of the environment on human health.

Environmental Justice Small Grants Awards

Fiscal Year 2009 marks the 15th anniversary of the U.S. EPA's Environmental Justice Small Grants Program (EJSG). Since its inception in 1994, the Program has awarded more than $20 million in funding to 1,130 community-based organizations, and local and tribal organizations working with communities who are facing environmental justice issues.

Environmental Justice Small Grants Program -- 2008 Call for Applications

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published an Application Guidance document for its 2008 Environmental Justice Small Grants Program. Deadline for applications is June 30, 2008.

Environmental Justice, Urban Revitalization and Brownfields

''Environmental Justice, Urban Revitalization, and Brownfields: The Search for Authentic Signs of Hope'' is a report on equitable development endorsed by the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) at its May 29-31, 1996 meeting in Detroit, Michigan.

Environmental Justice: The Power of Partnerships

Environmental Justice: The Power of Partnerships is a documentary film from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that tells the story of how one man, a local community organization called ReGenesis, and a handful of partners turned a downtrodden community around. It's about the process of discovering -- after being exposed to environmental contamination -- a public health problem, working together to envision broad solutions, bringing people together, and creating change. It's about a place that ''couldn't get any worse,'' according to one resident, that is now being transformed.

Environmental Law Institute's ''Sustainability and Resource Protection''

Environmental Law Institute uses sustainability as an organizing principle to develop new strategies for the protection of land, water, and biological resources. ELI’s Sustainability and Resource Protection Programs improve our nation’s laws, policies, and institutions. Integrating environmental laws, tax laws, development laws, and other tools. ELI works with state, local, and federal agencies, citizen groups, non-profit organizations, and corporate partners to develop effective solutions to problems of land and resource use.

Environmental Research and Education Needs

Environmental Research and Education Needs: An Agenda for a New Administration is report from the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), published in December 2008, that organizes the recommendations relating to research and education policy from NCSE's first eight national conferences (2000-2008). It identifies research needed to improve scientific knowledge, and education needed to improve public understanding, professional capacity and a strong workforce.

Environmental Stewardship and the Green Campus

Colleges and universities are ideally suited to implement sustainability practices through environmental programs, energy conservation, and recycling. Environmental Stewardship and the Green Campus outlines practical steps your campus or institution can take to promote sustainability, including solid waste reduction, water conservation, transportation solutions, new construction, grounds and land use, and more.

Envisioning Better Communities: Seeing More Options, Making Wiser Choices

Randall Arendt's work has shaped a generation of planners, designers, and landscape architects. In Envisioning Better Communities, he brings his insights to a broader public, with a profusely illustrated demonstration of how local officials, planning commissioners, and everyday citizens can work to make their communities more attractive, more habitable, and more sustainable.

Despite the widespread acceptance of good design and planning principles throughout the professions, too many of our towns and rural areas remain needlessly ugly and inefficient. In side by side comparisons of similar places and kinds of buildings, Arendt shows that we need not live amid sprawling, characterless visual blight. Simple design choices and effective municipal decisions can have tremendous impacts on the quality of our communities.

Written in Arendt's well-known clear, accessible, nontechnical style, this book creates a sense of hope for those who face the everyday challenges of working with developers and landowners to create places that make economic, environmental, and aesthetic sense. Arendt shows us that with diligence, thoughtfulness, and care, we can make our communities better in countless ways.

EPA 6th Annual P3 Awards: Student Design Competition

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) invite submissions to the 6th Annual P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability.

EPA Announces New RFP: ''Smart Growth Streets and Emergency Response''

A new grant RFP issued by the U.S. EPA's Development, Community, and Environment Division seeks to bring together emergency response officials, local government officials, transportation experts, and developers to engage in a problem-solving process around the issue of simultaneously meeting the needs for emergency response with the design of smart growth streets. The goal is to create a solution or set of solutions that have the endorsement of these multiple interests and will be applicable nationally across the U.S. and/or in significant regions of the country. The RFP will also support outreach efforts to educate relevant stakeholders nationally.

EPA Announces Winners of the 2004 National Awards
for Smart Growth Achievement

On November 17, EPA announced five winners of the 2004 National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. This Award recognizes outstanding achievement in smart growth by tribal, local, or regional governments in five categories: Overall Excellence, Built Projects, Policies and Regulation, Community Outreach and Education, and Small Communities.

EPA Green Homes Website

Home owners, buyers and renters have a new resource for going green indoors and outdoors. EPA’s new Green Homes Website will help people make their homes greener with tips on reducing energy consumption, carbon footprints, waste generation and water usage, as well as improving indoor air quality.

The latest federal survey of American housing (2007) reported 128 million housing units across the U.S., accounting for nearly 54 percent of national energy use and nearly 31 percent of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, the most common greenhouse gas contributing to climate change.

Many green building practices and technologies have yet to make a dent in the existing residential market, in part because it is hard for people to find clear, consolidated, readily accessible, and credible information. The Green Homes Website addresses that need by providing guidance on approaches to greening each room of the home as well as the surrounding yard. Information also is available on building new homes and finding an energy- efficient mortgage, which takes into account the savings derived from energy efficient homes to enable the applicant to qualify for better terms.

Renters will find information to help them identify a green property before moving in and tips for working with their landlord to add green features to an existing property. Users can also find references, such as a list of common green home terms, and links to dozens of EPA Websites with more specific information on a wide variety of green home topics.

EPA Videos Highlight Green Building Success

EPA has produced two videos highlighting some of the recent success in green building technology. Both videos focus on green buildings that reduce the effects of storm water runoff on the quality of downstream receiving waters.

EPA-NOAA Coastal Community Development Partnership

The EPA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have agreed to work together to help coastal communities grow in ways that benefit the economy, public health, and the environment.

EPA's 6th Annual Clean Air Excellence Awards

Entries are currently being accepted for EPA's sixth annual Clean Air Excellence Awards. The Clean Air Excellence Awards Program is open to both public and private entities in the United States.

EPA's Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Model

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Model is a handbook for all stakeholders to understand how equitable development and local environmental and/or public health issues can be addressed through the Collaborative Problem-Solving (CPS) Model.

EPA's Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program

The U.S. EPA's Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program (SGIA) is an annual, competitive solicitation open to state, local, regional, and tribal governments (and non-profits that have partnered with a governmental entity) that want to incorporate smart growth techniques into their future development.

EPA's Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program: 2007 Communities

EPA developed the Smart Growth Implementation Assistance (SGIA) program in response to communities' requests for help in achieving their development goals. Through this program, EPA provides technical assistance from private-sector experts to help communities find the best tools and resources to plan for growth in ways that sustain environmental and economic progress and create a high quality of life.

Equitable Development Funding

FOCUS is a regional incentive-based development and conservation strategy for the San Francisco, California Bay Area. FOCUS unites the efforts of four regional agencies -- ABAG, MTC, the Air District, and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) -- into a single program that encourages future growth in areas near transit and within the communities that surround the San Francisco Bay.

Equitable Renewal: Ten Points to Guide Rebuilding in the Gulf Coast Region

Equitable Renewal: Ten Points to Guide Rebuilding in the Gulf Coast Region is an outline of steps from PolicyLink to help ensure that restoration of hurricane-damage communities is fair and just.

EquityBlog

EquityBlog is a project of PolicyLink to help nurture and inspire the nation's equity movement. The strong and growing equity community is united in bringing greater opportunity to all Americans, especially those from low-income communities and communities of color.

Essential Smart Growth Fixes for Urban and Suburban Zoning Codes

Across the country, local governments are searching for ways to create vibrant communities that attract jobs, foster economic development, and provide attractive places for people to live, work, and play. But many are discovering that their own land development codes and ordinances often get in the way of achieving these goals, and they may not have the resources or expertise to make the specific regulatory changes that will create more sustainable communities.

In response to this need, EPA's Smart Growth Program convened a panel of national smart growth code experts to identify the topics in local zoning codes that are essential to creating the building blocks of smart growth. The resulting document, Essential Smart Growth Fixes for Urban and Suburban Zoning Codes, presents the panel's initial work. This document explores 11 ''Essential Fixes'' that address the most common barriers local governments face in implementing smart growth. These actions are organized as modest adjustments, major modifications, or wholesale changes -- giving communities options based on their political will, financial resources, and organizational capacity.

This tool does not include model language, codes or ordinances. It can, however, help communities evaluate their existing codes and ordinances and apply that information to create more sustainable comunities. It is an evolving document that will be regularly revised and updated, and is intended to spark a larger conversation about the tools and information local governments need to revise their land development regulations.

European Solar Prizes -- 2009

European Urban Knowledge Network

The European Urban Knowledge Network (EUKN) shares knowledge and experience on tackling urban issues. Fifteen EU Member States, EUROCITIES, the URBACT Programme and the European Commission participate in this European initiative.

Evaluation of Smart Growth on the Ground

''Smart Growth on the Ground'' is an innovative program to change the way that development is done in British Columbia by creating real, built examples of smart growth. This unique program helps BC communities to prepare more sustainable neighborhood plans -- including land use, transportation, urban design, and building design plans. Extensive follow-up ensures that the plans become reality.

Excellence in Affordable Housing -- 2007 Nominations

In partnership with the MetLife Foundation, Enterprise offers the MetLife Foundation Awards for Excellence in Affordable Housing. The awards program recognizes 501(c)(3) community-based or regional nonprofit organizations and Tribes or Tribally Designated Housing Entities that excel in property and asset management or provide housing to people with special needs.

Excellence in Urban Journalism Award

Presented in partnership with The Freedom Forum, the Annual Excellence in Urban Journalism Award encourages and recognizes quality reporting on major issues facing the nation's urban populations.

Expanding Affordable Housing Through Inclusionary Zoning: Lessons from the Washington Metropolitan Area

Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, October 2001. This paper examines the effectiveness of inclusionary zoning programs as tools for not only providing affordable housing, but also ensuring that such housing is built throughout a jurisdiction.

Expanding Housing Opportunity in Washington, DC

Expanding Housing Opportunity in Washington, DC: The Case for Inclusionary Zoning uses data compiled from hundred of localities where inclusionary zoning has made a critical difference in providing affordable housing to low- and moderate-income families.

Expanding Opportunity: New Resources to Meet California's Housing Needs

PolicyLink produced this report on housing affordability for California that analyzes possible revenue sources, surveys housing trust funds in 28 other states, and draws from best practices across the nation to provide a blueprint for providing affordable housing.

Facing the Future

Facing the Future believes in the transformative power of widespread, systemic education to improve lives and communities, both locally and globally. The organization's positive, solutions-based programming is designed by and for teachers, and effectively brings critical thinking about global issues to students in every walk of life.

Fannie Mae Foundation Grants -- 2005

The Fannie Mae Foundation awards grants to nonprofit organizations that create affordable homeownership and housing opportunities in cities, towns, and rural areas across the United States. These organizations are recognized for building healthy, vibrant communities.

The Foundation awards most of its grants by soliciting proposals from organizations with the demonstrated ability to create strong partnerships with the Foundation. A limited amount of grant funding to be awarded through a competitive process is also available. The next application deadline will be in early 2005, and more information will be available on the Foundation's website by December 31, 2004.

For more information please visit the resource link below.

Fannie Mae’s Annual Housing Survey

Fannie Mae's 2003 National Housing Survey finds that, while most Americans view homeownership as a safe investment with a lot of potential, four critical ''gaps'' must be addressed in order to reach the underserved and close the minority homeownership gap.

Federal Energy Efficiency Tax Credits

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provide current information on Federal Energy Efficiency Tax Credits through this webpage.

Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credits

The Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program is one of the Federal government’s most successful and cost-effective community revitalization programs. The Preservation Tax Incentives reward private investment in rehabilitating historic properties such as offices, rental housing, and retail stores.

Federal Policy Ideas for Community Revitalization

Federal Policy Ideas for Community Revitalization is a report from the Northeast-Midwest Institute that explores ways that federal policy can help older core cities and close-in suburbs with community revitalization challenges.

Fertile Ground

Fertile Ground is a report on the first year of Green Communities, a five-year, $555 million initiative to build more than 8,500 environmentally healthy homes for low-income families. The report states that the initiative exceeded expectations in its first year, as a diverse array of partners embraced the initiative’s holistic, cost-effective approach to sustainable development in low-income communities.

Field Guide to Green Homes and Green Mortgages

The National Assocation of Realtors® has produced an online Field Guide to Green Homes and Green Mortgages. This web digest of published articles covers many topics, including how to finance a green home, incorporating green home elements such as solar power and Energy Star appliances, and environmentally friendly building materials.

Financial Incentives for Building Green Affordable Housing in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) has produced a two-page chart that provides information on funding resources for building green affordable housing.

First Green Communities Project

Green Communities is a five-year $550 million initiative developed through a partnership between The Enterprise Foundation/ Enterprise Social Investment Corporation (ESIC) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), along with leading corporate, financial, professional and philanthropic organizations to ensure smarter, healthier homes for Americans with limited incomes.

First Stop Shop for Water Resources

The First Stop Shop for Water Resources from the Local Government Commission (LGC) is a clearinghouse for information and resources related to the co-management of land and water resources. This website is dedicated to providing the most relevant, up-to-date, and useful information about water resource management and putting it all in one place that is easy to navigate so you can find what you need when you need it.

Fix Our Energy Addiction -- Next Generation Design Competition

Win $10,000 in the ''Fix Our Energy Addiction,'' Metropolis Magazine's Next Generation Design Competition open to all designers in practice 10 years or less.

Florida 2060

Florida 2060, a research project prepared for 1000 Friends of Florida by the GeoPlan Center at the University of Florida, is a population distribution scenario for the state of Florida. This 2006 report provides details on how the expected doubling of the Sunshine State's population between now and 2060 will affect land use, providing that land use policies do not change.

Florida Brownfields Grants

The Florida Brownfields Association (FBA) has announced that five Florida communities have received new U.S. EPA Brownfields Grants: Treasure Coast RPC, City of Clearwater, City of Homestead, City of Miami, and City of Tampa.

Florida Chapter -- APA Awards

The 2006 Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association (FAPA) Awards showcase comprehensive and high-quality plans and regulations -- along with innovative approaches to planning issues -- as models and resources for other Florida communities.

Florida Department of Health -- Smart Growth Presentation

The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) offers a smart growth presentation that provides an overview of smart growth in the context of public health. This resource emphasizes the connection between public health and the built environment, and how following Smart Growth principles can benefit Florida.

Florida Smart Growth Advocates

1000 Friends of Florida has compiled this list of local advocacy groups that are dealing with the impacts of growth on a daily basis. This online resource contains contact information for more than a dozen organizations.

Focusing Our Vision: Planning for Sustainability in the San Francisco Region

The Vision was created in 2002 by individuals and organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area who believe that the region's population growth can be accommodated in a sustainable way. The Vision calls for the Bay Area to develop as a ''network of neighborhoods,'' where future growth is concentrated near transit and in the existing communities that surround the San Francisco Bay. Focusing Our Vision is the most recent effort to realize the Vision. Referred to as FOCUS, the program's nickname is fitting because it requires a FOCUS of efforts, resources and housing development in areas that will promote the long-term sustainability of the region.

For the Greener Good: Public Lecture Series

For the Greener Good is a public series that affirms the National Building Museum's commitment to environmental sustainability. It calls on experts from diverse backgrounds to investigate links between environmental sustainability and design, public health, energy policy, bioscience, infrastructure, education, and even popular culture.

Foreclosed Properties in NYC: A Look at the Last 15 Years

In 2009, New York City saw a record number of foreclosure filings, passing 20,000 for the first time since we started tracking foreclosures in early 1990s. Yet little is known about what happens to these properties after they receive a foreclosure notice. How many homeowners manage to stay in their home? How many sell? How many properties complete the foreclosure process and go to auction? How many end up bank-owned? The answers to these questions are critical for policymakers trying to stem the tide of foreclosures and stabilize neighborhoods that have been hard hit, but they have been largely elusive until now.

This new report from the Furman Center has analyzes the outcomes of 1-4 family properties that entered foreclosure in New York City between 1993 and 2007, paying particular attention to trends in recent years. The report finds that of properties that received a foreclosure filing in 2007, more than half have not completed the foreclosure process, while 12% of those properties have completed the foreclosure process and are now bank-owned. The report identifies a current inventory of 1,750 bank-owned (termed Real Estate Owned or ''REO'' by lenders) properties citywide-up dramatically from about 290 at the end of 2006. While the overall number of REO properties in New York remains small compared to harder hit cities, the report finds that these properties are highly concentrated in Eastern Queens, Central Brooklyn, and the North Shore of Staten Island-not surprisingly, the same neighborhoods that have been hardest hit by the mortgage crisis.

Foreclosure Response

Foreclosure-Response.org is a website offering resources intended to help states and localities respond to the foreclosure crisis. This site is maintained by the Center for Housing Policy, KnowledgePlex, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and the Urban Institute.

Foreclosure Response: Web Resources for States and Localities

Foreclosure-Response.org is a website offering resources intended to help states and localities respond to the foreclosure crisis. The site is maintained by the Center for Housing Policy, KnowledgePlex, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and the Urban Institute.

Form-Based Codes: Implementing Smart Growth

Form-Based Codes: Implementing Smart Growth from the Local Government Commission is an eight-page fact sheet that discusses this innovative approach to regulating development and includes case studies and tips for preparing and administering a form-based code.

Foundations and Real Estate

This report from the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities presents 19 stories from foundations that demonstrate the strategic use of varying types of investments a foundation can make toward supporting more thoughtful real estate investment in a region as well as how a foundation might approach such investment.

From Brownfields to Housing

Brownfield redevelopment -- the cleanup and reuse of abandoned properties with real or suspected contamination -- offers communities a range of housing opportunities, especially where market factors or a property's size or location restrict possibilities for commercial and industrial reuse.

From Wall Street to Your Street: New Solutions for Smart Growth Finance

Commissioned by the Funders' Network, From Wall Street to Your Street: New Solutions for Smart Growth Finance reassess the current methods for smart growth finance and sketches out two different ''fixes'' for the problem of financing smart growth.

Funders Interested in Restoring Prosperity in Older Industrial Cities

The Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities offers five PowerPoint presentations from its September 11, 2008 meeting, Funders Interested in Restoring Prosperity in Older Industrial Cities.

Funders' Network Publishes Health and Smart Growth Translation Paper

The Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities has published its most recent translation paper: Health and Smart Growth: Building Health, Promoting Active Communities.

Funders' Network: Looking Back

To acknowledge and celebrate its 10th Anniversary in 2009, the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities commissioned Looking Back: Influencing, Networking, Facilitating, a retrospective on the efforts undertaken by the Network and its members over the past ten years.

Funders' Network: Looking Forward

To acknowledge and celebrate its 10th Anniversary in 2009, the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities Looking Forward: Perspectives on Future Opportunities for Philanthropy, a compilation of essays from leading thinkers in the movement for smarter growth policies and practices that challenge philanthropy to think about its role over the next ten years.

Future Vision Winners 2007

Winners of the Future Vision 07 competition were announced at an awards ceremony in central London on June 7, 2007. The winning entries were showcased in front of an audience of 450 sustainable communities professionals.

Gentrification: Practice and Politics

Local Initiatives Support Corporation. 2000. This paper reframes the gentrification issue and offers ways for city officials, advocates, private sector developers, businesses and neighborhood residents to build vital communities that work for all stakeholders.

Geographic Information Systems: A Tool for Improving Community Livability

This fact sheet from Local Government Commission contains examples of how communities have used GIS to improve the livability of their communities.

Getting Ahead of the (Housing) Curve

Getting Ahead of the (Housing) Curve is the first in a series of four papers that examine the interconnections between housing and other issues of concern to philanthropic organizations and the communities in which they work, and is designed as an overview and focuses on the unique features of the housing market and emerging trends.

Getting Density Right

Getting Density Right from the Urban Land Institute is a book that describes tools used to better support compact development, including visioning, planning, and new regulations. Case studies profile the experiences of eight communities, the policy tools they used to encourage compact development, and the development projects built using the new regulations.

Getting It Done: New Tools for Communities

''Getting It Done: New Tools for Communities,'' a conference by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation/Chicago (LISC/Chicago), drew more than 900 individuals from 24 Chicago neighborhoods and 56 cities for workshops, tours, and more.

Getting Real about Urbanism

How do you create a flourishing, livable place appealing to residents and visitors of all ages, incomes, and backgrounds? Offering a ground-breaking alternative to uniform, ''cookie-cutter'' urban designs, Getting Real About Urbanism is a book that describes techniques for creating ''Real Urbanism'' -- designing places with personality that reflect what is distinctive and original in a neighborhood, district, city, or region.

Getting the Growth You Want: A Citizens Guide to Subdivisions and Smart Growth

Getting the Growth You Want: A Citizens Guide to Subdivisions and Smart Growth is the first of a two-part series from the Montana Smart Growth Coalition and the Great Yellowstone Coalition designed to help communities approve good subdivisions and deny bad ones.

Getting the Message Out: Promoting Active Living

This PowerPoint presentation examines ways to promote active living and pedestrian-friendly elements within communities.

Using examples from Colorado communities, the presentation shows how a vision for active living can be defined in the comprehensive plan, and what language may be used to build these features into local government codes.

Available online at the resource link below.

Getting to Smart Growth

This popular, 100-page primer from the ongoing series by ICMA and the Smart Growth Network describes concrete techniques of putting the ten smart growth principles into practice. The policies and guidelines presented in this primer have proven successful in communities across the United States, and range from formal legislative or regulatory efforts to informal approaches, plans, and programs.

Getting to Smart Growth II

Getting to Smart Growth II: 100 More Policies for Implementation is the newest primer in the ongoing series from the Smart Growth Network and ICMA, and follows on the heels of the extremely popular first volume of Getting to Smart Growth. The publication serves as a road map for states and communities that have recognized the need for smart growth but are unclear on how to achieve it. Spanish language version now available!

Getting to Smart Growth: 100 Policies for Implementation (Spanish Version)

Getting to Smart Growth: 100 Polices for Implementation has been made accessible for Spanish readers and speakers. The document has been translated in its entirety, complete with all policies and practice tips.

Getting to Smart Growth: Puerto Rico

Getting to Smart Growth has been adapted for Puerto Rico. Hacia el desarrollo inteligente: 10 principios y 100 estrategias para Puerto Rico is an adaptation of the popular, 100-page primer from the ongoing series by ICMA and the Smart Growth Network.

Getting to Work: Reconnecting Jobs with Transit

Getting to Work: Reconnecting Jobs with Transit from New Jersey Future reports that New Jersey residents spend more time getting to and from work than their counterparts in 48 of the 50 states -- but the state could reduce the stress and frustration of commuting, and advance several important public policy goals, by employing strategies to link job sites with public transportation, according to a research report released today by New Jersey Future.

Global Age-Friendly Cities

To help cities make the most of an ever growing older population, the World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing the Global Age-friendly Cities Guide in several cities around the world. WHO recognizes that population ageing and urbanization are two global trends that together comprise major forces shaping the 21st century. At the same time as cities are growing, their share of residents aged 60 years and more is increasing.

Global Planners Network

Recognizing that planners and their organizations throughout the world provide leadership in addressing many societal issues, the Global Planners Network was initiated to further the goal of globally connecting planning groups to assist each other and share best practices.

Global Sustainability Centers: The 20 Cities of 2020

Ethisphere magazine reports on The 20 Cities of 2020 as centers for global sustainability, with an emphasis on how density and mixed-use development provide more advantages for a vibrant, healthy community than subsurban sprawl.

Go Green Winston Salem

Celebrate with the City of Winston-Salem as they highlight the city's growing ''Green'' influence in everything from transportation to business, in a week-long celebration. A series of events is planned for September 15-19, including several elementary school presentations with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system, three unique forums focusing on ''Greening Your Business,'' ''Green Building and Sustainable Community,'' and ''Transportation.''

Going Comprehensive -- Guidebook on Comprehensive Community Development

In Going Comprehensive, a guidebook on comprehensive community development from the Local Initiatives Support Corp., expert practitioners Anita Miller and Tom Burns examine the Comprehensive Community Revitalization Program that produced one of America's most remarkable urban turnaround stories -- New York's once-stricken South Bronx.

Going from Good to Great: Livable Communities Surveys in Ohio

Are Marietta, Ohio, and Clermont County, Ohio, livable communities? This report from AARP reports on results of a telephone survey of the general populations age 45 years and older of Clermont County and Marietta, Ohio, to ask them about what they would need and want as they got older to make their community a great place to grow old.

Going to Town: New Urbanism and Neighborhood Success Stories

Going to Town is a special report from the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) that documents newfound interest among northwest Michigan’s developers and government officials in town center developments. Rising gas prices, escalating traffic congestion, and a rapidly growing population wary of both -- and eager for a more sensible, healthier lifestyle -- are fueling that interest. Today traditional-style neighborhood or town center developments are being planned, are already rising, or are now full of satisfied residents not only in larger towns such as Traverse City, Manistee, and Petoskey, but also in villages like Empire and Harbor Springs, and even rural townships like Acme.

Going to Town: New Urbanism Arrives in Northwest Michigan

Going to Town: New Urbanism Arrives in Northwest Michigan, a new report from the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI), discusses a new approach to residential and commercial development that is saving tax dollars, protecting the environment, and increasing prosperity and quality of life in northern Lower Michigan.

Good Design: The Best Kept Secret in Community Development

Good Design, from Local Initiatives Support Corp., describes what good design is, why it’s essential to affordable housing that works, and who’s responsible for making it happen.

Good News!

The Atlantic Monthly, January 1997. From Boston to San Francisco the community-based housing movement is transforming bad neighborhoods.

Governor’s Awards for Downtown Excellence -- 2006 Nominations

The Colorado Governor's Awards for Downtown Excellence is an annual program that recognizes the progress being made in revitalizing Colorado's historic downtown and neighborhood business districts and the contributions these districts are making to Colorado's quality of life and economy.

Great Cities Initiative

The work of Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is grounded in on-site analysis and offers a unique community-based approach to revitalization. PPS's Great Cities Initiative assembles these services into a step-by-step program that any town, city, or region can systematically apply to improve its neighborhoods place by place.

Great Neighborhoods: How to Bring them Home

The 1000 Friends Great Neighborhoods Project is intended to help teach the residents and developers in Wisconsin about the social, environmental and economic benefits of building compact, mixed-use, aesthetically appealing neighborhoods; and to offer professional and layperson guidance for how to advocate for and create these neighborhoods.

Great Places Awards -- 2009 Call for Nominations

Places: Forum of Design for the Public Realm and EDRA, the Environmental Design Research Association, in cooperation with Metropolis Magazine, announce the twelfth annual Great Places Awards (formerly EDRA/Places Awards) for Place Design, Planning and Research.

Great Plans, Great Communities

Looking to illustrate the connection between planning and great places? APA's Community-Wide Audio/Web Conference Great Plans, Great Communities provides a striking introduction to planning and makes the case for the importance and wide-ranging benefits of planning.

Greater Lansing Go Green Initiative

The Greater Lansing Go Green! Initiative is working to promote environmental and economic health for all those who live, work, and play in Greater Lansing.

Greater Washington 2050

Greater Washington 2050 is a new regional initiative to improve the quality of life for Washington area residents in the next 50 years by fostering stronger regional awareness, leadership and action today and in the next few years.

Green Affordable Housing

Center for American Progress has released the proposal ''Green Affordable Housing: Within Our Reach,'' which provides suggestions for policy changes to help reduce energy consumption, curb greenhouse gas emissions, and create a viable green jobs sector through the greening of existing affordable housing.

Green Affordable Housing Grants

Enterprise and Green Communities are now accepting applications for Planning and Construction Grants. Applicants may apply for both planning and construction grant funds in Fall 2007 program. The deadline for the current funding round is August 31, 2007.

Green and Growing Tool Box

The State of Connecticut offers the Green and Growing Tool Box, a website containing a comprehensive inventory of policies, plans, or programs administered by State Agencies represented on the Inter-Agency Responsible Growth Steering Council.

Green and Healthy Homes

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requests proposals for the Green and Healthy Homes and Technical Studies Program. Through this RFP, HUD seeks to improve knowledge of the effects residential green construction has on both indoor environmental quality and occupant health, with a particular focus on children and other sensitive populations. It is expected that benefits would be most likely observed for respiratory health outcomes and reductions in irritation-related symptoms.

Some $2.4 million expected to be available, up to 7 awards anticipated.

Responses are due November 17, 2009.

Green Building

In the last few years, there has been a greater recognition within the green building field that sustainability is not just about buildings, but includes a focus on where and how we site our buildings, how the buildings are served by transportation, and the overall health of the communities that these buildings shape.

Green Building by the Numbers

Green Building by the Numbers from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is a three-page report with statistics on the state of green buildings in America.

Green Building Competition -- NYC

The New York City Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning & Sustainability, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 2 are co-sponsors of the New York City Green Building Competition. Previously co-sponsored by the Office of Environmental Coordination in 2004 and 2006, this competition has attracted professionals and students from across the nation to present their innovative green building design projects and ideas for New York City.

Green Building Funding

Numerous sources of funding for green building are available at the national, state and local levels for homeowners, industry, government organizations and nonprofits. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides this webpage with links to help you find a variety of funding sources including grants, tax-credits, loans, or others.

Green Building Funding

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains this web page on green building funding opportunities.

Green Building Funding

Numerous sources of funding for green building are available at the national, state and local levels for homeowners, industry, government organizations and nonprofits. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides this webpage with links to help you find a variety of funding sources including grants, tax-credits, loans, or others.

Green Building Funding

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains a webpage that lists funding resources for green building initiatives. EPA provides the links on this page to help users find a variety of funding sources including grants, tax-credits, loans, or others.

Green Building Funding

Numerous sources of funding for green building are available at the national, state and local levels for homeowners, industry, government organizations and nonprofits. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides this webpage with links to help you find a variety of funding sources including grants, tax-credits, loans, or others.

Green Building Funding

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains this web page on green building funding opportunities.

Green Building Glossary

The National Association of Realtors' (NAR's) Green REsource Council website offers a Green Building Glossary of terms specific to environmentally sustainable buildings, construction, and development.

Green Building Guidelines -- Fifth Edition

The Green Building Guidelines is an easy-to read, builder-friendly primer for homebuilders across the nation. The Guidelines book was originally developed by a committee of builders, architects, building scientists, product manufacturers. This publication from Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC) was the first national green home building resource. Their work was supported by the Department of Energy's Building America Program through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings.

Green Building Impact Report 2008

GreenBuilding.com's Green Building Impact Report 2008 is the first-ever integrated assessment of the land, water, energy, material and indoor environmental impacts of the LEED for New Construction (LEED NC), Core & Shell (LEED CS) and Existing Building Operations and Maintenance (LEED EBOM) standards.

Green Building Initiative

The Kresge Foundation advances environmental conservation by awarding planning grants for sustainable design through its Green Building Initiative. The Foundation focuses its efforts on the renovation and historic preservation of existing structures, as well as new green construction.

Green Building Pages

Green Building Pages is a sustainable building materials web database for the environmentally and socially responsible designer, builder and client.

Green Building Policy in a Changing Economic Environment

Green Building Policy in a Changing Economic Environment is a new report that provides an inventory of policies and best practices intended to help policymakers advance a more sustainable legislative agenda for growth and development. The report also contains detailed case studies of the green building programs in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Nashville, and Grand Rapids, Mich.

According to the report, the number of U.S. cities with green building programs has increased 50% in two years. Green buildings generally include energy-efficient designs and other sustainable features. Among AIA’s findings, 138 cities have green building programs, compared with 92 cities in 2007, and 24 of the 25 most populated metropolitan regions are built around cities with a green building policy.

The report also notes that DOE's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is providing ''an unprecedented opportunity for the advancement of green building and sustainability efforts in our nation's cities.'' AIA has stated a goal of making all building designs carbon neutral by 2030.

Green Building Research Funding

Green Building Research Funding: An Assessment of Current Activity in the United States is a report by the 2007 U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Ginsberg Sustainability Fellow that tracks recent federal, state and trade association contributions to green building research funding.

Green Building Research Grants

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced recipients of its 2008 Green Building Research Fund grants. The Green Building Research Fund was created to spur research that will advance sustainable building practices and encourage market transformation.

Green Building Trends: Europe

Europe has been in the forefront of green building technology, and Green Building Trends: Europe provides an comprehensive overview of these energy-efficient, environmentally aware architecture and design and their applications.

Green Building/Healthy Homes

The Housing Assistance Council helps local organizations build affordable homes in rural America by providing below-market financing, technical assistance, research, training and information services. HAC's programs focus on local solutions, empowerment of the poor, reduced dependency, and self-help strategies.

Green Buildings for All

The City of Portland, Oregon's Office of Sustainability has developed this ''G/Rated'' website, a depository of green building technologies, case studies, specifications, and other technical resources.

Green By Design Conference Presentations

Nearly 20 presentations from the Minnesota Green By Design Conference are now available at the conference website. The two-day event was hosted by Minnesota Green Communities in April 2006.

Green Communities 2008 Action Plan

The Iowa Department of Economic Development has published its Green Communities 2008 Action Plan, a set of services and initiatives that encourage community sustainability.

Green Communities Charrette Grants

Green Communities offers grants for up to $5,000 to assist housing developers with integrating green building systems in their developments and engage in a serious discussion of green design possibilities, Enterprise will award planning grants to affordable housing developers to coordinate green charrettes.

Green Communities Developer Incentives

Green Communities is designed to help developers, investors, and builders make the transition to a greener future for affordable housing. Led by Enterprise, The Enterprise Social Investment Corporation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, Green Communities provides a package of financial incentives and other resources to affordable housing developers across the country.

Green Communities Grants

Green Communities is a five-year, $555 million initiative to build more than 8,500 environmentally healthy homes for low-income families.

Green Communities' Green Tour

Take a Green Community Tour with Enterprise's Green Communities. Trolley Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a 40-unit building that incorporates both retail and residential space. The location and neighborhood were chosen to minimize the building's environmental impact as well as to make the best use of available natural light and passive heating and cooling opportunities. The City of Cambridge identified Trolley Square, located on the site of a former trolley storage facility, as a critical location in the revitalization of the neighborhood.

Green Communities Loans

As part of The Green Communities Initiative, the Enterprise Community Loan Fund offers several lending products to support the development of affordable rental and homeownership housing that adheres to Green Communities Criteria.

Green Communities News

The February 2008 Green Communities News reports on ''Landmark Green Affordable Policy Advances in Congress,'' ''Denver Adopts Green Communities for Affordable Housing,'' and ''Enterprise Launches Fund for Green Affordable Development in Atlanta.''

Green Communities News -- October 2008

New opportunities in green affordable housing, sustainable Green Communities projects, and how HUD is promoting energy efficiency are all topics of discussion in the October 2008 Green Communities newsletter from Enterprise.

Green Communities Newsletter -- July 2008

News about winners in the first annual Sustainable Cities Awards program, a call for Congress to pass the Green Resources for Energy Efficient Neighborhoods Act of 2008, and Rebuilding a Greener New Orleans are all topics of discussion in the July 2008 Green Communities newsletter from Enterprise.

Green Communities Newsletter -- May 2008

Green Affordable Housing, the Green Communities Developers Summit, and information on Federal Grant Funds for Green Affordable Developments are all topics of discussion in the May 2008 Green Communities newsletter from Enterprise.

Green Communities Offset Fund

Enterprise Community Partners has launched the Green Communities Offset Fund, an innovative new program that provides carbon offsets to create green homes for low-income families.

Green Community: Essays on Community Health

Based on the National Building Museum's exhibit, Green Community is a collection of thought-provoking essays that illuminate the connections among personal health, community health, and our planet's health.

Green Connection Loan Fund

The Bay Area Local Initiative Support Corporation's (LISC's) Green Connection Loan Fund is designed to assist nonprofit housing organizations with financing affordable developments that integrate green building and energy efficiency into their projects.

Green Craftsman Series: Green Building Plans

The Greater Minnesota Housing Fund (GMHF) offers free, on its website, a series of architectural plans for green homes.

Green Government Initiative

Launched in 2007, the NACo Green Government Initiative provides comprehensive resources for local governments on all things green, including energy, air quality, transportation, water quality, land use, purchasing and recycling.

Green Government Initiative Publications

NACo's Green Government Initiative Publications are free resources for local governments on all things green, including energy, air quality, transportation, water quality, land use, purchasing and recycling. Includes fact sheets, guidebooks, and case studies of Green Initiatives from throughout the country.

Green Government Initiative Webinar Presentations

NACo has posted presentations from its Green Government Initiative on its website. The presentations and recordings are from seminars, webinars, and workshops beginning with the May 2008 event, ''Green Counties 101.''

Green Gown Awards

Is your institution a leader in sustainability? Are you making positive changes through exciting initiatives? Then get yourself recognized in the leading Sustainability Awards Scheme for universities and colleges across the U.K. Applications for the 2009 Green Gown Awards are now open, and the deadline to have your stage one application received by the Green Gown Awards team is February 27, 2009.

Green Ground Zero International Design Competition

The WTC site in New York City is focus of the Green Ground Zero International Sustainable Design Competition. Entries should focus on ways to ''green'' the buildings that will surround the memorial on the World Trade Center grounds.

Green Housing: Good for You, Good for the Environment

Learn about some very important planning, design and energy considerations when building green housing, from the Massachusetts Smart Growth/Smart Energy presentation Green Housing: Good for You, Good for the Environment.

Green Infrastructure Case Study Series

The Conservation Fund offers on its website the Green Infrastructure Case Study Series, a collection of reports from throughout the U.S. on efforts to promote smart land conservation that allow for both future growth and the protection of significant natural resources.

Green Infrastructure: A Framework for Smart Growth

This resource introduces the key elements of Green Infrastructure, the network of natural lands, open space, waterways, and smart growth design measures that form the framework for healthy and sustainable communities.

Green Living Toolkit

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) website offers a Green Living Toolkit, a listing of tips and tools to help to bring a little green into your life. These guides include information to help you save energy, protect your health, give green gifts, and more.

Green Metropolis

Just about everything you think you know about the environment is wrong. Solar panels, electric cars, ethanol, big urban parks, and locavorism aren’t green; traffic jams, congestion, office towers, and crowded cities are. Green is not the country home in Vermont with the compost heap and the photovoltaic panels; it’s the concrete high-rise in New York City.

In a persuasive and provocative challenge to established environmental thinking, David Owen’s Green Metropolis: What the City Can Teach the Country About True Sustainability challenges much of the conventional wisdom about being green and shows how the greenest place in the United States isn’t Portland, Oregon, or Snowmass, Colorado, but New York, New York.

Owen—a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1991—states that while most Americans view congested cities as environmental calamities, with their pollution, garbage, and gridlock, residents of dense urban environments individually drive, pollute, consume, and throw away less than other Americans. Residents of New York City—the most densely populated community in the U.S.—consume less electricity than the average inhabitants of any other part of the country, generate greenhouse gases at a level far below the national average, and rank last in gasoline consumption and first in use of public transportation.

New York City’s environmental efficiencies are the result of its extreme compactness: being forced to live in small spaces sharply reduces opportunities to be wasteful; gridlock and a scarcity of parking spaces makes driving prohibitive while proximity simultaneously renders walking, bicycling, and public transportation viable means of getting around. Put simply, it’s easier to be green in a crowded city. The ecological innocuousness of leafy exurban areas long favored by environmentalists is an illusion—spreading people thinly across the countryside may make them feel greener, but in fact it increases their damage to the environment. In the face of rapidly dwindling nonrenewable resources, we should not look to the country, but to the dense metropolis as a model of true environmentalism.

In a radical departure from environmentalist dogma, David Owen’s Green Metropolis redefines what it means to be green, and offers vital insights into how to make our way to a more sustainable future. In this eye-opening and meticulously researched polemic, Owen argues that sustainability doesn’t depend on the acquisition of fancy new “green” gadgetry or the advent of new energy-related technologies, but on lo-fi solutions already at work in dense cities around the globe. We already have a good idea of what we need to do, or at least how to get started.

Publisher: Riverhead Books. ISBN: 978-1-59448-882-5

Green Mortgages -- On Common Ground, Winter 2004

Green Mortgages is a feature topic in the Winter 2004 edition of On Common Ground, a magazine published twice each year by the Government Affairs office of the National Association of Realtors®.

Green Playbook

The Playbook, a web-based resource, provides strategies, tips, and tools that cities and counties can use to take immediate action on climate change through: Green building, green neighborhoods, and sustainable infrastructure. The Playbook is designed both for communities that are considering making the first steps toward these, as well as for those who want to take existing efforts to a new level.

Green Rehab Guide for Multifamily Properties

The Green Guide for Rehab from Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is an accessible and in-depth tool to help affordable housing owners and their consultants integrate green building and energy efficiency into the upgrades of their multifamily properties.

Green Retrofit Funding for Multifamily Housing

$250 million in loans and grants for energy and green retrofits in the multifamily assisted housing stock are the basis of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) Office of Affordable Housing Preservation (OAHP) Green Retrofit Funding for Multifamily Housing program.

Green Roof Awards

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities established the Green Roof Awards of Excellence to recognize green roof projects which exhibit extraordinary leadership in integrated design and implementation. The awards also increase general awareness of green roof infrastructure and its associated public and private benefits, while recognizing the valuable contributions of green roof design professionals.

Green Roof Awards of Excellence -- 2009 Nominees

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities established the Green Roof Awards of Excellence in 2003 to recognize green roof projects which exhibit extraordinary leadership in integrated design and implementation.

Green Roofs -- Call for Abstracts

September 30, 2005 is the deadline for abstracts for the fourth annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards, & Trade Show, scheduled for May 10-12, 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Green Roofs Projects Database

The International Greenroof Projects Database, prepared by Greenroofs.com from published public accounts and individual project stakeholders, offers summaries of greenroof projects from around the world.

Green Roofs Tree of Knowledge

The Green Roofs Tree of Knowledge (TOK) is a full-featured database on research and policy related to green roof infrastructure. There is a considerable amount of work being done on the many socio-economic and bio-physical benefits that green roofs provide. This database is composed of detailed summaries of research and policy papers in English from around the world.

Green Trails Guidebook

The Green Trails guidebook, published by Portland, Oregon's Metro organization, provides a comprehensive source of information about planning, construction and maintenance of environmentally friendly or ''green trails'' -- trails that avoid or minimize impacts to water resources and fish and wildlife habitat.

Green Urbanism Down Under

In Green Urbanism Down Under, a 2008 book from Island Press, author Timothy Beatley reports on the current state of ''sustainability practice'' in Australia and the many lessons that U.S. residents can learn from the best Australian programs and initiatives.

Greenbelt Alliance Wins Award for Smart Growth Scorecard

Greenbelt Alliance received the 2007 Education Project Award for its Bay Area Smart Growth Scorecard from the California chapter of the American Planning Association (APA).

Greenbuild 2005 Proceedings

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) offers the Greenbuild 2005 Proceedings CD-ROM, a compilation of events and resources from the 2005 conference.

Greener Policies, Smarter Plans

Greener Policies, Smarter Plans from Enterprise Community Partners is an analysis of state policies that encourage environmentally sustainable housing through Low-Income Housing Tax Credit programs. The 2007 report shows a promising trend: a growing commitment to greener affordable homes.

Greener Policies, Smarter Plans: Creating Affordable Green Housing

Greener Policies, Smarter Plans is Enterprise's annual analysis of state policies to encourage environmentally sustainable housing through states' Low-Income Housing Tax Credit programs. For the third consecutive year, this report shows a remarkably promising trend: states' growing, deepening commitment to greener affordable homes.

Greenfield Development Without Sprawl

Greenfield Development Without Sprawl: The Role of Planned Communities is the second in a series of papers by noted authors on land use policy and practice issues of pressing concern to ULI members and the broader real estate and land use community.

Greening America's Capitals

Greening America's Capitals is a project of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities between EPA, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to help state capitals develop an implementable vision of distinctive, environmentally friendly neighborhoods that incorporate innovative green building and green infrastructure strategies. This program will assist three to four communities per year, with the first projects beginning in the fall of 2010.

EPA will offer technical assistance by funding a team of designers to visit each city to produce schematic designs and exciting illustrations intended to catalyze or complement a larger planning process for the pilot neighborhood. Additionally, these pilots could be the testing ground for citywide actions, such as changes to local codes and ordinances to better support sustainable growth and green building. The design team and EPA, HUD, and DOT staff will also assist the city staff in developing specific implementation strategies.

The assistance may include, but is not limited to, the following issues:

• Brownfield or infill redevelopment
• Aligning transportation and housing choice
• Climate change response planning
• Engaging disadvantaged communities
• Public art and civic design strategies
• Green and energy efficient building strategies
• Green infrastructure for multiple community benefits

EPA is providing this design assistance to help support sustainable communities that protect the environment, economy, and public health and to inspire state leaders to expand this work elsewhere. Greening America's Capitals will help communities consider ways to incorporate smart growth strategies into their planning and development to create and enhance interesting, distinctive neighborhoods that have multiple social, economic, and environmental benefits.

This design assistance is being made available to all 50 state capital cities, plus the District of Columbia. EPA is soliciting letters of interest from mayors of state capitals. Any city department, office, or agency may submit the letter of interest, but only one proposal should be submitted on a city's behalf.

Greening the Metropolitan Washington Region's Built Environment

This report by the Intergovernmental Green Building Group (IGBG) of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) explores issues related to building practices and the region's environment, reviews best practices and green building standards, and offers recommendations that local governments and COG can implement to improve the performance of buildings region wide.

Greening the World's Capital Cities

How do some of the world's best-known national capitals contribute to creating an environmentally and socially sustainable world? And how do they build successful support for sustainable development? Learn what capital cities are doing to lead the way to a greener planet in this report from the Capitals Alliance.

Greentips Podcasts from Earth Day 2008

The U.S. EPA offers archives of its Earth Day 2008 podcasts (MP3 sound files) on its Earth Day website.

Groundswell: Stories of Saving Places, Finding Community

Published by the Trust for Public Land, Groundswell: Stories of Saving Places, Finding Community celebrates the role of land conservation in preserving community character and connecting people to the land and to each other.

Growing a Healthier DC

Why is green infrastructure important, and how can it be incorporated as business districts grow and schools are renovated, for example? To answer these questions Casey Trees has developed a series of issue briefs, Growing a Healthier DC, that are available for free download on their website.

Growing by Choice or Chance

Growing by Choice or Chance details how South Carolina communities have an opportunity to direct their growth through more efficient land use that decreases the amount of land developed to accommodate population growth, and offers more variety in how people live, work and shop.

Growing Cooler -- Urban Development and Climate Change

''Growing Cooler: Urban Development and Climate Change'' is a new ''virtual'' workshop from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) that examines the relationship between land use patterns, travel and CO2 emissions. The workshop will demonstrate the impact current development and transportation patterns are having on our environment.

Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change

In Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change, a 2007 book published by the Urban Land Institute, a team of leading urban planning researchers report that the key to mitigating climate change is less auto-dependent development, and that key changes in land development patterns could help reduce vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.

Growing Economy, Shrinking Emissions: A Transit-Oriented Future for Connecticut's Capital Region

This new report illustrates a strategy for growth in Greater Hartford that expands housing and transit options while reducing our transportation-related carbon emissions. At the May 2009 Redesigning the Edgeless City workshop, a diverse group of planners, environmentalists, community advocates, and business people met in Hartford to discuss the link between transportation and development and to test how coordinated land use and transportation policies could impact Greater Hartford. RPA has analyzed existing zoning regulations of each town in the CRCOG region and found that housing and commercial development produced by current policies would raise emissions by 22% without even meeting the anticipated needs of our residents or supporting pending public transit investments. The report documents alternative transit-based scenarios developed at the May meeting which would reduce the projected growth in emissions by 11% and provide access to transit necessary to reduce our dependence on automobiles, saving the average household in the region approximately $360 each year in gas cots alone.

Growing Economy is a template for the type of regional planning that will be supported by the recently announced HUD/DOT/EPA Sustainable Communities initiative--planning which combines economic development, housing supply and demand, environmental quality, and transportation needs of a region into an integrated and achievable vision. As Tisha Ferguson of Connecticut Fund for the Environment tells us, Growing Economy is ''a blueprint for making the right choices to reconnect the urban and outlying communities, creating a vibrant urban hub and realizing Hartford's potential for regional economic leadership.''

The report was prepared in recognition that the Hartford region is about to invest in two transformative transit projects: the New Britain-Hartford busway, expected to receive a full-funding grant agreement later this year from the federal New Starts program, and the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield commuter rail, now completing its environmental assessment. RPA estimates that transit-oriented development can reduces miles driven by the average Hartford-area household by 2,400 miles per year, reducing the need for a second or third car. Given the challenges faced in shifting to renewable energy, more efficient cars, and more efficient buildings, transit-oriented development represents a strategy to harness private investment to achieve the State of Connecticut's carbon emissions reduction goals of 10% below 1990 levels by 2020.

Growing Economy was produced with the support of Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in cooperation with Capitol Region Council of Governments.

Growing Smarter

Growing Smarter from the MIT Press is a book that examines smart growth from an environmental justice/equitable development perspective.

Growing Smarter at the Edge

Growing Smarter at the Edge, a new publication from the Sonoran Institute, reviews and evaluates urban edge development associated with large-scale planned communities, or master-planned communities.

Growing Smarter, Living Healthier: A Guide to Smart Growth and Active Aging

This guidebook is intended for older adults who are interested in how our communities work and how we might help them become more 'age-friendly.' Many of us have longed for the kind of age-friendly neighborhood that has different types of homes for people at different stages of life; walking paths and public transit to make it easy to get around without a car; and parks, shops, services, and homes that are closer together. Older adults are finding that by designing new neighborhoods differently — as well as redeveloping existing neighborhoods and roadways — we can make places that are healthier for ourselves, our neighbors, and the environment. Rather than let aging limit our options, we can actually become more independent by reducing our dependence on the auto, increasing our travel choices, and improving our quality of life right when we've started to have time to enjoy it. We can enrich our own remaining decades, as well as hand off a more sustainable community to future generations. That is, if we decide to do something about it.

In this guide, we address the basic principles of neighborhood and town design. But it is also intended to help you understand why community design matters, and how becoming involved in your community's decisions about growth can make it a better place in which to grow old. You'll find suggestions for ideas to try, and links to resources to learn more about how to remake your neighborhoods to be easier to get around, whether you live in a city, suburb, or small town. We’ll also give you a few ideas for getting involved and staying engaged, providing more housing options and gathering places, eating healthier, and making it easier to carry out your daily activities. After all, our age group spans decades, and some of us are very active, while others have limited mobility.

Active Aging concepts (activities that increase endurance, strength, flexibility, balance, and the principles of injury prevention) can also be built into community design and development to encourage walking, biking, and active use of parks, so that people of all ages get exercise in the course of daily life. This is an image of a group of senior women doing water aerobics in a pool

The first chapter, Staying Active, Connected, and Engaged, outlines why our choices of where and how to live can have an impact on our health and wellbeing. The next three chapters — Development and Housing, Transportation and Mobility, and Staying Healthy — outline strategies and include project examples that address these key issues. Within each chapter, the What You Can Do section provides some ideas for what you can work on with your friends and neighbors. The Conclusion: Next Steps chapter summarizes additional follow-up ideas. In the Resources chapter, you’ll find links to more detailed strategies, websites, and information about each of the ideas discussed in the guide. We included a community self-assessment checklist for you to identify what your community is already doing, and where you might want to focus your energy — so get together, and get moving!

Growing Smarter, Living Healthier: Age-Friendly Neighborhood Design Guidebook

Growing Smarter, Living Healthier is a guidebook from the U.S. EPA intended for older adults who are interested in how our communities work and how we might help them become more ''age-friendly.''

Growing, Going, Gone

Growing, Going, Gone? is a report from the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) that examines growth on Maryland's Eastern Shore and how to meet its challenges through Eastern Shore 2010, an inter-county agreement that set high expectations for growth management. Tailored for the specific regional needs of the Shore, this agreement is made up of four land use goals which were all proposed to and adopted by the six Upper Shore governments of Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Caroline, Talbot and Dorchester counties.

Growth Management for Florida’s Future

Growth Management for Florida’s Future is a position paper from 1000 Friends of Florida that analyzes the growth management practices the state has used for the past two decades, and offers recommendations for how the state can be more instrumental in helping to build better communities.

Growth Management, Smart Growth, and Affordable Housing

This discussion examines why an emphasis on affordable housing is critical to the success of growth management and smart growth.

GSA's Construction Waste Management Database

Construction Waste Management is a program that promotes the responsible disposal of waste related to construction and demolition. Such waste can include concrete, asphalt, masonry, and wood.

Guide to Neighborhood Placemaking in Chicago

Guide to Placemaking in Chicago provides basic instruction on Placemaking at the local level and highlights specific examples of citizen-led Placemaking that has already led to sweeping improvements in Chicago neighborhoods. The book encourages citizen action and provides a framework to engage local businesses and government in helping create positive change.

Guide to Transit-Oriented Development

The Minnesota Metropolitan Council's Guide for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) highlights key ideas about TOD and shows how these ideas have been put to work within the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Guides and Manuals of “Better Practice” -- UK

This three-part essay discusses the general national planning situation in Britain, specifically dealing with that in force in England. Urban Design Issues, Planning Tools, and Planning Guidelines are discussed in the context of recent British development trends.

Guiding Growth and Development in Georgia Handbook

Georgia's land use laws, together with innovative planning and fresh approaches to community engagement, provide the tools needed to build strong communities that are sustainable both economically and environmentally. Guiding Growth and Development in Georgia: A Handbook on Planning and Land Use Law and Practices was created by the Livable Communities Coalition for elected officials and interested citizens. This guide is intended to provide an overview of those planning tools and the laws, terms, and concepts essential for using them wisely.

Gulf Coast Ecological and Community Health Fund

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have exposed the human and ecological costs of racial discrimination and unsustainable development. The rebuilding of New Orleans and Gulf Coast communities that have been damaged by these hurricanes is an historic opportunity for philanthropic organizations to participate in the Gulf Coast Ecological Health & Community Renewal Fund (the ''Fund'').

Hard Lessons: Michigan’s School Construction Boom

The Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) presents this report on new school contruction in Michigan. Hard Lessons asks whether building bigger, newer schools is always best for students and communities. The report concludes that new school construction is raising tax, economic, and community stability issues with long-term consequences.

Harvard Green Campus Initiative: Vision 2020 Event Resources

The ''Harvard Vision 2020: A Bridge to Campus Sustainability'' Conference featured three days of discovery and discussion involving prominent keynote addresses, interdisciplinary panels of faculty, staff, students and alumni, corporate and government leaders, workshops, special events and networking opportunities. Resources from this event are now available online.

Healthy Communities Initiative

The Regional Plan Association Healthy Communities Initiative, supported by the Centers for Disease Control, the Milbank Memorial Fund, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, restores the historic relationship between the disciplines of town planning and health science.

Healthy Community Design

Healthy Community Design: Success Stories from State and Local Leaders profiles the notable efforts of elected and appointed government leaders who are supporting healthy community design across the nation. Some of these efforts stem from a desire to support economic development, others to decrease environmental degradation or improve residents’ quality of life. But all of the policy changes and programming efforts have a positive effect on health because they support community design that provides more opportunities for people to engage in routine physical activity.

Healthy Community Design Video

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have posted a streaming video, Healthy Community Design, that discusses the benefits of walkable communities as they relate to health, the environment, and social interaction. Dr. Howard Frumkin, Director of the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR), hosts the video.

Healthy Eating, Active Living Convergence Partnership

In 2006, a collaboration of funders came together to create the Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership, with the shared goal of changing policies and environments to better achieve the vision of healthy people living in healthy places.

Healthy Growth Calculator

The Sierra Club's Healthy Growth Calculator is an online resource tool that provides a big picture perspective to decisions regarding growth.

Healthy Rural Communities: A Resource and Action Guide for North Carolina

Healthy Rural Communities: A Resource and Action Guide for North Carolina describes growth and development issues in rural North Carolina, and provides insight based on the North Carolina Smart Growth Alliance's (NCSGA) Principles of Smart Growth.

Helping Johnny Walk to School: Policy Recommendations for Removing Barriers to Community-Centered Schools

School districts are responsible for the education of almost 50 million public school students. Nearly all decisions about the use and location of school facilities are made by local school districts—but the impact of these decisions goes far beyond the school and the education of its students.

This report identifies the larger community interest in decisions about retaining existing schools and deciding where to locate new ones. It describes the states’ role in school siting decisions and identifies state level policy changes that will ensure that educational, environmental, health, community, and fiscal considerations are weighed by communities when school districts make school closing, consolidation, and site selection decisions.

The report was produced through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and with support from Building Education Success Together (BEST).

To download a copy of this report, visit the link below.

Heritage Dividend

English Heritage (with EEDA & the HLF) has recently launched the results of research into the regeneration impact of heritage investment in the East of England. Included in the report are 11 case studies showing local success stories.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Capturing the Demand for Housing Near Transit

Hidden in Plain Sight: Capturing the Demand for Housing Near Transit, a new study by Reconnecting America’s Center for Transit Oriented Development, shows that demand for compact housing near transit is likely to more than double by 2025.

High Performance Building Grant -- Virginia

The James River Green Building Council (JRGBC), a Chapter of the US Green Building Council, will be awarding a $10,000 grant to promote the inclusion of green features to schools and affordable housing projects in Central Virginia.

High Performance Buildings Database

The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) offers Green Building Case Studies that provide detailed process and performance data on selected Massachusetts green buildings and schools funded by the Renewable Energy Trust.

Higher Density Development: Myth or Fact

Higher Density Development: Myth or Fact is the sixth in a series of publications from the Urban Land Institute designed to dispel myths and offer good examples on issues related to growth and land use. It addresses common myths surrounding density.

Higher-Density Development -- Myth and Fact

Higher-Density Development -- Myth and Fact from the Urban Land Institute examines eight widespread misconceptions about higher-density development and dispels them with well-researched facts and examples of quality, compact developments.

Historic Preservation -- Disaster Response

Disasters, natural and otherwise, can be devastating to historic properties. The American Council on Historic Preservation website includes a list of federal disaster relief programs that focus on providing financial assistance for structural rehabilitation after a disaster, or proactive efforts to reduce or prevent future potential damage.

Historic Preservation and Sustainability

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has created a webpage that focuses on how historic preservation can help the environment, and is part of the organization's Sustainability Initiative that will demonstrate how older buildings can ''go green.''

Historic Preservation Funding

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a partner in the Smart Growth Network, maintains a page on its website focusing on Nonprofit Organization and Public Agency Funding for nonprofit organizations and federal, state, or local government agencies.

Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction

Following five regional competitions, 15 Award-winning projects will now compete in the first global Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects. The global phase of the competition showcases the best entries from more than 1500 submissions from 118 countries, and encourages innovative, future-oriented and tangible approaches within the building and construction industry.

Holding The Line: Urban Containment In The United States August 2002

Policies designed to deliberately control the spread of urban areas are increasing in popularity throughout the United States. Several states, and many local governments in the west, are adopting urban growth boundaries and other containment measures in their land-use planning laws and legislation. Whatever the primary purpose, it is clear that the precise impacts of containment policies are not well understood. This paper reviews the research on urban containment generally, and also examines the experience of such policies in particular metropolitan areas. It discusses some lessons learned and raises relevant research questions for practitioners as well as policymakers at the state and local level.

HOME House Winners

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) has announced the 25 HOME House Project Award Winners for 2005. SECCA challenged designers and architects to propose new designs for single family housing for low-and moderate-income families using Habitat for Humanity's basic three-and-four bedroom house as a point of departure.

Homes for a Changing Region -- Phase 2

Homes for a Changing Region -- Phase 2: Implementing Balanced Housing Plans at the Local Level is the latest in a series of reports from Chicago Metropolis 2020 and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus examining housing supply and demand in the six-county Chicago metropolitan region through the year 2030 and identifing imbalances that would likely impact the regional housing market.

HOPE VI Main Street Program

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requests proposals for the HOPE VI Main Street Program. This program will assist small communities in the rejuvenation of an historic or traditional central business district or “Main Street” area by replacing unused commercial space in buildings with affordable housing units.

HOPE VI strategic goals include, but are not limited to, Promoting Energy Star and Green Development.

Some $4 million is expected to be available, with up to four awards anticipated.

Responses are due March 3, 2010.

Housing + Transportation Affordability Index

The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, developed by Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) and its collaborative partners, the Center for Transit Oriented Development (CTOD), is an innovative tool that measures the true affordability of housing.

Housing Affordability

Housing Affordability is the focus of ICMA's October 2007 Management Perspective white paper. It includes tools, resources, and strategies that local government leaders can use to expand and support home ownership in their communities.

Housing and Mortgages for People with Disabilities

Housing & Mortgages for People with Disabilities, a guide from Mortgageloan.com, was been created to help individuals living with disabilities, and their family members, in the process of buying a home of their own.

Housing and Transportation Affordability Index

The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, developed by Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) and its collaborative partners, the Center for Transit Oriented Development (CTOD), is an innovative tool that measures the true affordability of housing.

Housing and Transportation Affordability Index

The Housing and Transportation Affordability Index, a pilot pilot project led jointly by Reconnecting America's Center for Transit-Oriented Development and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, integrates housing and transportation costs into a single measure, correcting a pervasive information gap. The index will help local and regional planners understand the housing costs and ''location costs'' of building housing and transportation. Potential home buyers and renters, finance agencies, public and private-sector real estate developers, housing lenders, and secondary market actors can use the index to better understand the full cost of the homes they purchase.

Housing and Transportation Cost Trade-Offs and Burdens in Working Households in 28 Metro Areas

Housing and Transportation Costs Trade-Offs and Burdens in Working Households in 28 Metro Areas, a study from the Center for Neighborhood Technology and Virginia Tech, examines neighborhood housing and transportation choices available to working households in 28 U.S. metropolitan areas.

Housing Choice Voucher Program

Local Initiatives Support Corporation offers an Excel spreadsheet that assists practitioners in calculating affordability for individual clients being considered for HUD's Housing Choice Voucher Program.

Housing Connections

Housing Connections is a web-based community service in the Portland, OR, area that is intended to better connect providers of housing and housing services to renters looking for housing opportunities. Its goal is to provide access to up-to-date housing information with user-friendly tools that are customized for each user group: renters, landlords and property managers, and housing agency staff that help people find and keep housing. This program can serve as a model to other cities as they harness information technology to address complex social and economic issues related to assuring affordable housing.

Housing Development Step-by-Step Tutorial

Enterprise's Housing Development Step-By-Step (formerly known as the Housing Developer's Support System, or HDSS) is a comprehensive guide to affordable rental and homeownership housing development for nonprofit organizations.

Housing Development Tutorial

Enterprise offers a Housing Development Tutorial (formerly known as the Housing Developer's Support System, or HDSS), a comprehensive guide to affordable rental and homeownership housing development for nonprofit organizations.

Housing for Niche Markets

Housing for Niche Markets is a book from the Urban Land Institute that explains how changing demographics, lifestyles, and preferences are turning the old predictable housing models upside down, and what it takes to attract these new market segments.

Housing Heats Up: Home Building Patterns in Metropolitan Areas.

Washington DC: Brookings Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, 1999. Examination of housing construction in America's 39 largest metropolitan areas during the economic boom of 1986, the bust of 1991, and the revival of 1996-1998. It finds that, while most new homes are built in the suburbs, the number of new housing permits more than doubled in large cities between 1991 and 1998. Some cities are enjoying hot housing construction markets.

Housing in the Nation’s Capitol

Housing in the Nation's Capital 2005, from Fannie Mae Foundation and the Urban Institute, focuses on how the Washington region's sustained prosperity has transformed housing market conditions and trends in the District of Columbia.

Housing Innovations -- Boston Indicators Project

The Boston Indicators Project offers the Hub of Innovation, a collection of some of the most forward-looking local, regional, national and international work in the ten sectors tracked by the Boston Indicators Project. The Housing Innovations section highlights projects that further the goals of making housing more affordable and designed to better serve communities.

Housing Policy Debate Journal -- December 2008

The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech publishes Housing Policy Debate (HPD), on online quarterly journal that provides a venue for original housing and urban affairs research on a broad range of domestic and international topics. Subjects include the analysis of real estate and market trends, land use regulations, and metropolitan development patterns.

Housing Policy Solutions Toolkit

Older adults face an array of housing challenges. Many live in homes that lack accessibility features, are unaffordable or energy inefficient, or are located far from important destinations and amenities. Others need various kind of assistance to maintain their independence and autonomy but cannot afford the supportive services that would allow them to age successfully in a residential environment.

This toolkit provides a detailed exploration of these and other challenges facing older adults and describes a range of promising policies that some communities are adopting to address them.

Housing Strategies for Houston

Houston, one of America’s largest and fastest growing cities, faces a daunting challenge: by 2025, the city’s population is expected to double with an additional two million citizens. Housing Strategies for Houston: Expanding Opportunities outlines recommendations of a team of national experts for realizing a new vision.

Housing Toolkit

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has created a toolkit that shares their work and the work of others in the three critical areas that affect Housing: Public Policy, Financing, and Housing Practices.

Houstonians Discuss Growth: 3-Part Video

Shaping Our Future Growth, a local, town-hall-meeting-style discussion on improving quality of life in Houston, Texas, is available for video streaming online. This three-part series was aired by Houston 8 PBS television on their ongoing local issues show, ''Houston Have Your Say.''

How Have Recent Rezonings Affected the City's Ability to Grow?

In the fall of 2009, the Bloomberg Administration celebrated its 100th rezoning, a significant milestone in an unprecedented series of rezoning actions that have affected more than one fifth of New York City. Despite the intense scrutiny that has accompanied many individual rezonings, no analysis had been done to look at the cumulative impact that these actions have had on the City's capacity to accommodate new residential growth. A new report by NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy fills that gap.

The report examines the rezonings that took place between 2003 and 2007, and finds that of the 188,000 lots that were included in a City-initiated rezoning action, 23 percent were downzoned, 14 percent were upzoned, and almost 63 percent were subject to a contextual-only rezoning (a term for a rezoning that does not significantly change the buildable capacity but otherwise limits the kind of building allowed). Despite the small share of upzonings, on net, these actions increased the City's capacity for new residential building by 1.7 percent, or roughly 100 million square feet of residential capacity.

''Given the scale of rezoning activity during this time, it is critical to take a step back and ask: 'what is the net impact on the City’s capacity to accommodate new growth?''' said Vicki Been, faculty director of the Furman Center. ''While we find that on paper, the upzonings have added more capacity than the downzonings have taken away, we also find reason to doubt that all of this new capacity will be built out for residential use, and it remains unclear whether we are on track for creating enough new residential capacity to accommodate the one million new New Yorkers that are expected to live in the City by 2030.''

The report finds that different areas of the City have not received equal shares of the new capacity for future growth: Queens and Manhattan had the biggest increases in residential capacity (2.8 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively); Staten Island and Brooklyn had more modest gains (1.4 percent and 1.2 percent gains, respectively); and the Bronx had no net change. The report also finds that capacity changes from rezonings varied widely from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Because there are competing development pressures in the mixed-use areas where new residential capacity has been added, the report questions how much these rezonings will result in new housing units, and cautions that these rezonings alone will not be enough to generate housing to accommodate expected growth.

The report also looks at the distributional implications of where capacity was added and where it was lost. First, it looks at the socio-economic characteristics of rezoned neighborhoods. The report finds that upzoned lots tended to be located in neighborhoods with a higher proportion of black and Hispanic residents than the median neighborhood in the City. On the other hand, downzoned and contextually-only rezoned lots were more likely to be located in tracts with a higher share of white residents, and smaller shares of black and Hispanic residents than the City median. In addition, the report finds that contextual-only rezoned lots tended to be in areas with much higher median income than that of the City as a whole, while upzoned and downzoned lots were in areas with median incomes lower than the City.

''There is no general agreement on whether it is good or bad for one's neighborhood to be upzoned or downzoned,'' commented Been. ''On the one hand, upzonings can bring needed investment and economic development. On the other, they can lead to congestion and additional strain on a neighborhood’s infrastructure. The variation in the pattern of rezonings among communities with different socio-economic characteristics calls for a larger conversation about how the benefits and burdens of development should be shared across the City. We hope this analysis will spur new discussions about ways to ensure the City’s land use processes result in efficient, sustainable and fair zoning changes.''

The report also looks at the relationship between the rezonings and the transit accessibility of the neighborhoods that gained and lost capacity. Consistent with the City’s announced goal of channeling growth to transit rich neighborhoods, it finds that the vast majority of new residential capacity was added in transit rich areas (those within a half-mile walk of a rail entrance). However, the report also finds that a majority of downzoned lots were located in transit rich areas, raising questions about whether rezoning decisions are sufficiently coordinated with infrastructure planning. Accordingly, the report encourages enhanced coordination between the Department of City Planning and the agencies responsible for the City's infrastructure and neighborhood planning.

Finally, the report points to the need for a better understanding of the impact of contextual-only rezonings. A large majority of all rezonings enacted over this time period were contextual-only, yet little is known about the effect these rezonings will have on the cost of building or the kind of development that will take place in rezoned communities. The Furman Center plans to tackle these questions in future research.

How Portland Does It.

The Atlantic Monthly, November 1992. A city that protects its thriving, civil core.

How Shall We Grow: Creating a Shared Vision for Central Florida

As Central Florida faces the opportunities and challenges associated with the projected doubling of our population from 3.5 million citizens in 2006 to 7.2 million in 2050, the region has been given the opportunity to be the first in Florida to create a shared vision to answer the question, ''How Shall We Grow?''

How to Create a Vibrant Waterfront

This resource from the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) offers 19 tips on how to create a vibrant waterfront, drawing on success stories from around the world.

How We Live: A NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

The first installment of a new series examining issues affecting people's daily lives. Ray Suarez has the first report which looks at urban sprawl in Atlanta, Georgia.

Available in transcript, streaming video, and RealAudio.

HUD Announces Awards Program for Removing Regulatory Barriers

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) presents a new national award award to recognize communities that have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in eliminating regulatory barriers to housing affordability.

HUD Sustainable Community Regional Planning Grant Program Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA)

Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced the availability of $100 million for the Sustainable Community Regional Planning Grant program. Key elements of the program include identifying affordable housing, transportation investment, water infrastructure, economic development, land use planning, environmental conservation, energy system, open space, and other infrastructure priorities. Funding is available to support preparation of Regional Plans for Sustainable Development, and at least $25 million is set aside for smaller population regions (populations of less than 500,000).

Proposal submittal deadline is August 23, 2010.

HUD, DOT Create Sustainable Communities Partnership

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood announced a new partnership to help families gain better access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs.

ICMA TV

ICMA TV is a web television channel dedicated to covering the events and issues of importance to International City/County Management Association (ICMA) members. The channel is regularly updated with new films, features and coverage on topics which emerge at home and overseas.

Idaho Grow Smart Awards

Idaho Smart Growth created the Grow Smart Awards program in 2005 to recognize exemplary efforts in planning and development that keep our communities vibrant and our lands healthy.

Idaho Smart Growth Awards -- 2008

Now in its fourth year, Idaho Smart Growth's statewide ''Grow Smart'' awards program recognizes the successful use of smart growth principles to encourage vibrant communities and healthy lands through sensible growth. Winners of the 2008 competition are featured on this website.

imagineCALGARY plan

What are your hopes and dreams for Calgary's future? By answering these four simple questions, Calgarians began the process of shaping their city's future. Launched in January 2005 with the goal of producing a 100-year vision for Calgary based on what today's Calgarians want their city to look like, more than 18,000 Calgarians have added their voices to imagineCALGARY, making this the largest community visioning process of its kind anywhere in the world.

Impact Fees and Housing Affordability

As part of its efforts to reduce regulatory barriers to affordable housing product, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has issued Impact Fees and Housing Affordability: A Guide for Practictioners, a new guide for local governments to help them implement equitable impact fees. The report is a valuable resource for apartment firms promoting the sustainability of higher-density housing or opposing unreasonable impact fees.

Implementing Smart Growth Streets

The U.S. EPA Office of Development, Community and Environment (widely known as the ''Smart Growth'' office) is sponsoring a study on ''Implementing Smart Growth Streets'' that is being conducted by ICF International and Ellen Greenberg. Readers of Smart Growth Online are invited to participate in this work by bringing candidate case studies to the attention of the project team.

Improving Economic Health and Competitiveness through Tax Sharing

Improving Economic Health and Competitiveness Through Tax Sharing from the Environmental Law Institute assesses the experience of local governments with schemes that share portions of tax revenues in order to get better development results and avoid sprawl.

Improving Indoor Air Quality in Rental Dwellings

This report reviews state and local policies that address indoor air quality-related problems in residential rental housing, and describes the government programs charged with carrying out those policies.

Incentive Zoning

Incentive Zoning from APA's Planning Advisory Service is a book that oulines how local governments can consider and draft guidelines that allow developers to build larger, higher-density projects in exchange for creating amenities to benefit the community at large.

Index of Smart Growth Scorecards

The Growth Management Leadership Alliance has prepared a resource listing numerous scorecards development by states and cities throughout the U.S. to help determine if a project meets principles of smart growth.

Indiana University Sustainability Podcasts

The Sustainability Podcast Series features sustainability initiatives at Indiana University. These online audio resources covering a variety of topics are available for free.

Innovations Award in Affordable Housing

The city of Los Angeles' Systematic Code Enforcement Program received the Fannie Mae Foundation's 2005 Innovations Award in Affordable Housing in July. SCEP inspects more than 760,000 rental units in Los Angeles for habitability and enforces state health and safety codes.

Innovative Philanthropic Approaches to Housing Affordability and Smarter Growth

Innovative Philanthropic Approaches to Housing Affordability and Smarter Growth looks at some of the creative approaches used to address housing affordability in the context of the broader smart growth agenda.

Innovative Solutions for Creating More Affordable Housing

HUD Secretary Mel Martinez announced the establishment of the Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse (www.regbarriers.org), a new website dedicated to increasing affordable housing opportunities. This groundbreaking project is an exciting opportunity to assist builders and developers in overcoming state and local regulatory barriers to providing more affordable housing.

Institute for Comprehensive Community Development

The Institute for Comprehensive Community Development was established to advance the field of comprehensive community development and the positive impact it has in urban and rural communities across the country. This is done by:

• Building the capacity of community development practitioners;
• Providing on-site support and technical assistance to comprehensive community development initiatives in cities across the U.S.;
• Applying lessons learned through research and performance evaluation to continually improve on-going comprehensive community development initiatives and to develop new initiatives;
• Supporting the development of public policies which integrate government programs in order to effectively facilitate and support comprehensive community development;
• Communicating broadly the best there is in practice and theory in the field of community development.

The Institute is a place where the community development field can take what it learns from practice and use it as a base from which to provide training, to promote research in comprehensive community development, and to investigate the public policies that would best advance this work locally and nationally. The Institute is the locus where practice and theory meet, and where experimentation and innovation – grounded in real-world experience – flourish.

The Institute for Comprehensive Community Development is a venture of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).

Integrating Planning and Public Health

Integrating Planning and Public Health, published by the APA Planning Advisory Service, examines collaborations between planners and public health professionals committed to building healthy communities. It outlines the five strategic points of intervention at which planners and public health professionals can coordinate their efforts, and uses case studies to illustrate the specific tools used in such collaborations. The report also examines the role of universal design in creating healthy communities.

Integration of Planning, Public Health Builds Active Communities

The American Planning Association (APA) has released preliminary findings of a nationwide survey to measure how communities can create opportunities for citizens to be more physically active.

International Making Cities Livable
Mixed Use Design Winner -- 2007

The 2007 International Making Cities Livable Mixed-Use Design Award was presented to Anderson Pacific LLC, in recognition of their significant contribution to reviving the principles of true urbanism in their development of Livermore Village, California.

Intown Living: A Different American Dream

The American dream of a single family home on its own lot is still strong, but a different dream of living and prospering in a major city is beginning to take hold. After decades of abandonment by the middle class, a detectable number of people are moving into urban downtown areas.

Introduction to New Urbanism

Introduction to New Urbanism is a PowerPoint presentation from CNU that introduces the key principles of New Urbanism, describes the growth and development challenges around which the movement has rallied, and provides examples of New Urbanism playing a strong role in improving communities.

Introduction to Smart Growth: More Choices for Our Families

This presentation has been developed through a collaborative project involving individuals and organizations operating under the guidance of Smart Growth America. Research assistance was provided by the U.S. EPA. The presentation is intended to be used by individuals and organizations committed to helping communities achieve the objectives of Smart Growth. If you have any questions about the use of this presentation, please contact John Bailey (jbailey@transact.org) at Smart Growth America.

Investing in a Better Future

This discussion paper prepared by The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy makes the case that more compact development patterns and investing in projects to improve urban cores could save taxpayers money and improve overall regional economic performance.

Invisible City: Poverty, Housing, and New Urbanism

Author John I. Gilderbloom draws on case studies in Houston, Louisville, and New Orleans and analyzes census information as well as policy reports in Invisible City, a book that outlines how housing can be remade with a progressive vision.

Iowa Best Development Awards -- 2008 Nominations

Nominations for the 2008 Best Development Awards are now being accepted by 1000 Friends of Iowa. The Best Development Awards program recognizes quality development and redevelopment projects in Iowa and leadership that upholds the mission of 1000 Friends.

Iowa Housing Fund

Substandard and unaffordable housing supply is a national problem needing long-term solutions. Through the HOME and CDBG programs, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides financial assistance to state and local governments to implement housing strategies. The State of Iowa has elected to combine a portion of its CDBG funds with its HOME funds in a unique approach to funding housing activities.

Iowa's Green Streets Building Criteria

The Iowa Green Streets Criteria, published by Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED), promote public health, energy efficiency, water conservation, smart locations, operational savings and sustainable building practices.

Is My Community Elder Friendly?

The Elderberry Institute offers a two-page questionnaire, ''Is My Community Elder Friendly?'' that will score a community based on a series of graded questions.

Is Portland Winning the War on Sprawl?

This article by Yan Song and Gerrit-Jan Knapp and published in the Spring 2004 Journal of the American Planning Association examines different methods used to measure sprawl, and uses those methods to analyze development patterns in the Portland, Oregon metro area.

Is Your City a Great City?

The Project for Public Spaces (PPS) offers a checklist on its website that provides benchmarks of a Great City.

James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards Nominations 2007

Nominations are being accepted for the 2007 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. The Leadership Awards recognize Californians who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant issues for the state's future.

James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards Nominations 2008

Nominations are being accepted for the 2008 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. The Leadership Awards recognize Californians who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant issues for the state's future. Individuals working within any sector -- nonprofit, public or private -- and within any field -- such as education, health, housing, economic development or the environment -- are eligible.

James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards Nominations 2009

Nominations are now open for the 2009 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. This annual competition recognizes individual leaders who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant issues in California.

Jim and Patty Rouse Award -- 2006

Enterprise Community Partners, with funding from its national Network Advisory Board, announces the Jim & Patty Rouse Award for excellence in community revitalization. Applications for the 2006 award must be received via email and postmarked by midnight, Friday, April 7, 2006.

Jim and Patty Rouse Award -- 2007 Call for Nominations

Enterprise Community Partners, with funding from its national Network Advisory Board, announces the Jim & Patty Rouse Award for excellence in community revitalization.

Jobs-Housing Balance

Jobs-Housing Balance examines four types of jobs-housing imbalance to determine the validity of a controversial concept: The market is the mechanism to achieve a balance between jobs and housing.

John Clancy Award for Socially Responsible Housing

The John Clancy Award for Socially Responsible Housing recognizes and encourages excellence in the planning, design, construction and maintenance of socially responsible urban housing by honoring an organization, a group, or an individual who has been a major force behind one or more built housing developments characterized by excellence in planning, design and construction.

June 2008 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The June 2008 edition of Getting Smart! is now available for all Smart Growth Network members in the Members Section. This issue takes a look at the critical role citizens play in advocating for smart growth, and attempt to answer the question, ''What can I do?''

Kansas Energy Efficiency Incentives

Efficiency Kansas is loan program from the State Energy Office at the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) that provides a sustainable source of financing for cost-effective, energy-efficiency improvements in existing homes and small businesses throughout Kansas.

Katrina Index: Tracking Variables of Post-Katrina Reconstruction

The Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program offers the Katrina Index: Tracking Variables of Post-Katrina Reconstruction. This publication provides a benchmark for reconstruction progress, indexing nearly 50 economic and social indicators that measure the impact of rebuilding efforts in Orleans Parish, the New Orleans metropolitan area, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Keepers of the Castle

Based on interviews with more than 150 individuals who constitute a ''Who's Who'' of the world's leading real estate executives, this hardcover book examines the transformation of America's largest industry--real estate--and identifies the attributes needed by chief executives and other leaders who are guiding their businesses through profound change. This book identifies the leadership strategies of and lessons learned by leading executives who have survived the downs of multifaceted business cycles and profitably taken advantage of ensuing opportunities in recovery.

Published 2009. ISBN: 978-0-87420-101-7. ULI Order Number: K05.

Key Regional Appropriations, 2008-2009

Northeast-Midwest Institute publishes a chart that illustrates key federal appropriation distributions by region. This chart list figures for Fiscal 2008, the President's Request for Fiscal 2009, and Final 2009.

Kids and Community

Kids and Community is a website for young people developed by America's city planners. Explore how you create communities, how you live in them, and how you change them.

KnowledgePlex

KnowledgePlex is a comprehensive interactive resource for the affordable housing and community development field. Designed for practitioners, scholars, and policy makers, the website offers practical solutions and innovative ideas, timely news and authoritative information, and collaboration with other housing leaders.

Kuna, Idaho: Where a Community Pulls Together to Face Growth

What does a community do when it becomes big almost overnight? In this story booklet published by Everyday Democracy, Kuna residents came together in study circles to face the community's explosive growth.

Land and People Magazine

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is offering free subscriptions to its magazine, Land&People, a full-color, semi-annual, national magazine that documents the lands we love and the people who work to protect them.

Land Bank Authorities

Land Bank Authorities: A Guide for the Creation and Operation of Local Land Banks from Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) explores the development of land banks in St. Louis, Cleveland, Louisville, Atlanta, and Genesee County, Mich., addressing the conditions, history, and legal structures of each.

Land Policy Institute Ask the Expert

Ask the Expert forums at Michigan State University's Land Policy Institute include nine online discussion forums for public dialogue with academic and other experts related to land use, economic development, and sustainability.

Land Use and Driving: The Role Compact Development Can Play in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

This new report concludes that compact development is a key component in efforts to mitigate climate change. Given that the United States will grow by more than 130 million people by 2050, with research showing the majority will continue to choose living in metropolitan areas, land use will continue to be critical to lowering overall greenhouse gas emissions by reducing driving and energy consumption.

Land Use and Driving: The Role Compact Development Can Play in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions summarizes the research and findings of three in-depth studies on land use – Moving Cooler, Growing Cooler, and Driving and the Built Environment. The publication focuses on how the three reports connect land use, driving, and energy consumption. While sprawl has long been recognized for its effects on combined housing and transportation costs, quality of life, and infrastructure, the report points out that more compact development can dramatically have positive environmental implications.

The ULI report identifies the trends in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and shows that there is a potential for reducing VMT by 8 to 18 percent between now and 2050, when compact development makes up at least 60 percent of all future development. According to demographic trends, the development needed to accommodate major metropolitan growth has not yet been built. This presents a major opportunity to shape land use patterns that help curb the development of sprawling, automobile-oriented suburbs. Even though consumer demand will drive the amount of compact development, policy and regulatory changes will be essential for it to work as an effective climate change strategy. While there are financial obstacles and regulatory challenges to compact development, interest and policy support are continually gaining traction in the promotion of more livable, sustainable communities.

Land Use and the California Economy: Principles for prosperity and quality of life.

This report, commissioned by ''Californians and the Land,'' a group of leaders from California's business, government, and environmental sectors, addresses three major issues: How much growth should California expect and why?; How are land use and quality of life issues related to the California economy?; and, What are the principles that must be addressed if Californians are to combine economic growth and a high quality of life­ now and for future generations?

Land Use Presentations

MPOs in the Atlanta and San Francisco regions used DOT funds to promote smart growth through planning studies and transportation improvement projects. Learn how they are implementing a regional approach to linking transportation and land use planning through nonprofit and public sector agency efforts.

Land Use Regulations in the 50 Largest Metropolitan Areas

From Traditional to Reformed: A Review of the Land Use Regulations in the Nation's 50 largest Metropolitan Areas is a comprehensive survey of local land use regulations from The Brookings Institution that finds a wide variety of regulatory regimes in the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas. They range from exclusionary and restrictive to innovative and accommodating. These produce a variety of effects on metropolitan growth and density, and on the opportunities afforded to the residents that live there.

LANDVisions International Design Competition

From September 2005 to February 2006, entrants from around the world are now asked to imagine new possibilities for designing a comprehensive view of Philadelphia's urban fabric that creates a new relationship between ecology and the built environment.

Learning for Sustainability

Learning for Sustainability is a book from SoL, the Society for Organizational Learning, that was written to spark conversation and encourage dialogue about how to develop the confidence and capabilities to create a world we will be proud to leave our grandchildren.

Learning for Sustainability

Learning for Sustainability is the first New South Wales three-year environmental education plan. It aims to build the capacity of the whole community to be engaged in making environmental improvements and living sustainably.

Learning from Abroad

This paper is designed to help further the understanding of and contribute to learning from international approaches to smarter growth policies and sustainable development.

LEED for Neighborhood Development

The U.S. Green Building Council, the Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council -- three organizations that represent that nation's leaders among progressive design professionals, builders, planners, developers, and the environmental community -- have come together to develop LEED for Neighborhood Development, a rating system that will integrate the principles of smart growth, urbanism, and green building into the first national standard for neighborhood design.

LEED for Neighborhood Development -- FAQs

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has prepared this Frequently Asked Questions sheet for their LEED for Neighborhood Development program.

LEED for Neighborhood Development -- Public Comment Period

The LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building into the first national system for neighborhood design. LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a development's location and design meet accepted high levels of environmentally responsible, sustainable development. LEED for Neighborhood Development is a collaboration among U.S. Green Building Council, the Congress for the New Urbanism and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

LEED for Neighborhood Development 2009 -- 1st Public Comment

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) invites the public to participate in the first public comment period for the proposed draft of the LEED for Neighborhood Development 2009 Rating System.

LEED for Neighborhood Development Pilot List

LEED for Neighborhood Development -- the pilot rating system launched jointly by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) is off to a promising start. A total of 238 developments have signed up to participate in the pilot program, which will be the first national certification system for sustainable neighborhood design and development.

LEED for Neighborhood Developments -- Draft for Comment

A preliminary pilot draft of the LEED-ND Rating System under development by the LEED for Neighborhood Developments Core Committee is being made available for comments. The comments made during this period will aid the LEED-ND Core Committee in revising the preliminary pilot draft and producing a draft which will be the LEED-ND Pilot Rating System.

LGC Offers Free Land Use Presentations

The Local Government Commission offers for download free presentations that have been given at workshops, conferences or meetings. They are available in PDF or HTML formats.

Workshop topics include Building Livable Communities, Developing Smart Growth Zoning Codes Workshop, and Building a Sustainable Infrastructure for the 21st Century.

LGEAN Coastal Communities

The Local Government Environmental Assistance Network (LGEAN) has launched a new Hot Topic addressing the issue of Coastal Communities. This new addition to the Hot Topic section will include information on current news, funding and grant opportunities, publications, and links to relevant Web sites.

Lifelong Communities: A Regional Guide to Growth and Longevity

Lifelong Communities: A Regional Guide to Growth and Longevity from the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is a report that documents the results of the Lifelong Communities charrette. It focuses on the core principles that go into making a Lifelong Community: connectivity, good pedestrian access and transit, neighborhood services and retail, opportunities for social interaction, an array of dwelling types, community design that promotes active living and consideration for existing residents.

Lifetime Homes; Lifetime Neighborhoods

The United Kingdom government has published Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbourhoods: A National Strategy for Housing In An Ageing Society, a major new housing strategy giving older people greater choice and addressing the challenges of an ageing population.

Linking Transportation and Land Use

Linking Transportation and Land Use: A Peer Exchange is a report that presents results from a national Land Use Peer Exchange held from July 12-13, 2005. The purpose of the peer exchange was to facilitate an open exchange of information on experiences, successes, new activities, obstacles, and concerns, and topics that need further research.

Linking Vision With Capital: Challenges and Opportunities in Financing Smart Growth

Washington,DC: Research Institute for Housing America, September 2001. This report looks at obstacles facing smart growth projects and what the two essential parties— local government and the real estate finance community—can do to make smart growth work.

LISC 2008 Sustainable Communities Investments

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) invested $826MM in equity, loans and grants during 2008 to revitalize disinvested neighborhoods as part of its Building Sustainable Communities work.

LISC Awarded Funding for Neighborhood Stabilization

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) $3.6 million to provide technical assistance to help improve the effectiveness of neighborhood stabilization programs. The funding is part of HUD's $50 million effort to help state and local governments address the inventory of foreclosed properties assisted under the Department's Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).

LISC Bay Area Green Connection

The San Francisco Bay Area Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) believes that green affordable housing is a key ingredient for fostering sustainable, resilient communities in ways that protect public health, conserve natural resources, and preserve the environment. The Bay Area LISC uses a multidimensional approach to bring environmentally sound principals into practice among affordable housing owners, managers and regulators, an approach that includes training, development of new tools and templates, peer learning, and financial incentives.

LISC Grants

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) provides technical and financial resources to help community development organizations become strong and stable neighborhood institutions characterized by effective and responsible fiscal management and capable of carrying out a range of community revitalization activities. Through its local program offices, LISC provides grant funding to assist organizations develop affordable housing, commercial and retail space, and community facilities, as well as other community development activities.

LISC Green Development Center

Local Initiatives Support Corporation's Green Development Center supports green design, construction, and management principles in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. The Center is the latest LISC program to support comprehensive community revitalization.

LISC's New Communities Program -- Chicago

The New Communities Program (NCP) is a long-term initiative of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation/Chicago to support comprehensive community development in 16 Chicago neighborhoods. The five-year effort seeks to rejuvenate challenged communities, bolster those in danger of losing ground and preserve the diversity of areas in the path of gentrification.

Livability 101

Livability 101: What Makes a Community Livable? is designed by the American Institute of Architects’ Center for Communities by Design to help public officials, and all others actively engaged in this civic dialogue, understand the basic elements of community design and take advantage of existing tools, strategies, and synergies at the policy, planning, and design levels so that their communities can reach their full potential.

Livability Innovation Fund Grants -- New Mexico

The Local Government Division (LGD) of the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) is the sponsor of this Livability Innovation Fund grant program for enhancing -- through planning and design -- the livability of New Mexico communities.

Livable Centers Initiative

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is now accepting applications for the 2005 Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) studies. The LCI Program is open for funding to government jurisdictions and non-profit organizations in the 18-county Atlanta Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) boundaries (includes all of 13 counties and portions of 5 additional counties).

Livable Cities

From the website: The International Making Cities Livable Council (IMCL) is an interdisciplinary, international network of individuals and cities dedicated to making our cities and communities more livable.

Livable Communities and Water Fact Sheet

Livable Communities and Water, a fact sheet from Local Government Commission (LGC), explains for elected officials the surprising links between livable communities and water -- and the many benefits of acting on them.

Livable Communities Awardees -- 2007

The AARP and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) will present the groups' co-sponsored 2007 Livable Communities Award to two builders, two developers and one remodeler for forward thinking in the field of home and community design. The Livable Communities Award honors builders, developers and remodelers that create attractive, well-designed homes and communities, which are safe, comfortable and accessible for people of all ages and abilities.

Livable Communities Awards -- 2007 Call for Entries

AARP and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) have joined together to present design awards to three professional groups -- builders, remodelers, and developers -- in the 2007 Livable Communities Awards.

Livable Communities for All Ages

The U.S. Administration on Aging (AoA) and the Center for Home Care Policy and Research are now accepting applications for the Models of Livable Communities Competition.

Livable Communities Grant Program -- Minnesota

The Livable Communities Act (LCA, or Act), established in 1995, has three fund accounts in the Twin Cities region that enable local communities to carry out their development plans. The Act is expected to leverage billions of dollars in private and public investment while providing jobs and business growth.

Livable Communities Publications and Resources

The Houston-Galveston Area Council includes on its website a section featuring Livable Communities publications and presentations. These documents, generally available online for free as PDFs and Powerpoints, cover several topic areas and include resources from several local events.

Livable Communities: An Evaluation Guide

The AARP Public Policy Institute developed this evaluation guide to help residents, advocates, and local leaders identify areas of success and potential opportunities for improvement in their community.

Livable Communities@Work

This new publication series being from the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities focuses on the practical aspects of how we create smarter, more livable communities for all. Each and will highlight successful strategies, explore tensions created by competing issues, and generally help spur informed debate on critical topics.

Livable Delaware Agenda

Livable Delaware is a positive, proactive strategy that seeks to curb sprawl and direct growth to areas where the state, counties and local governments are most prepared for it in terms of infrastructure investment and thoughtful planning.

Livable Landscapes: By Chance Or By Choice?

Livable Landscapes: By Chance Or By Choice? explores the changing relationship between people and the land in northern New England. This documentary features stories of average citizens taking a stand against sprawl and making postive choices about their communities' growth and change.

LivCom Bursary Award -- 2006

The Bursary Award, part of the Livable Communities Awards, is open, free of charge, to communities participating in the Community Awards. The Award will be made for an initiative that supports the objectives of The LivCom Awards.

LivCom Livable Community Awards -- 2006

The Livable Communities Awards (LivCom) is the world’s only Awards Competition focussing on Best Practice regarding the management of the local environment. The objective of LivCom is to improve the quality of life of individual citizens through the creation of ‘liveable communities’. Registration deadline for the 2006 LivCom Livable Community Awards Awards is May 31, 2006.

Living Cities

Living Cities is an innovative philanthropic collaborative of 21 of the world's largest foundations and financial institutions. In addition to providing funding for the collaborative, members participate at the senior management level on the Living Cities Board of Directors and contribute the time of 80+ expert staff toward crafting and implementing an agenda that is focused on improving the lives of low-income people and the urban areas in which they live.

Local Brownfield Financing Tools

Local Brownfield Financing Tools is a guide from the Northeast-Midwest Institute that discusses a variety of financing tools created by local governments that encourage developers to consider blighted or underused brownfield sites for projects, with the goal of revitalizing a neighborhood or spurring economic development.

Local Greenprinting for Growth

Local Greenprinting for Growth is now available from the Trust for Public Land. This four-volume, fully revised workbook series is a guide for communities seeking to create a greenprint conservation program.

Local Leaders in Sustainability

The Local Leaders Report: A Study of Green Building Programs in Our Nation's Communities from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) examines the current state of green building laws in American cities as of 2007.

Local Planning Handbook

The Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities area in Minnesota has produced a Local Planning Handbook to guide and support local municipalities in developing and amending their comprehensive plans.

Local Planning: Contemporary Principles and Practice

Local Planning: Contemporary Principles and Practice is the all-new edition of the popular book, The Practice of Local Government Planning, which has been the valued resource for preparing for the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) exam. This new edition helps the reader understand the complexities of planning at the local level, and prepare to make decisions in a challenging environment.

Local Tools for Smart Growth: Practical Strategies and Techniques to Improve Our Communities

Stories, tools and lessons learned from communities thoughout the nation on how to employ planning and development policy to improve quality of life and achieve smart growth goals.

Location Efficient Mortgages

The Location Efficient Mortgage (LEM) is a mortgage that helps people become homeowners in location efficient communities. These are convenient neighborhoods in which residents can walk from their homes to stores, schools, recreation, and public transportation. People who live in location efficient communities have less need to drive, which allows them to save money and improves the environment for everyone.

Location Efficient Mortgages

Natural Resources Defense Council. A list of FAQs on transportation-based Location Efficient Mortgages.

Location Efficient Mortgages Brochure

This brochure provides an overview of Location Efficient Mortgages® (LEM), a program that increases the amount of money homebuyers in urban areas are able to borrow by taking into account the money they save by living in neighborhoods where they can shop at nearby stores and use public transit, rather than driving to work and to the mall.

Losing Ground: At What Cost?

This report from Mass Audubon considers how changes in land use are affecting habitat and biodiversity in Massachusetts. It also calls upon citizens in the Commonwealth to work with their state and local representatives to address the problems of sprawl and habitat loss, and measures the economic value of ''ecosystem services'' -- how undeveloped land provides natural flood control, climate control, and water filtration.

Louisiana Speaks Regional Plan

Louisiana Speaks is the long-term community planning initiative of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. The Louisiana Speaks Regional Plan document lays out a clear plan based on Louisianians' aspirations for the future, and it provides specific actions to get there.

Low Carbon Urbanism Campaign

Low Carbon Neighborhoods, High-Quality Living is an initiative from the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) that emphasizes how neighborhoods are one of the best remedies for combating climate change.

Low Income Housing Tax Credits

2006 marked the 20th anniversary of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), a federal program that accounts for nearly 90 percent of all affordable rental housing created in the U.S. today. The LIHTC program has been instrumental in meeting the country's critical affordable housing shortage by stimulating the production or rehabilitation of nearly 2 million affordable rental homes.

Low-Income Housing Funding Information

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provide grants to low-income property owners and eligible mortgagors to provide cooperative housing for persons of low to moderate-income.

M.A. Urban Environmental Leadership

Lesley University's M.A. in Urban Environmental Leadership gives students an opportunity to study the complete picture of the urban environment and gain a understanding of the human forces that shape it.

MA State Sustainability Guide

The Massachusetts State Sustainability Planning and Implementation Guide, written by the State Sustainability Council in collaboration with Program staff, is a guidebook providing agencies with goals and actions that can be taken to initiate and advance sustainability efforts.

MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions

The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) has been recognized as one of only eight organizations from around the world to receive the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.

Maintaining Neighborhood Character

Many historic neighborhoods are experiencing rapid teardowns and the rebuilding of monster homes or other buildings that undermine smart growth principles. In Maintaining Neighborhood Character, a new publication from the American Planning Association and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, you can learn how communities have developed codes, guidelines, and community visioning programs that successfully link historic preservation to new development.

Make It Your Own Awards™

Do you want to make a difference in your community? The Case Foundation is looking for inspired individuals and passionate teams who are connecting people to discuss what matters, find smart solutions, and take action. Grants up to $35,000 will be awarded to help make it happen.

Make Room for Parks: TPL's Parks for People Initiative

Make Room for Parks looks at the Trust for Public Land's (TPL's ) Parks for People initiative, a program that works in cities and suburbs across America to ensure that everyone -- in particular, every child -- enjoys access to a nearby park, playground, or natural area.

Make Your Community Walkable

AARP's discussion on how to make your community walkable is the topic of this January 2005 web resource.

Making Environmentalism More Urban

This news briefing from the Congress for New Urbanism describes how a group of New Urbanists is bridging the gap between traditional New Urbanism concepts and the principles of green building. The result is an ''enhanced sustainability'' combining the benefits of urbanism and environmentalism.''

Making Housing More Affordable: Correcting Misplaced Incentives in the Lending System.

San Francisco: Natural Resources Defense Council, May 1996. A set of generally accepted principles within the lending industry determines whether people can obtain financing to buy homes or apartments. These rules, which are applied equally to urban and suburban housing despite key differences, effectively force many American families to move to distant locations to own homes. These lending practices exacerbate urban sprawl, while making home ownership more difficult for inner city families.

Making Land Development Regulations Work for Smart Growth

This presentation discusses the kinds of land development regulations found in many communities. It explains how outdated land development regulations may inhibit smart growth and how such regulations can be revised to promote it instead. The presentation and all images contained in it may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes. Available in PowerPoint, PDF, and HTML formats. Presented by the Smart Growth Network Partners.

Making Sense of Place: Phoenix, the Urban Desert

Making Sense of Place -- Phoenix: The Urban Desert is a one-hour documentary film about urban growth and change in and around Phoenix, Arizona. In only half a century, Phoenix has expanded from a small desert town into the sixth-largest city in the country.

Making Smart Growth Work

This 170-page book provides an in-depth look at the underlying principles of smart growth, explains how developers and planners have applied them, and how the public and private sectors can collaborate to make smart growth effective.

Making the Case for Housing Choices and Complete Communities

Making the Case for Housing Choices and Complete Communities: The Next Generation, a report from the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP), examines the region's housing challenges and the growing need for complete, affordable communities -- providing a variety of housing types and price points -- in locations convenient to jobs.

Making the Case for Mixed Income and Mixed Use Communities

Making the Case for Mixed Income and Mixed Use Communities, from the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, Inc. (ANDP), is the culmination of four years of study into the growing challenges to housing affordability in metro Atlanta.

Making the Connection: Transit-Oriented Development and Jobs

Making the Connection: Transit-Oriented Development and Jobs is a national study completed by Good Jobs First honoring 25 exemplary transit-oriented development (TOD) projects that provide increased transit access, good jobs, and affordable housing to low and moderate-income people, including many who cannot afford to own a car.

Managing Growth in Minnesota’s Growth Corridor

1000 Friends of Minnesota produced this report on growth in Minnesota's Growth Corridor: an area beginning north of Brainerd that runs south through St. Cloud, rings the seven-county Twin Cities region, and continues south through Rochester.

March 2008 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The latest issue of Getting Smart! is now available for all Smart Growth Network members in the Members Section. This edition of Getting Smart! examines the unique role that local government managers play in implementing smart growth.

Marketing Smart Growth

This series of articles from On Common Ground, The National Association of Realtors® Smart Growth Magazine, attempts to grasp this subject of supply and demand for Smart Growth.

Maryland Safe Routes to School

The Maryland Department of Transportation's Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee recently released the Maryland Safe Routes to School Guidebook. The Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene's (DHMH) Center for Preventive Health Services participated in the development of the guidebook.

Maryland Smart Growth Listening Session Online

The State of Maryland has created an online ''listening session'' where residents can provide their views and opinions on the future of growth and development in the state. The online survey takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete.

Maryland Smart Sites

Despite the enormous scope of the State of Maryland's Smart Growth program, developers often are not aware of all of the assistance available to them. The Maryland Smart Sites database was designed to centralize this information for targeted properties.

Maryland Sustainable Communities Funds

The Maryland Sustainable Communities Initiative -- a collaboration of agencies in the Governor's Smart Growth Sub-Cabinet -- will provide access to new resources for updating local comprehensive plans. For State Fiscal Year 2009, up to $500,000 will be awarded through the Sustainable Communities Initiative. Funds may be used for revisions to existing plans or for specific elements of plans that are new or need to be updated.

Maryland Tool Box

Governor's Office of Smart Growth. This one-stop resource for individuals, communities, builders and environmentalists contains the many programs offered by Maryland State agencies in support of Smart Growth principles and the Maryland Smart Growth Program.

Massachusetts Agency Sustainability Planning and Implementation Guide

The Massachusetts State Sustainability Planning and Implementation Guide is a comprehensive guidance document written by the State Sustainability Council in collaboration with Program staff.

Massachusetts Funding for Smart Growth

The Smart Growth Technical Assistance Grant Program, offered by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EOEEA), provides grants of up to $30,000 per community to implement smart growth zoning changes and undertake other activities that will improve local and regional sustainable development practices.

Massachusetts Smart Growth: Sustainable Design and Green Building

''Sustainable Development Design and Green Building Links'' is a section of the Planning and Housing Development Toolkit, produced by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). DHCD encourages housing development that is consistent with smart growth, sustainable design and green building practices.

Maxwell Awards of Excellence -- Call for Entries, 2006

The Maxwell Awards of Excellence Program seeks to identify, recognize, and showcase the outstanding work of nonprofit organizations in developing and maintaining affordable housing. The program also encourages other corporations and foundations to become funding or investment partners in these endeavors.

May 2007 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The latest issue of Getting Smart! is now available for all Smart Growth Network members in the Members Section. This edition of Getting Smart! focuses on the aging of America and related challenges and opportunities. Featured articles include ''Get Ahead of the Age Wave with Smart Growth,'' ''The Senior Transportation Challenge: Signs of Hope,'' ''Active Living for Older Adults,'' and more, including articles on age-related living in Atlanta; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Central Virginia.

Mayors' Institute on City Design Video

The Mayors' Institute on City Design is a partnership program of the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Architectural Foundation, and the United States Conference of Mayors. This video provides an overview of the organization, illustrating the benefits of shared knowledge in tackling difficult urban design and liveability issues.

Measuring the Air Quality and Transportation Impacts of Infill Development

In Measuring the Air Quality and Transportation Impacts of Infill Development the U.S. EPA illustrates how regions can calculate the transportation and air quality benefits of infill, based on standard transportation forecasting models used by metropolitan planning organizations across the country.

Measuring the Health Effects of Sprawl

Obesity has reached epidemic levels, and diseases associated with inactivity are also on the rise. What is creating this public health crisis? This report presents the first national study to show a clear association between the type of place people live and their activity levels, weight, and health.

Mega-Regions Presentation

In recognition of America's population surpassing 300 million people in October 2006, the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities offers this presentation given by Ben Starrett at the Environmental Grantmakers Association Retreat on October 8, 2006.

Metlife Foundation Awards for Excellence in Affordable Housing -- 2006 Nominations

In partnership with the MetLife Foundation, The Enterprise Foundation offers the MetLife Foundation Awards for Excellence in Affordable Housing. The awards program recognizes 501(c)(3) community-based or regional nonprofit organizations and Tribes or Tribally Designated Housing Entities that excel in property and asset management or provide housing to people with special needs.

MetLife Foundation Excellence in Affordable Housing Nominations

In partnership with the MetLife Foundation, Enterprise offers the MetLife Foundation Awards for Excellence in Affordable Housing. The awards program recognizes 501(c)(3) community-based or regional nonprofit organizations and Tribes or Tribally Designated Housing Entities that excel in property and asset management or provide housing to people with special needs.

MetroFuture: Updating Boston's Regional Roadmap

MetroFuture is the Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council's (MAPC) recent initiative to update MetroPlan, the agency's 1990 regional roadmap. This large-scale participatory initiative will develop a vision for the Metro Boston region’s future and a strategy to get there.

Metropolitan Recovery and Spending Priorities

On the heels of signing into law a $787 billion economic stimulus and recovery package, President Obama has delivered a 10-year budget plan that could fundamentally reshape the nation's priorities. Brookings experts suggest how the budget plan and recovery package might affect the metropolitan drivers of national prosperity, including innovation, human capital, infrastructure and sustainable places.

Michigan Safe Routes to School Handbook

The Michigan Safe Routes to School Handbook is a comprehensive resource that will help your school start and sustain a Safe Routes to School program. The Handbook includes information on:

Million Solar Roofs Grants

DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has released the solicitation for the Million Solar Roofs Initiative (MSRI) Small Grant Program for State and Local MSR Partnerships. Awards under this announcement will be grants with a term of no more than three years.

Minneapolis Sustainability Indicators

Produced by the City of Minneapolis, this publication list steps to creating a sustainable Minneapolis.

Minnesota Governor's Awards in Waste and Pollution Prevention -- 2007

The annual Minnesota Governor's Awards honor superior environmental achievement by Minnesota's businesses, nonprofits, government, and institutions. Nominations are now being accepted for the 17th annual awards.

Minnesota Green Communities

Minnesota Green Communities is an initiative designed to foster the creation of affordable, healthier, and more energy-efficient homes throughout Minnesota. Through pilot funding of Minnesota Green Communities by the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, the Family Housing Fund, and Enterprise, four demonstration projects will be built in Minnesota (2005-2007) totaling 180 homes, including rental, homeownership and supportive affordable green housing.

Missing the Bus: How States Fail to Connect Economic Development with Public Transit

A 50-state survey of economic development subsidy programs -- such as loans, grants, and tax incentives -- reveals that not one single state effectively coordinates its economic development spending with public transportation planning.

Mississippi Renewal -- Summary Report 2007

The Mississippi Renewal Forum's Final Report in summary format is now available online. This report summarizes the 18 individual reports crafted to guide the rebuilding of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Mississippi Renewal Forum

Mississippi Renewal Forum -- Final Reports

Final team reports have been released from The Mississippi Renewal Forum, held October 11-17, 2005. The Renewal Forum was a gathering of design specialists from across the nation to help provide rebuilding visions for communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Mixed Income Transit-Oriented Development Action Guide

The Mixed Income Transit-Oriented Development Action Guide is an online tool designed to help local jurisdictions and planners develop strategies to create mixed-income, transit-oriented development (MITOD) around planned transit stations. This interactive site was developed by the Center for Transit Oriented Development in cooperation with the Federal Transit Administration and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Action Guide walks users through three critical data gathering and analysis components of plan development: Existing Conditions Analysis, MITOD Strategies Analysis, and MITOD Opportunities Analysis. These three areas of analysis are composed of questions—to be answered by the planner—that span several subjects: demographics, housing, real estate markets, land capacity, and neighborhood stability. Each question highlights key information that will be used to help local jurisdictions select and direct policy tools to achieve their MITOD goals.

Model Smart Land Development Regulations

The American Planning Association's (APA's) Research Department has created 11 model Smart Growth Codes for Land Development. The model codes are ordinances and regulations that advance smart growth objectives in towns, cities, and counties. This project goes well beyond promoting the concepts of smart growth and moves into fundamental repair of the regulatory system.

Models and Guidelines for Infill Development

This publication from the Maryland Department of Planning addresses infill development and includes model zoning codes, examples of existing zoning codes from jurisdictions throughout the country, and a list of minimum requirements that jurisdictions must meet in order to qualify for certain state incentives.

Models of Excellence Awards Nominations

Nominations are being accepted for the Urban Land Institute's (ULI) J. Ronald Terwilliger Center Workforce Housing Models of Excellence Award, which recognizes exemplary developments that meet workforce housing needs in high-cost communities.

Modest Progress: The Narrowing Spatial Mismatch Between Blacks and Jobs in the 1990s

This analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data reveals that blacks' physical isolation from jobs improved slightly in the 1990s, though it remains significant.

Montana Smart Growth Coalition Checklist

The Montana Smart Growth Coalition has created a quantitative checklist of criteria to determine if a development project is truly smart growth and deserves MSGC's support during permitting and marketing.

Montana Transportation Choices

Montana's state transportation program represents a major force shaping the state's cities, towns, and countryside as well as a major influence on the state's economy and quality of life. Transportation Choices to Enhance Community Character, Public Safety, Economic Vitality, and Natural Landscapes in Montana the Montana Transportation Choices Study, evaluates the state's program in light of current guidelines, goals, and requirements contained in federal transportation laws, and compares Montana's transportation program to best practices among the states in key policy areas of importance to Montana's citizens.

Montana Transportation Choices

This summary report presents an overview of the conclusions and recommendations resulting from the Montana Transportation Choices Study, an evaluation of the state's transportation program.

Montana's Smart Growth Coalition Checklist

The Montana Smart Growth Coalition has created a quantitative checklist of criteria to determine if a development project is truly smart growth and deserves MSGC's support during permitting and marketing. A developer may use an MSGC endorsement for marketing purposes after the development is half built out.

Mountain Megas: America's Newest Metropolitan Places

In Mountain Megas: America's Newest Metropolitan Places and a Federal Partnership to Help Them Prosper, Brookings reports that States in the southern Intermountain West -- Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah -- are experiencing some of the fastest population growth and economic and demographic transition anywhere in the country.

Moving Beyond ''Best Practices'' to Truly ''Living Practices''

Reprinted from citiwire.net

The fifth World Urban Forum (WUF5), held last week in Rio was pulsing with energy. More than 13,000 attendants attended plenaries featuring popular Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ana Tibaijuka, director of UN-HABITAT, Shaun Donovan, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Deputy HUD Secretary Ron Sims, Assistant Secretary of State Esther Brimmer, Director Adolfo Carrion of the White House Office of Urban Affairs, Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, and many others.

New knowledge abounded at this meeting. Slum Dwellers International told how its members are conducting census enumerations of informal settlements. The World Bank reported on its new urban outreach and new diagnostics to test the success of its urban investments. Scholars presented papers, including Janice Perlman who has tracked the way that houses are bought and sold in Rio's favelas given that nobody owns the land beneath them.

In many instances, the presenters were putting forward best practices in one form or another. And a team of doctoral students from the University of Pennsylvania – our ''Global Urban Commons Research Group'' — was in attendance, lapping it all up. They have spent the past seven months evaluating the theory and application of the concept of best practices, analysing the UN-HABITAT Best Practices Database and contributing to thinking about a new form of communicating information, ''Living Practices,'' that UN-HABITAT launched in beta form at WUF5.

Indeed, after reviewing more than 75 journal articles, 10 reports and conducting 15 interviews, the team was armed with fact and perspective as it presented its findings to a packed room at WUF5. The team members will soon have a white paper to share. Here the essence of what they have found:

First, best practice has a long history in the United States. It originated with agricultural extension programs to improve farming. Then it emerged in 1934 as a way to address urban issues when the American Society of Planning Officials created the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) to advance the practice of city planning (as the profession switched its focus from private consultancies to public service in the New Deal). Others, especially business, medicine/nursing and education have since engaged in promoting best practices in their fields.

Second, UN-HABITAT launched a global approach to collecting and promoting urban best practices in 1996 after Habitat II in Istanbul – a step called for in the Habitat Agenda (a precursor to the Millennium Development Goals). Under the leadership of Nicholas You, a skilled staff member, Habitat initiated its Best Practices and Local Leadership Program starting an on-line Best Practices Database and inaugurating the biannual Dubai Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment, enhanced by well-funded prizes for 10 or 12 lucky winners.

The program blossomed, guided by a steering committee drawn from around the world with representatives from the Brazilian Institute for Municipal Administration (IBAM), several universities including Pratt Institute and Harvard, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and others. By 2009, the database had more than 2,000 entries; with every announcement of the Dubai award hundreds more poured in. The Dubai Award had been given seven times to much fanfare. In addition, the program gave rise to several regional best practices hubs to spread the word and offer supplementary programs. The Vienna-based effort is exemplary. In addition, from the database, UN-HABITAT commissioned best practices briefs, some case books and case studies used at conferences and training sessions.

Third, while the general literature suggested that to be really effective, best practices data need to fill a few basic requirements, many best practices databases – UN-HABITAT’s included – did not comply. Lacking were neutral third party validations: no one was checking to determine whether the activities reported were actually occurring, with defensible and comparable metrics of success and contextual discussions of the political, social and financial conditions and resources that enabled the work. Further, the best practices tended to be static – once described, that was the end of the story — and they were in only one voice, that of the nominator or author. In other words, while the UN Best Practices database was a huge step forward in presenting information from around the world, the system was not perfect.

None of this was lost on Nick You. He had already concluded that more could be done and he had a big job in front of him because in September, just as the students were beginning their research, Ms. Tibaijuku had charged him with devising a World Urban Campaign to be launched at WUF5. Describing him to the UN-HABITAT governing board as being ''a man of new ideas…a free spirit, sometimes difficult to find and follow, but someone whose capacity to work defied imagination,'' she had full confidence that he could deliver.

And that proved to be true. Between September and March he assembled and convened an advisory team not only spelled out steps to a continuing, impact-designed World Urban Campaign, but gave its blessing to such companion efforts as the Citistates Group’s new project – www.citiscope.org – to highlight city advances reported by journalists worldwide, and a new 100 Cities Initiative to tap and motivate city government and civic initiatives. The 100 cities initiative aims to create a new process being called ''Living Practices,'' an evolution from best practices to a dynamic, Internet-based information exchange. Each living practice story highlights the ongoing progress of selected initiatives and has a third party ''champion,'' who regularly verifies and updates the work.

So armed with their research and participants in developing the 100 Cities initiative, the Penn students then successfully nominated Philadelphia as one of the 100 cities and began to develop the web presence according to desired standards. They have a team of undergraduates who are working with city and civic officials to flesh out six, notable ''green'' initiatives ranging from stormwater management to creating community gardens to provision of local fresh food to disadvantaged communities. They will help develop success metrics and find a variety of stakeholders who through video interviews will add their voices to story, providing depth and context. As the students complete their dissertations and move on with their careers, our Penn Institute for Urban Research will take up the role of monitoring the Philadelphia story. We’re motivated to stick to the exciting task of assisting on the research side to help develop sustainable communities of lasting value – serving, we believe, the cause at the bottom of the UN-HABITAT mission.

Moving Communities Forward: AIA Study on the Design of Transportation

Moving Communities Forward, a project by the American Institute of Architects and the Center for Transportation Studies, measures the benefits that well-designed transportation projects bring to communities.

Myths and Facts about Affordable High-Density Housing

Myths and Facts about Affordable High-Density Housing is a report from the California Planning Roundtable that seeks to dispel common myths about multifamily and high-density development in high-growth California communities. Common myths, according to this report, include heavy traffic, crowded schools, buildings that clash with existing buildings, and criminal activity. The myths are often used to combat growth or to restrict affordable housing developments.

NACo Center for Sustainable Communities Awards -- 2005

The National Association of Counties' (NACo) Center for Sustainable Communities has announced the winners of its 2005 awards program, recognizing innovative counties for creative county led partnerships to develop sustainable communities.

NAR Diversity Initiative Grants -- 2009

Local and state associations can apply for financial support for programs and activities that position REALTORS® as leaders in our increasingly diverse communities. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) offers two opportunities to apply for grants in 2009.

NAR Smart Growth Action Grants -- 2009

To increase the effectiveness of state and local REALTOR® association efforts in creating livable communities, the National Association of Realtors' (NAR's) Smart Growth Action Grant program is available to support your efforts to implement programs and activities that position REALTORS® as leaders in improving their communities by advancing smart growth.

NAR Smart Growth Action Grants -- 2010

To increase the effectiveness of state and local REALTOR® association efforts in creating livable communities, NAR’s Smart Growth Action Grant program is available to support your efforts to implement programs and activities that position REALTORS® as leaders in improving their communities by advancing smart growth.

The rational for REALTOR® involvement in local land use issues is compelling: the healthier the community, the more attractive it will be to homebuyers. However, land use issues often require long-term efforts on the behalf of advocates. NAR’s Smart Growth Action Grants are intended to help your association and members initiate and sustain an active role in bringing smart growth development principles to your community.

Education and coalition building are hallmarks of successful smart growth efforts. The grants can be used to further activities to develop a community vision through a community planning workshop or joining a coalition that is working toward a similar community vision. Additionally, grant funds may be used to support green building activities, such as working with state or local officials to develop green building/energy efficiency policies for your community.

Applications are due April 2, 2010.

NAR Smart Growth Grants

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has established a grant program to help members implement programs and activities that position realtors as leaders in improving their communities by advancing smart growth. NAR will consider applications twice in 2005, first-round applications are due to NAR on June 30th.

For more information please visit the resource link below.

NAR Smart Growth Grants