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National
Sen. Dodd: Time to Provide More Transportation Choices for Families
''It's time to re-think the way we plan the futures of the places we live, work and raise our kids,'' said Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, welcoming the interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities, announced at his committee hearing by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Environmental Protection Administrator Lisa Jackson, and reflecting that until now, ''federal policy has often treated transportation, housing, and environmental protection as separate issues,'' with bad consequences for each.
''Between 1980 and 2000, the growth of the largest 99 metro areas in the United States consumed 16 million acres of rural land -- that's about an acre for every new household,'' Senator Dodd observed. ''And with our population expected to grow by over 150 million people between 2000 and 2050, this land-use trend simply cannot continue.''
Presenting the hearing as a follow-up of his February letter to President Obama about the need for ''a White House Office of Sustainable Development to coordinate housing, transportation, energy, and environmental policies,'' Senator Dodd said, ''One important piece of the work we have to do is to provide more transportation choices for families.''
He referred to his own state.
''Few states suffer from worse traffic congestion than Connecticut, and the lack of good transit options costs families more than just inconvenience,'' he pointed out. ''In large part due to congested roadways and the lack of affordable housing and transit options, Connecticut ranks 49th in the country in keeping our young people in the state. Meanwhile, living in a transit-rich neighborhood saves money -- on average, as much as ten percent of a family's budget.''
Noting that his state's new HOMEConnecticut program offers grants for towns ''to plan Incentive Housing Zones for higher-density, mixed-income housing in downtowns and redeveloped brownfields, close to transit options and job centers,'' he said his committee will include a similar competitive grant program in currently drafted legislation.
The legislation will ''provide incentives for regions to plan future growth in a coordinated way that reduces congestion, generates good-paying jobs, meets our environmental and energy goals, protects rural areas and green space, revitalizes our Main Streets and urban centers, creates and preserves affordable housing, and makes our communities better places to live, work, and raise families.''
Reporting on Senator Dodd's statement and the committee hearing, Hartford Courant writer Don Stacom wrote they publicized ''a shift in public policy under the Obama administration, with a heavy focus on getting Americans to drive less, stop suburban sprawl and cut foreign oil consumption.'' -- Hartford Courant, U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 6/17/2009
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