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HEADLINES
NATIONAL
U.S. Insurers May Get Involved in Land Use Decisions as Climate Change Increases Risk of Losses
Long recognized by European insurers, the impact of climate change and natural catastrophes on the property/casualty insurance industry finally got American attention when bills for government-insured hurricane losses reached a record $30 billion in 2004 and $60 billion just from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) establishing an investigative task force last March and its co-chairman, Nebraska Department of Insurance Director Tim Wagner, hoping "to see U.S. insurers become more engaged in some of the traditional ways, such as promoting better building codes, but also some of the more difficult issues, such as land use."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5531&state=52
CALIFORNIA
Santa Clara Supervisors Approve Ballot Measure Limiting Residential Construction on County's Unincorporated Areas
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved a November ballot measure that would limit residential construction on 400,000 acres of the county's unincorporated land, with both sides ready for its "largest land-use fight" in 15 years -- the smart-growth People For Land And Nature (PLAN) coalition of the Sierra Club, Greenbelt Alliance and Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society stressing the need to curb sprawl and protect open space, water resources and other natural assets, but the Alliance for Housing and the Environment, which includes the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, Hillside Owners Association, Silicon Valley Association of Realtors and Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, fearing violation of basic property rights.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5532&state=5
COLORADO
"GreenPrint Denver" Emphasizes Sustainable Urban and Transportation Design, Energy and Water Conservation
"Even if there's a 2 percent chance that 95 percent of the world's top climate scientists are right about the dire consequences of global warming -- we run the risk of being the first generation in history to leave the next generation a problem for which there is no solution," said Denver Democratic Mayor John Hickenlooper in his third State of the City address, launching a broad 20-year action plan Greenprint Denver, to ensure the city's "strong environmental and economic legacy," expand its comprehensive Blueprint Denver planning approach to energy and the environment, and advance sustainable urban and transportation design, which will "decrease local reliance on automobiles by increasing public transit use and access, implementing bike and pedestrian enhancements, and promoting transit-oriented development."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5533&state=6
CONNECTICUT
1,000 Friends of Connecticut: Coalition Emerging as Grassroots Groups Work to Limit Sprawl, Bring Smart Growth Principles to State's Communities
Increasingly upset by sprawl tolls -- "more driving, more traffic and more fuel consumption, loss of farms and forests, air and water pollution, higher costs of services, isolation of the poor and elderly, limited housing choices" -- Connecticut residents "are organizing to do something about it," says a Hartford Courant editorial on smart growth, citing several examples, including East Hampton, where activists took the town's early name for their independent Chatham Party, challenged the status quo at the ballot box last fall with calls for smarter development, and won a five-member majority on the town council.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5534&state=7
HAWAII
West O'ahu Campus Project Receives Warm Welcome: Plan Includes Town Center, Housing Mix for Faculty, Students, and Workforce
The newest among several projects that together will add more than 40,000 housing units over two decades on the Ewa Plain, about 15 to 20 highway miles west of central Honolulu, the University of Hawaii's proposed West O'ahu campus, augmented with and surrounded by a total of 4,041 faculty, student, workforce and market-rate units, some in a 843,000-square-foot mixed-use town center, has full community support as balanced and responsive to local needs.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5535&state=12
IDAHO
Boise's Banner Bank Building Expected to Receive LEED7 Platinum Status; Developer States Costs Similar to Standard Construction
Distinctive for its white reflective roof, water reclamation system, computer-controlled lighting and other conservation-oriented features, the new 11-story Banner Bank Building in downtown Boise is expected to become the 19th worldwide to earn the platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED7) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, with local developer Gary Christensen calling his roughly $20 million investment similar to standard construction costs and pointing out that others "talk about it costing more to build a green building, but they are just not pushing more to find the cost savings."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5536&state=13
LOUISIANA
Preliminary Report on Protecting Louisiana's Coast Raises Possibility of Massive Levees, But Governor's Office Rejects Notion of a "Great Wall"
As post-hurricane Louisiana planning and reconstruction efforts proceed, Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco promised St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis and area municipal leaders all possible help to accommodate the influx of the displaced and ease strains on local services and infrastructure, federal officials announced $4.2 billion in housing assistance for hurricane victims statewide, and experts from Environmental Defense and the National Wildlife Federation, along with Louisiana State University Hurricane Center Professor Paul Kemp, warned that a preliminary U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report on protecting the coast from category 5 hurricanes -- winds over 155 miles per hour and storm surges of 18 feet and more -- favors costly levees to the detriment of natural restoration and other nonstructural methods.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5537&state=19
MINNESOTA
St. Louis Park's High-Density Town Center Measures Successes, Looks for Improvements
Helped by substantial public investment to demonstrate life without the usual "acres of asphalt," St. Louis Park's $150-million high-density Excelsior & Grand town center, built three years ago on 15 acres some four miles southwest of central Minneapolis, has won several design awards, and city leaders from across the region frequently tour the pedestrian-friendly center to take its smart-growth lessons home, but it "still has a few bugs to work out," reports Twin Cities Star Tribune writer David Peterson, while the increased developer interest in adjacent blocks makes residents worry about the prospects of too much density and traffic congestion.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5538&state=24
Culling the Cul-de-Sacs: Planners Allowing Fewer Dead-Ends Due to Road Maintenance Costs, Traffic Backlogs
Cul-de-sacs, "icons of suburban life," are still favored by a quarter to a half of home buyers, often ready to pay more for such location, a preference attested to by at least two polls, but in Oregon, anticipating smart-growth ideas three decades ago, reports Twin Cities Star Tribune writer Darlene Prois, 90 percent of municipalities have ordinances that limit new cul-de-sacs, and the trend is growing in Minnesota and nationwide due to concerns over subdivision entrance traffic backlogs, road maintenance costs, neighborhood insularity.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5539&state=24
NEW JERSEY
Parsippany School Board Trims School Bus Routes; Editorial Emphasizes Health Benefits of Exercise for Students
Although New Jersey law mandates busing for students who live more than 2.5 miles from a high school and more than 2 miles from a middle school, many districts also have "courtesy busing" for students within those limits at least until fund shortages require officials to scale it back, says a Parsippany Daily Record editorial, not surprised that the local school board trimmed some township bus routes after taking a $500,000 budget cut, but concerned that some parents of the 600 affected students don't want their children to walk and would be ready to pay extra to have them bused.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5540&state=31
OHIO
Columbus Light-Rail Plan Fails FTA's Cost-Benefit Test; Transit Authority Will Focus on Expanded Bus Service
Unable to qualify them for the expected 50 percent in federal aid, the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) gave up a long-intended and four-years planned 13-mile light-rail line between downtown Columbus and the North Side, bus rapid transit and city streetcars, all three failing the Federal Transit Administration's cost-benefit test, under which the agency weights money funding requests against projected ridership, travel-time savings and other factors.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5541&state=36
Green Homes Are Coming to Northeast Columbus Neighborhood
Shepherded along by Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman, redevelopment of an 11-acre former apartment-complex site some four miles northeast of downtown into 30-home Green View Estates will give the city its first energy-efficient, environmentally conscious neighborhood and increase home ownership in that largely deprived area, reports Columbus Dispatch writer Matt Zapotosky, quoting the mayor, who stresses, "We're not only building homes, but we're building green homes."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5542&state=36
UTAH
State Considers Medical, Transportation Needs of Older Residents in Utah 2030 Project
Last year, Utahans age 60 or older made up about 10 percent of the state's population -- third in life expectancy nationwide, with an average longevity of 78 years among men and 84 among women -- but in the next 25 years their numbers will reach 20 percent, including a large segment of "baby boomers" born between 1946 and 1964, which will generate unprecedented demand for medical, social, transportation and other services, a challenge the state must meet, announced Republican Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., unveiling the Utah 2030 project, under which state agencies will identify strategies to provide and fund what older residents need.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5543&state=45
VIRGINIA
Lack of Starter Homes Is Heart of Housing Crisis in Fairfax County
Frequently sought by first-time buyers and renters, including young couples and recent immigrants, small "starter" homes, townhouses and multi-family housing units have "all but vanished, or at least expanded beyond recognition" in Fairfax County and other Washington suburbs even as the average household size has declined, observes Washington Post writer Alec MacGillis, with planners and builders agreeing this not only worsens the region's sprawl, because some look for cheaper land and smaller houses farther out, but also "goes to the heart of its "housing affordability crisis."
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5544&state=47
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"If our city is to become truly sustainable, we must evolve continuously. Our ability to sustain our present quality of life will be a function of how well and how quickly we can adapt."
-- Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=5533&state=6
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