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Hawaii
University of Hawaii's Sea Grant College Expands Mission to Include the Built Environment
Helping to protect coastal watershed, beaches and coral reefs for the past 30 years, the University of Hawaii's (UH) federal Sea Grant College Program is quickly reaching toward urban design and development problems, reports Honolulu Advertiser writer Mike Leidemann from its ''Implementing Smart Growth in Hawaii'' workshop, quoting local Sea Grant director E. Gordon Grau, who said, ''When you live on the ocean, you look upriver and uphill to see what's affecting you.''
It's only natural, noted UH Center for Smart Building and Community Design head, architecture professor Steve Meder, saying, ''We're expanding the original environmental mission to include the built environment.''
Attended by National Sea Grant Office representative Jim Murray, EPA smart-growth specialist Lynn Richards, and Texas Coastal Watershed Program director John Jacobs, the workshop brought together more than 130 local participants seeking the best ways to manage growth, ease traffic congestion, create walkable neighborhoods and build affordable housing.
Administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Sea Grant program, the writer reports, is encouraging its extension agents to help local communities overcome ''the effects of decades of poor planning and urban sprawl.''
Kapolei, some 16 miles west of Honolulu, ''is at a tipping point'' between a new city and another regional shopping area, said Honolulu planner Robert Stanfield, noting that Sea Grant's involvement in the town's earlier smart-growth planning session may help it move in the right direction.
In Kailua, about 10 miles northeast of Honolulu, Sea Grant may open an office to assist residents in dealing with both residential and commercial growth pressures. And in Kawaihae, on the chain's biggest and southernmost island of Hawaii, Sea Grant experts are advising residents on how to deal with traffic, high home prices and other quality of life issues. Agent Sara Peck said a recent survey found most residents aware that coral reefs face the greatest threat from land-generated pollution. -- Honolulu Advertiser
4/13/2005
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