Smart Growth News

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DOE Announces $30 Million for Energy-Efficient Housing Partnerships

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced 15 research and deployment partnerships to help dramatically improve the energy efficiency of American homes. These highly-qualified, multidisciplinary teams will receive a total of up to $30 million for the initial 18 months of the projects to deliver innovative energy-efficiency strategies to the residential market and address barriers to bringing high-efficiency homes within reach for all Americans.

A total of up to $20 million per year will also be made available for the partnerships for three potential one-year extensions. These research and deployment partnerships will provide technical assistance to retrofit projects and will leverage industry expertise and funding to support DOE's energy efficiency retrofit programs. This effort will support the Department's Retrofit Ramp-Up initiative, announced by Vice President Joe Biden in April, which brings communities, governments, private sector companies and non-profit organizations together to deliver energy-efficiency upgrades—or retrofits—to whole neighborhoods and cities.

''Home energy efficiency is one of the easiest, most immediate and most cost-effective ways to reduce carbon pollution and save money on energy bills, while creating new jobs,'' said Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. ''By developing and using tools to reduce residential energy use, we will spur economic growth here in America and help homeowners make cost-cutting improvements in their homes.''   7/20/2010

Resource(s): http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/

Live Chat Outlines Efforts of Sustainable Communities Partnership

As they systematically flesh out, fund and adapt their Sustainable Communities Partnership programs to the range of local conditions and needs, HUD, DOT and EPA aim for urgent affordability, mobility and resource-efficiency improvements. The Partnership also aims to institutionalize interagency cooperation and, above all, the federal sustainability initiative as indispensable for decades ahead.

With this broad outlook, HUD is incorporating sustainability principles into all its discretionary funding decisions; DOT is focusing on livability in its Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grants, the strategic plan and six-year outlays reauthorization proposal; and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is working to widen ''the way the agency sees environmentalism and sustainability,'' reports World Resources Institute (WRI) Center for Sustainable Transport EMBARQ blogger Victoria Broadus on highlights from the live White House chat about sustainability, held July 16.

Moderated by Special Assistant to the President on Urban Policy Derek Douglas, the Live Chat featured HUD Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities Director Shelley Poticha, DOT Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Beth Osborne, and EPA Office of Sustainable Communities Deputy Director Tim Torma. Answering questions from readers of the online Planetizen public-interest information exchange, the speakers outlined what their agencies have been doing in the partnership or on their own, and stressed the importance of community feedback.

Here are the key issues highlighted by the EMBARQ blogger, grouped for each agency:

HUD is moving to make transit-oriented development (TOD) housing – usually affordable only to high-income earners – also accessible to low-income and moderate-income families, more likely to use transit and reap its benefits. In a joint Community Challenge Grants program with DOT, HUD is looking for zoning codes that permit different incomes in neighborhoods near transit, expecting their TOD housing expansion efforts to bring prices down. HUD's new Neighborhood Stabilization Program and point-system-based Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grants Program also strive for greater affordability and sustainability. Under the latter, communities reaching a certain number of points, but fewer than required for grants, will receive preferred sustainability status, which offers them access to the same training, education and networking the grantees get, ability to keep applications on file for future rounds, and recognition in applying for other competitive HUD funds.

DOT is modifying its transit project evaluation to incorporate environmental, economic, health and other impacts, with such enhanced cost-benefit analyses of TIGER grant applications showing how the right investments could save on infrastructure and other costs, and identifying gaps in data collection. With one of the initiative's clear health benefits in the form of reduced obesity, through opportunities to walk and bike more, DOT published a related Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register, accepting public comments until the end of August. Similarly, DOT's high-speed rail proposal, focused on local infrastructure production, opens great opportunities for depressed manufacturing or auto industry communities, while its TIGER II grants include funds to help communities with more detailed land-use planning and sustainability code preparation or adoption, to allow them to pursue sustainability and livability as a right, without additional permission for each project. As well planned, more walkable and bikeable communities reduce car dependency, the partnership's grant programs also benefit area air quality planning processes.

EPA has already worked with California's DOT to create the 2010 Smart Mobility Framework (SMF) for measuring the effects of transportation investments on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and with Virginia's DOT on changing the state’s street standards to make them more pedestrian-friendly and to reduce road traffic congestion. Now the agency is crafting new stormwater runoff rules to promote infill development instead of sprawl, while its Brownfields Program advances community revitalization, especially by assessing and cleaning up mild site contamination and encouraging reinvestment.

In addition, EPA's Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program helps communities create sustainability-focused zoning codes by bringing in multi-disciplinary teams of experts, with HUD and DOT now involved in the effort, too.

See and listen to the sustainability chat at www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/open-questions-sustainable-communities.   7/17/2010

Resource(s): http://thecityfix.com/

HUD Launches Another Initiative to Solve Foreclosure Crisis

HUD Secretary Shawn Donovan has announced a Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) that gives grantees priority for buying foreclosed Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured homes. Called FHA's First Look Sales Method, the initiative also offers NSP participants – states, localities and nonprofits – a 10-percent price discount for about 14 days from the transfer of foreclosed properties to FHA. After the 14-day period, those properties remaining will be listed for sale under FHA's standard procedure. The initiative will be effective until May 31, 2013.

''We believe FHA First Look will provide communities with a powerful tool to help them convert these vacant properties into the affordable homes families need to thrive and our local economies need to recover,'' Secretary Donovan told the National Council of La Raza Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas. ''The truth is, as hard as it is right now, it's even harder to imagine what would have happened had we not acted when we took office – when we were losing 753,000 jobs a month, home prices had declined for 30 straight months and Americans had lost $6 trillion in home equity.''

Thanks largely to the joint HUD-Treasury Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and FHA's loss mitigation options, which together ''helped set a standard across the industry,'' the secretary pointed out, ''nearly 3 million borrowers have received restructured mortgages since April of 2009,'' almost three times more than lost their homes during that time.   7/12/2010

Resource(s): http://portal.hud.gov/

‘Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act of 2010’ Introduced to Senate

Senator Udall (D. NM) and Senator Whitehouse (D. RI) have introduced the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act of 2010 (S. 3561) to the Senate.

Green infrastructure offers a 21st century approach to managing our nation's stormwater. By replicating, restoring, and protecting the natural hydrology of the landscape, water is infiltrated where it falls, filtering out contaminants and reducing the volume of stormwater that overwhelms our water infrastructure systems. From the neighborhood-scale rain barrel to a watershed-scale system of green roofs, permeable pavements, and wetland restoration, green infrastructure has the flexibility and economic viability to protect and restore clean water supplies for communities.

''It's time for Congress to move green infrastructure to center stage in our national water strategy,'' said Jacky Grimshaw, Vice President for Policy at the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago. ''Green infrastructure creates healthier, more vital communities, protects clean water, saves energy, and helps to build green jobs. The Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act will extend EPA's partnership toward sustainable communities by expanding cost- and ecologically-effective green infrastructure.''

''This legislation emphasizes the importance of green infrastructure as a cost-effective alternative to traditional hard infrastructure fixes. By establishing a precedent of green infrastructure solutions, this approach can become a new norm rather than just a demonstration,'' said Katherine Baer, Senior Director, Clean Water Program at American Rivers.

This bill will increase research and development of innovative green infrastructure techniques, promote the use of green infrastructure in permitting and regulations within EPA, and provide incentive funding to communities to plan, develop, and install green infrastructure technologies.   7/8/2010

Resource(s): www.cnt.org/

DOT Announces $293 Million for New Transit Solutions, Economic Development Nationwide

A $293 million investment announced by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood means that residents in dozens of communities nationwide will soon enjoy major transit improvements, including new streetcars, buses, and transit facilities.

The investment is part of the Obama Administration's livability initiative to better coordinate transportation, housing and commercial development investments to serve the people living in those communities. It is being made through two competitive grant programs, the Urban Circulator Grant Program and the Bus and Bus Livability Grant Program.

''This investment by the Obama Administration in our nation's communities will create jobs, boost economic development and recovery, and further reduce our dependence on oil,'' Secretary LaHood said. ''Our goals are to provide cleaner, safer, and more efficient ways to get around.''

Secretary LaHood, along with Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff, announced the winners of the two competitive grant programs during a press conference call in Washington. Six new streetcar and bus rapid transit projects will be funded with $130 million from the Federal Transit Administration's Urban Circulator Program, and 47 additional projects aimed at upgrading bus services and facilities are slated to receive more than $163 million from the FTA's Bus and Bus Livability Program.

''Streetcars are making a comeback because cities across America are recognizing that they can restore economic development downtown – giving citizens the choice to move between home, shopping and entertainment without ever looking for a parking space,'' said FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff. ''These streetcar and bus livability projects will not only create construction jobs now, they will aid our recovery by creating communities with the potential to be more prosperous and less congested.''

The six cities that submitted successful Urban Circulator proposals include Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas; Chicago, Ill.; St. Louis, Mo.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Cincinnati, Ohio. The six projects were selected from 65 applications totaling more than $1 billion in requests. Construction of bus facilities and new bus and bus-related purchases will move forward in the 31 states where 47 Bus and Bus Livability projects are located. These projects were selected from 281 applications totaling over $2 billion in funding requests.   7/8/2010

Resource(s): www.fta.dot.gov/

Opinion: Back-to-the-City Migration is Wishful Thinking

Despite all predictions, the housing crisis has not caused a great migration back to the city, says Chapman University Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures Joel Kotkin. Convinced that ''the back-to-the-city movement is wishful thinking,'' Kotkin cites housing prices in selected urban cores and nearby as evidence, writing in a Wall Street Journal column that downtown areas, ''stuffed with new condos, have suffered some of the worst housing busts in the nation.''

In the Miami metropolitan area, he says, the median condo price has dropped 75 percent since 2007, compared to a 50-percent decline in single-family home prices. In the Los Angeles region, home prices have rebounded by 10 percent last year, while the downtown condo market has lost some 18 percent of its value.

In Las Vegas, a nearly 21-year supply of unsold condos makes developer Larry Murren wish he had built only half his units. ''Behind the condo bust is a simple error: people’s stated preferences,'' Kotkin asserts, going back to a 2004 poll, co-sponsored by Smart Growth America. In that poll, 13 percent of respondents said they prefer to live in an urban area, while 33 percent opted for suburbs and 18 percent for exurbs. ''Demographic trends, including an oft-predicted tsunami of Baby Boom 'empty nesters' to urban cores, have been misread,'' he wrote, acknowledging those who ''have moved to downtown lots'' as ''some wealthy individuals,'' but spotlighting three quarters of the first block of baby-boom retirees who are ''sticking pretty close to the suburbs, where the vast majority now reside,'' or who are moving farther out.

The same goes for immigrants, who have historically ''helped prop up urban markets,'' and for the ''millennials,'' born after 1983. The number of immigrants settling in urban areas has dropped from 41 to 34 percent since 1980, with their number in the suburbs up from 44 to 52 percent. And though urban areas ''do exercise great allure to well-educated younger people, particularly in their 20s and early 30s,'' with some 18 percent considering the city ''an ideal place to live,'' 43 percent prefer the suburbs for family life later.

The author of The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, Kotkin concedes that urban centers ''will continue to represent an important, if comparatively small, part of the rapidly evolving American landscape,'' expecting their population to increase by 10 million to 20 million. He notes that the recent ''collapse of the high-end condo market could provide opportunity for young and unmarried people to move into luxurious urban housing at bargain rates,'' but he feels that ''lower prices, or a shift to rentals, could prove financially devastating for urban developers and their investors, who now may be slow to re-enter the market,'' and that many cities could suffer a ''fiscal blow, given the subsidies lavished on many projects during the era of urbanist frenzy.''

In the end, he refocuses on his primary target. ''The condo bust should provide a cautionary tale for developers, planners and the urban political class, particularly those political 'progressives' who favor using regulatory and fiscal tools to promote urban densification,'' he writes. ''It is simply delusional to try forcing a market beyond proven demand.''   7/6/2010

Resource(s): http://online.wsj.com/

HUD's Strategy of the Month: Mixed-Income Housing Near Transit

It may be very difficult for low-income families to find affordable housing close to work or school, which means higher costs of transportation and lower efficiency. In lieu of the rising cost of transportation and struggling low-income families, the Center for Transit-Oriented Development has released a report on how to overcome this issue. As the name suggests, Mixed-Income Housing Near Transit: increasing Affordability with Location Efficiency, examines the benefits of mixed-income housing near transit-oriented developments (TODs).

The report outlines strategies for implementing mixed-income housing near TODs as a community and on the local level. According to the report, community feedback before planning TODs may prevent unnecessary project delays and assist in the approval process. It also outlines how states or regions can promote mixed-income housing near transit by giving priority to choice projects through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. Other recommendations include reducing parking requirements by including car-sharing facilities and using that space for other purposes such as retail or daycare facilities to serve nearby residents.   6/28/2010

Resource(s): http://www.huduser.org/portal/rbc/strategy/vol4.html

Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding passes Senate Conference Committee

Senate conferees for the Financial Reform bill have accepted the House's offer to provide $1 billion for a third round of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP3.) The Senate reinstated the .05% minimum allocation to states, included a carve-out for technical assistance (up to 2%), and retained the formula allocation. Also included in the package is the long-awaited vacant property fix so that vacant properties can count toward the low-income set aside. Previously only foreclosed or abandoned properties counted towards the set aside. This fix opens up the potential to develop multi-family units on vacant land and other vacant properties. The financial reform bill that NSP3 must still pass both houses of Congress.   6/28/2010

Resource(s): http://www.stablecommunities.org/news/senate-introduces-bill-proposing-nsp3

Sprawling Cities Experience Hotter Summer Days Study Suggests

According to a recent study published in the Environmental Health Perspectives Journal, the rate of increase in the number of very hot days in sprawling cities is more than double that of compact cities.

After surveying data from 53 different cities over about 50 years, scientists have found that the annual number of very hot days in sprawling cities increased by 14.8 days, but cities with the least sprawl increased by only 5.6 days.

The reasons for higher temperatures in urban areas are thought to occur for two reasons—increase in greenhouse gasses, and the urban heat island effect. The effect can be caused by things like cutting down trees and replacing with parking lots, or putting dark shingles onto buildings that absorb heat. The Urban heat island effect has significant impact on the temperatures of sprawling cities.   6/24/2010

Resource(s): http://bit.ly/9IsdDg

DOT and HUD Launch Collaborative Effort to Create Sustainable, Livable Communities

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan have announced a groundbreaking collaborative effort designed to help foster planning for more livable, sustainable communities – places where transportation, housing and commercial development investments are coordinated to better serve the people living in those communities.

Together, the U.S. Departments of Transportation (DOT) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), for the first time ever, will join forces to award up to $75 million in funding – $35 million in TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) II Planning Grants and $40 million in Sustainable Community Challenge Grants for localized planning activities that ultimately lead to projects that integrate transportation, housing and economic development.

“This joint effort by DOT and HUD is a giant step toward improved coordination at the state, federal and local levels and reinforces the Obama Administration's commitment to finding better ways to make government work for people,” said Vice President Joe Biden. “Together, their investments will strengthen communities by connecting housing and transportation options, increasing economic opportunities, promoting environmental sustainability and improving their overall quality of life.”

The new program builds on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, an innovative new interagency collaboration, launched by President Obama in June 2009, between the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Guided by six Livability Principles, the Partnership is designed to remove the traditional federal government silos that exist between departments and strategically target the agencies’ transportation, land use, environmental, housing and community development resources to provide communities the resources they need to build more livable, sustainable communities.

TIGER II Planning Grants may be used to plan, prepare or design surface transportation projects that would be eligible for funding under the TIGER II Discretionary Grant program. These projects include highways, bridges, transit, railways, ports or bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

HUD’s Sustainable Communities funding will target urban and community planning projects that foster reform and reduce barriers to achieving affordable, economically vital and sustainable communities. Such efforts may include amending or replacing local master plans, zoning codes, and building codes either on a jurisdiction-wide basis or in a specific neighborhood or sector to promote mixed-use development, affordable housing and the re-use of older buildings for new purposes with the goal of promoting sustainability at the local level.   6/21/2010

Resource(s): http://portal.hud.gov/

Community-centered schools crucial for sustainable neighborhoods

''Few public institutions are more important to the sustainability of a neighborhood than schools,'' writes the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP). But in the face of huge budget shortfalls, neighborhood schools are increasingly threatened. And the nearly $20 billion spent nationwide to bus 25 million students is one of the major economic threats to the financial stability of these schools.

Renee Kuhlman, Project Director for the Helping Johnny Walk to School Project, noted that ''When the local school is lost, a stabilizing anchor is gone, impacting both property values, public and private investment in the community, and the spirit of local residents.'' Commenting in the June issue of Getting Smart! (the International City/County Management Association's online magazine), Kuhlman described the many benefits of neighborhood schools to local communities. Accessible on foot or bike, these schools make it easy for students to get the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity, which may also include the use of the athletic facilities after hours – all important factors in their health. Federal Safe Routes to School funding helps communities improve infrastructure within 2 miles of participating elementary or middle schools, but only about 35 percent of K-8 students currently live in that perimeter.

While kids are taught recycling to minimize waste and relieve landfills, a larger scale move to retrofit schools would greatly augment local advances in sustainability, with calculations showing demolition of an old building takes as much energy as a new energy-efficient building saves in 35 to 50 years. And from a climate change perspective, easily accessible neighborhood schools are advantageous too, with fewer cars on the road and lower tailpipe emissions. ''To achieve this,'' Director Kuhlman writes, ''advocates, school districts, municipalities, and other jurisdictions must work 'hand-in-hand' to improve the set of policies, practices and perceptions that govern school site selection.''   6/21/2010

Resource(s): http://bit.ly/bYwnhO

New Brownfields Report Shows Untapped Potential for Redevelopment in U.S. Cities

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has released a national report on the status of brownfield sites in 150 American cities. Brownfields are abandoned or underutilized properties where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by either real or perceived environmental contamination. As a result, brownfields present a major challenge for both small and large cities – primarily due to the lack of funding necessary to redevelop and/or recycle these lands.

Recycling America's Land: A National Report on Brownfields Development is the eighth in a series of reports that documents the impediments to brownfields redevelopment faced by local communities throughout the United States and identifies the opportunities lost when properties remain idle and abandoned. The reports also quantify some of the benefits from brownfields redevelopment efforts across the country, with cities specifically citing their positive results from land recycling and the return of brownfields to productive uses.

''The redevelopment of brownfields is a key component to a sustainable community. Cities across the nation have learned to do more with less, but these difficult economic times have made new developments on brownfields even more challenging. Congress and EPA's Brownfields Program has provided tools, but Mayors need additional assistance with the redevelopment of these properties that will create new jobs and preserve city green space.'' said Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, Chair of the Conference's Environmental Committee.

This year's results indicate that 136 cities estimated that they collectively had more than 22,537 brownfield sites, with the average size of a brownfield site being approximately 8.6 acres. Cities also estimated that brownfield properties comprised of 60,417 acres of land, representing potential new jobs and land tax revenue. More than 120 cities estimated that 3,035 sites have been ''mothballed,'' which is defined as sites where the current owner has no intention of redeveloping or selling due to environmental concerns. At mothballed sites, owners would prefer to have the land remain idle and unused rather than turn these sites over for development.   6/12/2010

Resource(s): www.usmayors.org/

National Association Wants Congress to Pass Livable Communities Act

The National Association of Counties (NACo) ''supports the Livable Communities Act, which provides incentive grants to local areas for regional planning around housing, transportation, environmental, energy, land use and health initiatives,'' said NACo Board Member Julia Gouge in Senate testimony June 9.

NACo, she told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, ''has long advocated for flexibility, regionalism, and direct funding to local governments and regions,'' while assisting counties on smart growth, planning, sustainable economic development, business retention, public health, housing and other issues. Having now also focused on clean energy and disaster resiliency, NACo will release a County Sustainability Efforts survey draft at its annual conference next month, to register different county levels of “sustainability knowledge, interest, commitment,” and barriers to specific goals, including “energy efficiency, renewable energy generation, water conservation, green job creation, and integrated waste management.”

In addition, she noted, NACo’s Green Government Initiative priorities for 2010 focus on the cost-saving strategies of “going green”; energy efficiency and clean energy; green jobs and the local economy; and local food supply and community gardening.

''Planning for sustainable communities is by its nature a regional effort,'' Gouge observed, concerned that many counties, especially rural and mid-size, would like to launch such planning but lack the resources, while others need extra funds to implement their plans. Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd's bill (S.1619) ''will be effective because it meets communities where they are – at the planning or implementation stage,'' she pointed out, without forgetting counties – mostly rural and less populous – still to embrace sustainability and join the movement. ''NACo continues to believe that sustainability should be voluntary and encouraged through a federal grant program that rewards regions and communities that undertake sustainable programs, like what is proposed in the Livable Communities Act. We do not believe that sustainability should be a condition for receiving housing, transportation and other traditional sources of federal funding. We believe that all communities should be eligible for the program,'' she told the committee.

''Under the initial proposed legislation, some rural and remote communities would not have been eligible. We support a fix that would set aside funds for a sub-category of rural areas that are not part of an otherwise eligible micropolitan area.''

Reiterating support for the creation of the federal Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities and for the Interagency Council on Sustainable Communities, Gauge expressed confidence in the movement's success. ''NACo believes it is the right time for the passage of the Livable Communities Act because of the difficult economic and fiscal environment in our counties, and the pressure of new social, economic and environmental imperatives,'' she said. ''The goal of sustainability compels all levels of government to regroup, and to demand innovative multi-jurisdictional, multi-dimensional and fiscally sound approaches that will lead to better transportation choices, equitable and affordable housing, social equity and enhanced opportunities for our communities.''   6/9/2010

Resource(s): www.naco.org/

Urban Farming Gaining Ground

Normally the thought of farming raises mental pictures of vast fields, lines of crops and large tractors. Some people may think of their home or community garden where low-cost organic food can be harvested for themselves, but entrepreneurs see abandoned homes and broken-down industrial plants as future apple orchards and hydroponic growing facilities.

Commercial urban agriculture takes advantage of unused urban space and natural resources to grow local food. Unlike traditional home gardens, these plots of land are used to generate money. Matthew Jose, the founder and owner of Big City Farms LLC, has 10 city blocks under his green thumb in downtown Indianapolis. Big City Farms exchanges portions of the harvest for property owners' yard space, and in some cases simply transforming weed-ridden lots are payment enough.

The lower distribution costs and supporting the local economy are just two of the many reasons why urban farming has been increasing in popularity. Interest has been growing in large cities like Detroit, Indianapolis, San Francisco and Austin, Texas. The Seattle area has an urban farming networking site called urbanfarming.org that offers news and updates in the local urban agriculture community.   6/7/2010

Resource(s): http://eatdrinkandbe.org/

Smart Growth Sharpens Focus on Multi-Use Urban Parks

As the smart growth movement matures and applies the economic, social and environmental lessons of development patterns since the 1950s, it makes the significance of public parks and green spaces increasingly clear, according to National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) Chief of Public Policy Richard J. Dolesh.

And John Frece, Director of EPA's Office of Smart Growth agrees. ''EPA has always considered the creation of high-quality parks as essential to creation of livable, sustainable communities,'' said Frece, pointing out that a park provides ''an essential oasis in a busy, dense, urban environment'' and ''true environmental benefits that are beyond natural beauty.'' He mentioned EPA-assisted projects in Kentucky, Maine and Rhode Island that sought to improve water quality, manage stormwater, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, address the urban heat island effect, and gain other environmental benefits. With the EPA, HUD and DOT working through their Partnership for Sustainable Communities since June 2009 ''to inspire communities to do a better job'' in planning for sustainability goals, Director Frece said, ''It is logical that parks be an integral part of the next steps to achieve these goals.''

An award-winning park system is part of an overall smart growth success in Portland, Oregon, observes the NRPA public policy chief in a June Parks & Recreation magazine cover story, crediting Parks and Recreation Director Zari Santner for much of the city's green infrastructure strategy in denser development near transit. ''As we created new community master plans, we planned street-scaping, tree planting, stream restoration projects, new urban forests, and even the 'day-lighting' of formerly covered-over or piped streams,'' she said. ''This gives people the sense of space and a very real connection to nature. We try to design our parks and public spaces with the -20 minute concept' -- that is, that everyone can get to community services, parks, recreation centers, and other amenities within a 20-minute walk.''

Alarmed by the costs and side effects of sprawl, ever more architecture, design and landscaping firms are joining the sustainability movement. ''We cannot grow forever. We are paying that price in many ways now. In the long run, such growth is completely unsustainable. We need to think about not just smart growth, but smart re-growth,'' commented Philadelphia-based Andropogon Associates principal Jose Alminana, saying systems must use resources as efficiently as possible to ensure sustainable economies of scale. ''Parks, by definition, are multi-purpose and multi-functional. They can grow food, improve air quality, clean water, provide bio-fuels, and sustain wildlife habitat.''

Other examples of smart growth principles in action to make natural systems yield extra benefits, the writer adds, include the use of meadows and greenways as 'floodways' and development of trails as ''rights-of-way for underground utility corridors,'' with some parks seen ''almost as mini-utility districts.''

Noting that Portland is exploring the idea of using public spaces and entire neighborhoods as self-regenerating sources of energy and producers of additional environmental benefits, he says this could mean ''using parkland as a ground source for community-based heat pumps, constructing wetlands as filtration systems for treating gray water from communities, using public lands to provide biological filtration systems composed of advanced wetlands, hydroponic tanks, and ponds for tertiary-quality treatment of sewage and waste-water.''

Seattle-based Mithun principal Deb Guenther agrees that dense urban development requires a corresponding level of planning to help residents feel connected to parks and green spaces. ''It is really important to look at opportunities for urban in-fill in this downturn economy,'' she said. ''This can include new opportunities for urban agriculture, community gardens, and other amenities that build a sense of community.'' And stressing the need ''to apply metrics for sustainability, measure the performance, and improve the functions of our landscapes and public spaces,'' she thought parks may eventually help create ''climate-benefit districts,'' or overlay zones that would offer developers fast-track processing, tax credits and other incentives for off-the-grid improvements in air quality, reduced infrastructure costs, or other measurable environmental benefits.   6/3/2010

Resource(s): www.nrpa.org/ ; www.nxtbook.com/

Transportation Department Awards $80 million in High-Speed Rail Grants

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced on May 27 that it has delivered nearly $80 million in grants to five states as part of President Obama's high-speed and intercity passenger rail program. The bulk of the funds—$66.6 million—will go towards program management and preliminary engineering on a planned high-speed rail service in Florida, running between Tampa and Orlando. The project will include 84 miles of track and will feature trains running at 168 miles per hour (mph).

Grants were also delivered to California, for track relocation work in support of a high-speed rail line connecting San Francisco and Sacramento; to Wisconsin, for environmental assessments of planned new stations on a 110-mph rail line between Milwaukee and Madison; and to New York State, for the planning of projects to increase the speed of the Empire Corridor to 110 mph. The 468-mile Empire Corridor connects all of New York's largest cities. In addition, New Mexico will receive a grant to create the state's first-ever rail plan, the first step in a project that could eventually link all the major cities in the Southwest. With the exception of New Mexico, all of the projects also received a share of $8 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds that were announced in late January.   6/2/2010

Resource(s): http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/

HUD Publishes Advance Guidance for Choice Neighborhood Pilot Program

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has posted the Choice Neighborhood FY 2010 Notice of Funding Availability Pre-Notice to give potential applicants guidance prior to the actual Choice Neighborhoods funding notice, to be published this summer. The guidance offers advance details regarding the application process to compete for funds through this pilot program.

''We want the Choice Neighborhood pilot program to build on the achievements and lessons learned under the HOPE VI program,'' said HUD Assistant Secretary for the Office of Public and Indian Housing Sandra B. Henriquez. ''To do that, we believe it is absolutely necessary to inform our partners as early as possible of the tools they will need in place to be ready when the competition begins.''

The Pre-Notice outlines the core goals of the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative that Congress approved with the passage of HUD's FY 2010 budget. The information will help entities interested in applying for funding under Choice Neighborhoods better prepare for the Notice of Funding Availability, the official federal government application to obtain funding.

''Posting guidance of this magnitude for upcoming funding availability is an unprecedented step for HUD,'' said Carol Galante, HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing. ''We hope this early guidance is helpful and we stand ready to respond to questions for further clarifications.''

This is the pilot year of the competitive program that will award up to $65 million to public housing authorities, local governments and nonprofit organizations to extend neighborhood transformation efforts beyond the public and or assisted housing to link housing revitalization with education reform and early childhood education. One key feature in the pilot program is the requirement that any public housing or other HUD-assisted housing unit demolished under the program must be replaced with another unit unless there are valid, quantifiable reasons for exception. The program widens the traditional pool of eligible applicants by allowing for-profit developers to submit joint applications with a public entity.

The Pre-Notice introduces key program elements and activities as well as the framework of the competition HUD will use to award this year's grants. While the nearly 20-year-old HOPE VI Revitalization Program has been successful at transforming neighborhoods with distressed public housing into revitalized mixed-income communities, Choice Neighborhoods aims to use a more comprehensive approach to community development with housing transformation as its center. The program also expands targeted units to include both public and assisted housing.

Learn more about Choice Neighborhoods at www.hud.gov/offices/pih/programs/ph/cn/.

See the Pre-Notice at http://www.hud.gov/utilities/intercept.cfm?/offices/pih/programs/ph/cn/docs/2010-pre-notice.pdf.   5/21/2010

Resource(s): http://portal.hud.gov/

Ford Foundation to Invest $200 Million to Spur Regionalism and Strengthen Metropolitan Economies

Ford Foundation President Louis Ubinas has announced a $200 million Metropolitan Opportunity initiative to foster economic growth through regional planning and cooperation on housing, transportation and land use. ''We believe that vast resources independently deployed in a broad-based partnership will bring the kind of impact our cities need,'' he said at a Summit on Auto Communities and the New Economy, hosted in the capital by the White House Council on Automotive Communities, Department of Labor, Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, and Funders Network for Smart Growth.

Citing Metropolitan Policy Program Director Bruce Katz who has long believed that communities are part of a larger ecosystem, Ubinas stressed that the metropolitan areas around cities like Detroit, Cleveland or Gary, Indiana ''are the cornerstones of this nation's manufacturing economy,'' with the potential to become crucial in the creation of new industries, new technologies and “the Next Economy'' for this century. ''These regions share common assets like transportation and energy systems, housing and labor markets, natural resources and an ecosystem of businesses that are mutually reliant upon each other,'' he pointed out. ''Only by tackling the challenges facing these metropolitan areas in a comprehensive manner will we be able to foster economic development that is truly sustainable. That's why we are supporting organizations that are advocating for quality housing options in stable neighborhoods, while also thinking about how to link them directly to public transportation, good schools and decent jobs. It's why we are supporting research and advocacy that prioritizes public transportation funding, while encouraging regional efforts to use these systems to link jobs and transit-dependent populations. It's why we are supporting groups like the Center for Community Progress, which began in Flint, Michigan.''

Led by a longtime Flint resident, former Genesee County treasurer and its 2002 Land Bank creator Dan Kildee, the Center for Community Progress ''is being launched as a national resource,'' Ubinas aid, ''so that other communities can learn from the progress made in Flint in promoting metropolitan land-use strategies that turn abandoned property and land into valuable assets for the Next Economy.''

In a related press release, the Ford Foundation listed its early metropolitan investment targets. They include ''transformative public transportation projects that connect residents to jobs and other opportunities'' – the M1 rail in Detroit, the redevelopment of the Clairborne corridor in New Orleans, and the construction of 25 transit villages along BART commuter lines in the San Francisco Bay Area; ''innovative initiatives to create a stock of permanently affordable housing,'' especially in New Orleans and the Bay Area; and programs in metropolitan Detroit, Flint, New Orleans and other areas ''to create regional bank authorities,'' which will revitalize blighted zones and increase quality housing.

''We can reduce poverty and unemployment and raise the quality of life for city and suburb dwellers alike while making cities more competitive and sustainable,'' said Ford Foundation Vice President for Economic Opportunity and Assets Pablo J. Farias. ''To achieve this, we need metropolitan regions to embrace a shared destiny. That's what this initiative is all about.''   5/18/2010

Resource(s): http://fordfound.org/

New Partners for Smart Growth Conference Issues Call for Session Proposals

The Local Government Commission (LGC) is conducting a formal Call for Session Proposals (CFSP) for the 2011 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference program from May 17 through June 30. The submittal review process will take place from July through late-August 2010, and those selected for inclusion in the final program will be notified by early September, if not sooner.

If you are interested in submitting a session proposal for consideration for the 2011 conference program, please carefully read the CFSP Instructions document at the link below.

The 2011 conference will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, on February 3-5.   5/17/2010

Resource(s): www.newpartners.org/session_proposals.html

U.S. DOT Allocates $527 Million to Support Partnership for Sustainable Communities in FY11

Livable communities, with affordable housing, transportation choices and jobs, ''are in high demand because they make financial and economic sense,'' said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in testimony on his department's (DOT's) allocation of $527 million in fiscal year 2011 for livability efforts by the interagency (DOT, HUD, EPA) Partnership for Sustainable Communities.

Created last June to stimulate comprehensive regional and community planning, the partnership is helping state and local governments ''make smarter investments in their transportation infrastructure.''

Citing EPA surveys showing that ''at least one third of the consumer real estate market prefers a mixed use, transit-oriented community,'' Secretary LaHood highlighted two key advantages of livability outlays. ''Reducing the need for private motor vehicle trips by providing access to other transportation choices can lower the average household expenditure on transportation, freeing up money for housing, education, and savings. Realtors, developers, and investors recognize that an increase in walkability translates into a higher home value,'' he said. ''The application of livability strategies can also save billions in infrastructure investment.'' As an example, he mentioned an Envision Utah plan for the Salt Lake City region, where coordinated investments in resource conservation, clean air, public health, transit and diversified housing ''saved $4.5 billion in infrastructure costs over the last decade.''

The secretary assured the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee that livability investments benefit not just cities, but also small towns and rural communities. ''The concept of livability comes from rural towns with a town center that is walkable and accessible to all ages and income groups,'' he observed. ''Rural communities, however, face special challenges that threaten traditional community design. Past transportation policies have resulted in many rural Main Streets being bypassed by the interstate highway system, which contributed to the decline of once-vibrant business centers. Many rural communities located close to cities have lost farmland and open space as urban areas subsume them. Transportation costs are often significantly higher for residents of rural communities, especially those with longer commutes to employment centers. Better coordination of housing and transportation will lead to policies and program that protect and safeguard open space and agricultural land in rural areas, preserve the historical culture of rural city centers, and provide rural residents with transportation options that decrease their household costs.''

To help urban, suburban and rural communities meet their livability goals, Secretary LaHood said, the President's 2011 budget request for DOT, coordinated with requests for HUD and EPA, includes $20 million ''to establish a new Livable Communities Program,'' with a new Office of Livability within the Office of the Secretary (OST); $307 million to refocus current Federal Transit Administration (ATF) programs ''to expand transit access for low income families, provide effective transportation alternatives,'' and increase related local capabilities; and $200 million ''to fund a competitive livability program'' within the Federal Highway Administration.

The new livability programs, reports Streetsblog Capitol Hill writer Elana Schor, drew criticism from the subcommittee's ranking Republican member, Senator Kit Bond. ''I'm not as confident (as others) that trusting federal decision-makers in Washington to lead the process, to tell communities how they should grow, is the right way to go,'' the senator said, feeling that dedicating $200 million in highway money – about one-two-hundredth of the FHWA budget – to sustainability office goals ''may reflect a view that we want to get rid of auto transportation.'' Secretary LaHood expressed disbelief. ''The idea we're giving up (on) roads or don't care about the highways is nonsense. People want other alternatives. We have a state-of-the-art interstate system. If people need more capacity, they can tell us that,'' he pointed out, hearing in response, ''I'm telling you that.''

In contrast, the subcommittee's Democratic chairman, Senator Patty Murray, praised the sustainability mission, though she also voiced concern over the FHWA's $200 million for discretionary grants, asking for details on their distribution process.

In the end, the writer notes, Secretary LaHood compared the allocation of $200 million in highway funds to sustainability programs with the congressional transfer of more than $30 billion from the Treasury to the Highway Trust Fund since 2008. When lawmakers pay for highway programs from the general Treasury, ''part of that money comes … from all the taxpayers – who, in some instances, want something other than roads,'' he stressed. ''I have to put that on the record.''   5/6/2010

Resource(s): http://fastlane.dot.gov/ ; http://dc.streetsblog.org/

EPA Water Infrastructure Policy Encourages Smart Growth

Awarding $3.3 billion for Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) programs this year – from the budget and from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed in February 2009 – the EPA wants states to heed smart-growth principles and favor urban system repairs and upgrades over extension of water and wastewater infrastructure toward the fringe.

''What you have now that we're trying to change is that some of the money goes into new (water) collection systems or new treatment plants where there are very few people and that can fuel growth,'' EPA Office of Water Deputy Assistant Administrator Nancy Stoner told Washington Post writer Alec MacGillis. ''We're interested in supporting the infrastructure where people already live. It's a focus on making infrastructure sustainable and reviving those communities, reviving cities as attractive places.''

The policy guidance ''arguably arrives five years too late,'' with the pre-recessionary home-building boom having gobbled up vast swaths of land, notes the writer. There is greater need for precaution now, and for clear priorities once building resumes. EPA officials expect federal appropriations for Drinking Water State Revolving Fund programs and for parallel Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) programs to help states move toward sustainable land and water management.

The real estate industry and other Washington, D.C.-based groups endorse smart growth, but voice concerns. ''While we recognize the need to repair, replace and upgrade existing infrastructure,'' said National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Senior Vice President Susan Asmus, ''this should not be done at the expense of new growth.'' Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities (CIFA) Director Rick Farrell and Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators (ASIWPCA) Director Linda Eichmiller noted that states are required to use at least 20 percent of their water revolving funds for ''green projects,'' including riparian buffer restoration or impermeable blacktop cover reduction, but that failure to expand sewers to outer-rim communities could result in septic system overloads and groundwater pollution.

''While we want to incorporate these ideas,'' commented Director Farrell, referring to the EPA's urban infrastructure focus, ''we're concerned about a prescriptive approach that says so much money goes here, so much goes there. We'd prefer they say, 'These are things you can do that are good approaches,' and let the states to work it out.'' Saying federal funds are ''not a mechanism to accomplish social goals,'' Director Eichmiller added, ''It is not going to be able to manage growth.''

On the other hand, Smart Growth America President and CEO Geoff Anderson, co-initiator of the EPA's Smart Growth program in the mid-1990s and later its chief, applauded the guidance, wishing it were even more specific. ''The EPA ought to be thinking about how to go further,'' he said, pointing out that to get approved, septic-dependent projects should guarantee their system sufficiency for a long term. ''The ultimate performance of those septics,'' he observed, ''can't rely on the endless extensions of a wastewater system that we can't afford even now.''   5/5/2010

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Economic Recovery Expected to Influence Public Attitudes and Development Patterns

''They say you can't make land, but we're making it,'' said Cleveland (OH) Planning Director Robert Brown at a Land and the Built Environment: The Reinvented City forum in San Diego. Brown told how deserted and irreparable homes were razed and parks and community gardens grew in their place, illustrating the breadth of urban challenges related to the market collapse and the projected bounce back into a new economy.

Sponsored by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and led by its Department of Planning and Urban Form Chair Armando Carbonell, the forum focused on the question, ''Will we return to business as usual and will it be re-established, or are we entering something new?'' The panelists – scholars and other national experts – agreed that the recovery will usher in new business patterns, including increasingly sustainable development, more effective conflict resolution for developers and Not-In-My-Back-Yard (NIMBY) opposition, and the retrofit of ''shrinking'' cities, stagnant suburbs, and failed strip malls and shopping centers.

Recent home price rises in San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles seen by Wellesley College Economics Professor Karl E. Case are an early sign of the market comeback, said the panelists. The panelists also predicted a new wave of lengthy and costly public fights between developers and NIMBYs, especially in nearly built-out cities like San Diego, where planners want to accommodate population growth through infill rather than greenfield development. Miami, Florida-based New Urbanism co-founder Andres Duany believes that each case could be quickly decided if judged by a randomly selected ''jury'' of disinterested residents, able to treat both sides as special interests.

Urban Land Institute (ULI) San Diego-Tijuana Chapter Chairman Chris Morrow agreed the process should change. ''If every decision is dealt with by reaction to NIMBYism, nothing will get done,'' he said. ''If there were some system where we could discern the real concerns versus the just-say-no component, that would go a long way to make the process more certain and predictable for everyone involved. Andres Duany is certainly thinking outside the box there.''

The City College of New York’s School of Architecture Associate Professor of Urban Design June Williamson and San Diego-based NewSchool of Architecture and Design President Steve Altman looked toward such thinking across the spectrum. With 20 square feet of retail per person, in contrast to 13 in Canada and 3 in Europe, ''we’re way overbuilt,'' said Professor Williamson, noting that cities already are filling empty strip-mall spaces with galleries or theaters and developers turning big-boxes into housing, meeting centers or libraries. At the same time, workers are seeking shorter commutes and households with fewer or no children moving to downsize, a trend that leads to construction of multi-family housing in some suburban single-family-home neighborhoods.

''We have enormously creative people around, and they have the capacity to see opportunity, and the ones who see the opportunity best and implement it are the ones that will succeed,'' commented NewSchool President Altman. ''I agree we’re heading into a new economy. We have to retool, reconfigure and reconceptualize what we build, where we build and how we build.''   5/2/2010

Resource(s): www.signonsandieg.com/

Focused on Urban Infill and Transit, Smart Growth Also Protects Stable Suburbs

If some residents in stable, low-density residential neighborhoods and subdivisions think nearby urbanization threatens their quality of life, property values and traffic flow, they should relax, says University of Maryland Professor Emeritus Roger K. Lewis in his regular Washington Post column, because smart growth won’t let that happen.

''In fact, as new long-range plans are implemented in the coming decades, your property's value will probably go up, your way of life will be enhanced, and traffic congestion will not worsen. Indeed, it may ease,'' Lewis said. ''Also remember that such plans primarily serve future generations.''

Having learned from decades of previous planning mistakes that separated uses, kept densities low, and made easy auto travel and parking the top priority, smart growth measures are based on reality, not theory. ''They respond to substantial changes in demographic and economic conditions, infrastructure needs and costs, modern technology affecting how we live and work, energy and ecological constraints, and consumer preferences,'' the professor points out, listing several factors in smart growth plans' feasibility and efficacy.

Aiming at a better balance between jobs and housing, which reduces car commutes and facilitates more walking, the plans depend on future road improvements, multi-pronged traffic-management strategies, better transit – including circulator shuttles, regional bus service, and light or heavy rail – and phased-in development. As an example of the right approach, Professor Lewis cites Montgomery County, Maryland. Its master plan for Gaithersburg West envisions dense, mixed uses synchronized with infrastructure expansion. ''The plan cannot be fully implemented,'' he stresses, ''until the Corridor Cities Transitway, treading through Gaithersburg West and connecting to the Shady Grove Red Line Metro station, is financed and built.'' Montgomery County planners, like their counterparts elsewhere are ''advocating transit-oriented, urban-style infill, but they are also taking pains to ensure that established residential neighborhoods are preserved and protected,'' he said.   5/1/2010

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Federal Move toward Sustainable Transportation and Other Infrastructure Matched by Public Demand and Industry Efforts

A new survey reveals that just since November, the number of Americans willing to pay more now for energy-efficient and less wasteful national infrastructure in order to save money and resources in the future has risen from 58 to 64 percent. Equally significant, 96 percent of respondents agree with the need to consider sustainability in all new construction, 76 percent see sustainability-minded, large-scale infrastructure projects as an important investment for future generations, and 51 percent would add an average of $256 to their annual taxes to ensure some form of sustainability for new construction in their regions.

Commissioned by Kansas City, Missouri-based HNTB Corporation, the America THINKS survey presents views and attitudes sampled nationwide by Kelton Research in April. ''The transportation industry's evolution to sustainable practices is being driven by political and public pressure, which is demanding the industry catch up with those that are further advanced in sustainability,'' commented HNTB Urban Design and Planning Chair David Wenzel. ''Federal leadership is establishing mandates and states are rapidly working on strategies to not only meet these mandates, but the public demand for a more environmentally sound transportation network.''

Indeed, the America THINKS survey finds most Americans optimistic about multi-modal mobility prospects. Asked to select from a list those transportation changes they consider likely in their regions in 20 years, 44 percent of respondents predicted much less driving, with 56 percent expecting much higher use of transit, 31 percent anticipating much more walking and another 31 percent projecting much more biking. Still, same views and habits apparently need more time to evolve. Thus, 61 percent disagreed with the statement, ''The U.S. should try to reduce transportation greenhouse gas emission by reducing the number of miles that vehicles travel through a mileage use tax,'' and an identical 61 percent indicated they wouldn't ''consider moving to a new area simply because it practiced or mandated sustainability'' more than where they live now.

That aside, many industry leaders foresee a ''sea change'' for movement of people and goods in years ahead. Having met with more than 35 state and regional transportation agency officials across the country, Wenzel noted that HNTP is working to advance sustainability on two tracks – introducing new resource-sensitive design and construction techniques, and implementing emission-reduction practices. HNTP also has established guidelines for incorporation of sustainable elements into its roadway, bridge and transit projects. ''As a firm, HNTB is dedicated to planning, designing and managing the construction and maintenance of infrastructure that are respectful of our limited resources and ultimately less impactful on the environment,'' he said. ''It will provide long-term benefits to our clients, their customers and our country.''

For more details and related links, visit www.hntb.com/sites/default/files/issues/AmericaThinks_fact_sheet.pdf.   5/1/2010

Resource(s): www.hntb.com/

Smart Growth Becomes Key for Assessing Projects in Most Metro Areas

Rooted in the early 1970s-era of urban renovation when momentum favored the suburbs and sprawl, smart growth has won many municipal and environmental advocates this decade despite detractors, write E Magazine editors in their EarthTalk Q&A column, telling Missoula, Montana, resident Frank Quinn that some form of smart growth ''has likely been implemented'' where he lives or somewhere nearby. ''The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been a big smart growth booster since it formed the Smart Growth Network in 1996,'' the editors said.

Asked by Quinn what smart growth is, how it benefits the environment, and what are its downsides, the editors explained that smart growth tries to concentrate development in cities and towns, avoid sprawl, save open space and ''minimize automobile traffic and its pollution in urban centers by including stores, residences and schools in neighborhoods, resulting in more walking, bicycle riding and mass transit usage than in a typical suburban environment.''

Advocates maintain that smart growth initiatives ''create a unique sense of community and place, give people more transportation, employment and housing choices, and equitably distribute the cost and benefits of development while preserving and enhancing natural beauty, cultural resources and public health,'' said the editors. Crediting the Smart Growth Network for much of urban revitalization in many metropolitan areas in the past 14 years, thanks to planners’ focus on ''livability, sustainability and preservation of open space,'' the editors write, ''Communications channels facilitated via the Smart Growth Network enable the successes and failures of previous smart growth initiatives to be learning tools for planning new ones.''

Still, smart growth has detractors, the editors note. In his Evaluating Criticism of Smart Growth paper last year, Canada’s independent Victoria Transport Policy Institute Executive Director Todd Litman looked at detractors' arguments. He found they come mostly from ''small government'' conservatives and libertarians, who ''criticize smart growth for infringing on freedom by instituting complicated layers of regulations over development plans, increasing traffic congestion and air pollution, reducing the affordability of urban housing while forcing locals out and creating undesirable levels of density, and requiring wasteful transit subsidies.'' He also found the environmental community ''somewhat divided.'' With population always up, the majority consider some development inevitable and ''embrace smart growth as a realistic lesser of possible evils,'' while a smaller segment questions whether any development ''is good for a given region’s natural system,'' the editors said, adding, ''But while such debates may rage on at universities and think tanks, smart growth is already becoming the standard lens through which development projects are judged in the majority of our metropolitan areas.''

Read Litman’s evaluation at www.vtpi.org/sgcritics.pdf.   5/1/2010

Resource(s): www.emagazine.com/

Sustainability Depends on Curbing Urban Sprawl, Resource Drain and Overall Waste

In a broad, multi-level campaign to make cities and megaregions greener, planners face the same task though in different dimensions – to ensure their sustainability and ability to ''help solve, rather than add to, the nation's environmental problems.''

Cities and their regions cover just about 3 percent of the Earth's surface, but use more than 75 percent of global resources, with this nation's ''over-reliance on the automobile'' contributing to its urban sprawl, pollution and ruinous congestion, writes Georgia Tech's Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development (CQGRD) Director Catherine L. Ross in The Wall Street Journal. Ross realized ''the breadth and depth of these sustainability problems and their threat to quality of life'' when the continuous Atlanta region's violation of the Clean Air Act precipitated its loss of federal transportation funds in 1998.

The following year, state lawmakers create the 13-county Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA), with a mission ''to expand transportation options, improve air quality and enhance land use,'' and then-Governor Roy Barnes appointed Ross as the agency’s first executive director. Within four years, Ross says, introduction of a regional express bus service in 11 of the region's 13 counties enabled large numbers of drivers to leave cars home, reducing traffic congestion and tailpipe emissions. At the same time, the GRTA also set requirements for air-quality monitoring and ''promoted urban infill projects such as Atlantic Station, a $2 billion brownfield development on a once-polluted steel-mill site in the heart of Atlanta.''

Part of a broader ''sustainable city'' idea, GRTA efforts aimed at mixed land uses, compact development, open space preservation and a variety of housing and transportation choices, including transit, cycling and walking. As other cities enter a similar track, Atlanta is continuing its remake with the $2.8-billion Atlanta Beltline redevelopment and parkland project, which ''will shape the way the city grows over the next 25 years and beyond.''

In megaregions – networks of cities and their adjacent areas, typically with at least 10 million people, linked by commerce, transportation and the environment – size and sprawl pose special challenges to sustainability. Ross urges planners ''to work across traditional jurisdictional lines'' on transportation, water and other infrastructure projects. ''They’ll need to link green-belt and open spaces to assist in conservation. And they’ll need to combine forces in carbon reduction programs and in developing rail and transit,'' she writes, driving her main point. ''In this way, megaregions can help solve, rather than add to, the nation's environmental problems.''   5/1/2010

Resource(s): http://online.wsj.com/

First-Ever Joint DOT-EPA Auto Mileage and Tailpipe Emission Standards a Win-Win

Among things undoable until last year has been a policy reorientation toward new socioeconomic and environmental realities such as climate change, a challenge federal agencies are now addressing comprehensively and together – most recently through tougher mileage and tailpipe emissions rules for cars and light trucks.

Following President Obama's directive last May, the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have jointly raised the respective mileage for new cars and light trucks from 27.5 mpg and 23.5 mpg, gradually to about 39 mpg and 30 mpg between 2012 and 2016, with the overall fleet-wide average set at 34.1 mpg for the 2016 model year.

At the same time, the rules limit tailpipe emissions to an average 250 grams (8.75 ounces) of carbon monoxide (CO2) a mile per vehicle. If such tailpipe CO2 cuts were already possible otherwise than by reducing car fuel use, notes CNN Money senior writer Peter Valdes-Dapena, the new mileage rules would require the industry to reach a combined average of 35.5 mpg for the 2016 model-year fleet.

''These historic new standards set ambitious, but achievable, fuel economy requirements for the automotive industry that will also encourage new and emerging technologies. We will be helping American motorists save money at the pump, while putting less pollution in the air,'' stressed DOT Secretary Ray LaHood at a joint press event with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. ''This is a significant step towards cleaner air and energy efficiency, and an important example of how our economic and environmental priorities go hand-in-hand,'' said Administrator Jackson. ''By working together with the industry and capitalizing on our capacity for innovation, we've developed a clean cars program that is a win for automakers and drivers, a win for innovators and entrepreneurs, and a win for our planet.''

Enforced by DOT's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and EPA, the rules will reduce CO2 emissions by about 960 million metric tons over the lifetime of targeted vehicles, a reduction tantamount to taking 50 million cars and light trucks off the road in 2030. Correspondingly, they will also save about 1.8 billion barrels of oil and promise the average buyer of a 2016 model-year vehicle a net saving of $3,000 as the upfront costs are offset by lower fuel costs over the lifetime of the vehicle.

Expected to cost the industry about $52 billion – both in engine, transmission, tire and other upgrades and in new hybrid technologies – and to raise the price of a 2012 vehicle by $434 and of a 2016 one by $926, reports Associated Press writer Ken Thomas, the rules will generate some $240 billion in eventual consumer savings.

Some in the auto market exaggerate consumer burdens. ''Under these new mandates, the price of new cars and light trucks will rise significantly, meaning fewer Americans will be able to buy the new vehicles of their choice,'' assumed National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) 2010 Chairman Ed Tonkin, a Portland, Oregon car dealer. In contrast, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers President and CEO Dave McCurdy, a former seven-term Ohio Democratic Congressman, said his group of 11 domestic and foreign companies – including Chrysler, Ford, GM, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Toyota, BMW, Daimler, Jaguar, Porsche and Volkswagen – supports the unified national mileage and emissions standards replacing the requirements and targets set separately so far not only by the DOT and EPA, but also by California and states that follow its example. ''America needs a roadmap to reduce dependence on foreign oil and (to reduce) greenhouse gases, and only the federal government can play this role,'' he said. ''The national program announced today makes sense for consumers, for government policymakers and for automakers.''

Feeling vindicated on the issue at last, environmentalists make the same points. ''Because of these standards,'' said the Union of Concerned Scientists' Clean Vehicles Program Senior Engineer Jim Kliesh, ''Americans will drive vehicles that save them money at the pump, cut the country’s oil dependence and produce a lot less global warming pollution.''   5/1/2010

Resource(s): www.allbusiness.com/ ; www.lubbockonline.com/

New Poll Shows Americans Strongly Support Public Transportation

A new national poll conducted for Transportation for America, Smart Growth America, and the Natural Resources Defense Council shows that American voters overwhelmingly support broader access to public transportation and safe walking and biking. The poll shows strong support for increased transportation options, and accountability for future spending, across both geographic areas and political lines. More than four-in-five voters (82 percent) say that ''the United States would benefit from an expanded and improved transportation system,'' that includes rail and buses. This view is held by an overwhelming majority of voters in every part of the country. Even in rural America, 79 percent of voters agreed with the statement, despite much lower use of public transportation compared to urban Americans.

“In small towns and big cities alike, Americans are saying loudly and clearly that their lives would be better, and their nation stronger, if we had world-class public transportation and more options for walking and bicycling,'' said Geoff Anderson, President of Smart Growth America. ''If Americans themselves were crafting the transportation bill,'' Anderson said, ''we would see a doubling of the share for public transportation; an ironclad system of accountability for restoring existing roads and bridges before simply building more of them; and a strong commitment to making all our streets safe enough for kids to bicycle to school or so seniors can walk to nearby restaurants or the drug store.''

Read more about the poll findings, including a detailed presentation on the findings at the link below.   5/1/2010

Resource(s): http://t4america.org/resources/2010survey

More TIGER Grants Likely in the Next Transportation Bill

As she works on ''a transformative transportation bill that will help reduce pollution and make America more secure,'' Senate Environment and Public Work Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer is looking at the innovative Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Grant Program as a model for putting more money in transit and multimodal projects.

At her committee hearing on ''Opportunities to Improve Energy Security and the Environment through Transportation Policy,'' Senator Boxer dubbed the future bill MAP-21, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, and asked Deputy Secretary of Transportation John D. Porcari for help in drafting its TIGER-like language. He called the TIGER program crucial for federal efforts to shift more freight off roads to reduce congestion, fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions, and promised the department's cooperation with the committee, confirming that ''the TIGER grants point the way to the future in intermodal transportation.''

Part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), notes Environment and Energy online reporter Josh Voorhees, the TIGER grants drew requests for almost $60 billion, with the U.S. DOT awarding the available $1.5 billion to 51 winners from 41 states. Transportation advocates have applauded the program and lobbied lawmakers to augment it with additional funds through several jobs bills unrolled this year.

In extensive research-based testimony before Senator Boxer's committee, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Federal Transportation Policy Director Deron Lovaas restated the need for more effective distribution of transportation dollars. He also highlighted the links between transportation and land use. ''Government policies need to be revamped to encourage – rather than impede – efficient development patterns, and eligibility of municipalities for certain federal transportation funds should be conditioned on liberalization of rules to meet market demand,'' he said, concerned about ''a mismatch between what the marketplace provides and changing consumer preferences.'' Citing research that shows increased demand for easier non-car access to everything, he stressed, ''Merely removing barriers to mixed-use development and providing incentives for regional and city planning agencies to plan for more efficient land use could save more than three million barrels of oil in 2020.''

Read testimony transcripts at the link below.   3/25/2010

Resource(s): http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_id=6e57e1bd-802a-23ad-4

Community Economic Recovery May Demand Unique New Rules

By Jon Hockenyos
Reprinted from Citiwire.net

While the first green shoots of recovery appear to coincide with spring’s arrival, the economic landscape remains bleak across much of the nation. In city after city, the combination of lost jobs, declining wages, and falling property values has created havoc, yielding foreclosures, unemployment, and bankruptcy.

As with any recession, the full impact on the public sector often lags, meaning that it may be some time before many cities (and states) return to fiscal health. As a result, tough choices have to be made at the unpleasant juncture of higher taxes, reduced services, and increased fees.

Cyclical recovery inevitably will occur. But a more fundamental shift appears to be at work. Permanent structural changes in the economy mean that growth, when it does occur, will tend to concentrate in communities with certain characteristics. And the critical traits are shifting. We’re accused to economic development decisions focused largely on corporate relocation and expansion, with cost considerations the driving force and the competition almost entirely domestic.

Today, while the battle with other communities, regions, and nations has never been fiercer, there are a variety of additional factors at work. Among them are:

*globalization (both of production and increasingly of consumption);

*evolving demographics (including the aging of the population and growing diversity among immigrant groups);

* the rising use of technology in non-technology industries (such as the medical sector);

*the emerging role of the much-discussed ''creative class,'' (who have flexibility in choosing where they live and work); and

*shifts in consumer preferences (reflected in demand for specific goods and services, recreation, transportation choice, and land use patterns)

The translation is that the local ball bearing factory not only isn't going to expand any time soon, but may well be either shutting down or permanently shifting production overseas. Set against this backdrop, an economic development program that relies on free land near the Interstate, some job training, and a ''pro-business'' environment, just isn't going to do the trick.

So what is a community to do?

In the short term, the simple answer has to be retention and expansion of the existing economic base, with a focus on capital availability. One of the most pervasive effects of the real estate bust has been the impact of falling asset values on lending, especially for small business. If the value of a piece of property is uncertain (a common condition right now), it becomes extremely challenging to use that property as collateral for a loan. (It's hard to do a deal with a loan-to-value ratio much below 70-80 percent, let alone the 25-50 percent level often put forward today).

The situation is exacerbated by the regulatory environment under which banks presently operate, where the directive is to bring their portfolios back into ''balance.'' This means, among other things, that they must reduce the level of underperforming real estate loans, rather than make new loans in an uncertain environment. In theory, programs like those offered by the federal Small Business Administration (SBA), which provides a guarantee to banks for certain commercial loans, can fill some of the gap. Even then the requirements can be stiff, however, as banks participating in the program still often require more than 30 percent equity and the SBA itself can impose unworkable wealth standards for the ultimate borrower – for example a financial statement that indicates a net worth equal to 125 percent of the amount of the loan.

The bottom line is that there is a severe small business credit crunch, and that jobs and tax base are being foregone as a result.

How can a community try to correct this situation? Two unconventional ideas come to mind. First, it might be possible to form a consortium of local (ideally, locally-owned) banks who could agree on some common standards for valuing real estate for collateral purposes (perhaps some figure at, or close to, the appraised value of the property for tax purposes). This is a departure from standard practice, as the ''market'' value of the property is generally considered the appropriate measure. However, right now there is no market in many places, and the absence of transactions makes an accurate measure of the market value impossible much of the time. In that absence, the only other standard appears to be taxable value. While this makes analytical sense, it likely will cause regulatory issues, which might be mitigated by the second idea: namely, to have municipalities and/or other local jurisdictions provide credit support to local borrowers. This could take a number of forms, from establishing a dedicated loan-guarantee fund to going so far as to extend the full faith and credit of the municipality itself under certain conditions.

Neither of these ideas is even close to standard operating procedure, and should only be implemented after careful consideration and refinement. By the same token, they ideally will only be temporary – lasting only until a functioning market returns underwriting to the hands of individual institutions and limits public finance to more narrowly defined public purposes.

But desperate times may well call for desperate measures. And by most accounts, conditions are quite desperate in many communities across the nation.   3/19/2010

Resource(s): http://citiwire.net/

To Reach True Sustainability, America Needs New Sense of Environmentalism

While American policy, industry and public trends increasingly coalesce around ''green'' ethics, New York Times Freakonomics blog's contributor James McWilliams wonders whether those resource conservation and energy efficiency efforts matter much, given long-shaped ''external realities'' and sprawl habits. ''After all,'' he writes, ''step beyond the privileged confines of our ever-greening abodes, and you'll discover that most American cities are, by design, ecological train wrecks.''

His own home in an ''environmentally conscious enclave'' of Austin, Texas, got a five-star rating from the Austin Green Building Program, but the city's overall blueprint contradicts true sustainability. ''Homes are large, if not steroidal, by the standards of densely packed urban centers like New York or San Francisco,'' he reports. ''Cars are a necessity. Sidewalks are maddeningly intermittent. Bicycle lanes and bus routes are haphazard. Sprawling 'house farms' and strip malls ring the city. Air conditioners run full blast for seven months. Traffic snarls. We have no light rail or subway.''

Generally, these structural inefficiencies elude individual control, though Austin voted twice against light rail, he notes, but they constitute ''a troubling context'' for personal green decisions, such as purchase of a LEED-certified home. ''Sprawl started to become ingrained in the American character over two centuries ago and, as a result, middle America has inherited cities that value expansion over intensification,'' he observes, quoting New Yorker staff writer David Owen, author of Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability. Agreeing with the author that ''We have built our country, as we have built it, and we’re obviously not going to tear it down and start over,'' McWilliams sees part of the solution in reconsidering what it means to be an environmentalist. ''Tree huggers, organic farmers, and green builders will always play necessary roles in raising environmental awareness,'' he points out. ''But if Owens is right – if our only real hope is to live smaller, live closer, and drive less – future environmentalists will include city pioneers who make the urban core a more desirable place to live. Police officers, school teachers, pastry shop owners, landscape architects, urban planners, coffee freaks and policy geeks – these people will be the real heroes of twenty-first century environmentalism.''   3/19/2010

Resource(s): http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/

ASLA Helps Congress Craft Streetscaping Resolution

Congressman Steve Cohen (TN) has introduced H.Con.Res. 240, a resolution designating the fourth week of April as National Streetscaping Week. The measure recognizes the benefits of streetscaping to homes, businesses, and communities across the country. ASLA worked with Rep. Cohen on crafting this legislation that highlights the myriad of benefits of streetscaping, including: creating local green jobs; helping reduce energy costs for consumers; managing stormwater; reducing air pollution by sequestering harmful carbon emissions, creating safer streets and neighborhoods through traffic calming designs, and a host of other benefits.

More importantly, the resolution helps to highlight the work of landscape architects. Landscape architects design streetscaping projects and other green infrastructure projects to make our communities more economically viable, more attractive, and environmentally healthier for their residents.

A host of allied organizations have joined ASLA in supporting National Streetscaping Week, including, American Rivers, American Nursery & Landscape Association, American Public Works Association, International Society of Arboriculture, America Walks, Alliance for Community Trees, T4 America, Reconnecting America, Smart Growth America, America Bikes, National Parks and Recreation Association and the Irrigation Association.

ASLA applauds Congressman Cohen for introducing this measure and working to raise awareness of the importance of streetscaping and green infrastructure in creating desirable places to live. Learn more about the resolution at the link below.   3/8/2010

Resource(s): http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hc111-240

Rail~Volution 2010: Call for Proposals

Rail~Volution has issued a call for proposals for its annual conference scheduled for October 18-21, 2010. This conference is for passionate practitioners - people from all perspectives who believe in the role of land use and transit as equal partners in the quest for greater livability and greater communities. The success of the conference depends on the quality and diversity of presentations. Rail~Volution is soliciting your story-sharing expertise, experience, success and challenges.

Never before has Rail~Volution's mission of building livable communities with transit aligned so perfectly with the federal agenda. Thanks to President Obama's commitment to creating sustainable communities, we truly have the opportunity to work in partnership with policy makers at all levels to grow more livable places -- regardless of their size, shape, demographics, locations, or economies. These ground-breaking partnerships are setting the stage for the next decade at all levels, with commitments to transit resources, renewable energy, climate change, and sustainable housing and communities.

Join organizers by sharing your stories and lessons learned, your information on new policies and legislation, your wisdom gained through innovative tools and current best practices. Help conference participants understand the most important elements of great places, steps they can take to create greater livability in their own communities, and the essential public and private activities that contribute to successful change.

Entry deadline is March 31, 2010.   3/8/2010

Resource(s): http://www.railvolution.com

HUD Requests Comments on Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program

A top priority of President Barack Obama is to build economically competitive, healthy, opportunity-rich communities. In the 2010 Budget, Congress provided a total of $150 million to HUD for a Sustainable Communities Initiative to improve regional planning efforts that integrate housing and transportation decisions, and increase the capacity to improve land use and zoning. Of that total, approximately $100 million will be available for regional integrated planning initiatives through HUD’s Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program.

As part of a commitment to listening and learning, HUD is providing an Advance Notice with a description and framework of the grant program for public comment. HUD is seeking input from the public, including State and local governments, regional bodies, community development entities, and a broad range of other stakeholders on how the Program should be structured in order to have the most meaningful impact on sustainable regional planning.

Comments can be made through March 12, 2010.   3/6/2010

Resource(s): http://portal.hud.gov/

Harvard Economist Urges Policymakers to Root out Anti-Urban Bias

''The billions of dollars being spent on infrastructure across the nation provide an opportunity to plan for a better America, but politics-as-usual favors sprawl over city,'' warns Harvard University Economics Professor Edward L. Glaeser, stressing that ''this anti-urban bias of national policies must end.'' Disadvantaged by 60 years of federal subsidies for highways, home ownership and a school system ''that creates strong incentives for many parents to leave city borders,'' Glaeser wrote in a Boston Globe op-ed column, cities should now worry ''about the Senate’s fondness for using highway spending to fight recession.''

Though Brown University Assistant Professor of Economics Nathaniel Baum-Snow has found that each federally funded highway passing ''through a central city reduces its population by about 18 percent,'' Glaeser points out that the current Senate jobs bill increases transportation funding by more than $30 billion in the next two years. Since spending on trains will not provide equal benefits for cities, where density makes mobility modes such as walking easy, urban advocates ''would do better to either reduce highway subsidies or to balance that spending with more funding for urban schools.''

The professor calls for a similar mindset change regarding homeownership, the subsidizing of which ''is also anti-urban,'' because cities rely on apartments. He cites statistics. In Boston, 62 percent of homes are rented; in Wellesley, some 10 miles southwest, 87 percent of homes are owner-occupied. Nationwide, more than 85 percent of units in multi-unit city buildings are rented, while owners occupy the same share of suburban single-family houses. ''Subsidizing homeownership, through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the home mortgage interest deduction, lures people out of cities,'' the professor writes. ''It is time to lower the million-dollar limit on the home mortgage interest deduction and to gradually reduce federal support for mortgage lending.''

And with many suburban parents motivated by good schools, and with efforts to improve urban schools well under way, Glaeser thinks it would help cities if the national school system turned toward the more uniform French model or toward state vouchers, which would let children enroll anywhere regardless of where they live. ''The forces of history have created a moment where the right leadership could make America less anti-urban,'' Professor Glaeser writes. ''The housing crisis, a renewed interest in infrastructure, fear of global warming, and the education reform movement could help bring about fairer policies for cities.''

Noting that the nation’s five least dense states received $1,100 per capita in federal recovery grants last year, in contrast to $561 per capita sent to the five densest, the professor stresses that President Obama ''can change the tilt toward low density.'' In conclusion, he spotlights the ultimate public good. ''The most urban president since Teddy Roosevelt, Obama needs to fight for cities, not just as a matter of justice, but because cities, and the creativity that comes when humans connect and learn from each other in dense areas, are the best hope for the country.''   3/5/2010

Resource(s): www.boston.com/

Dept. of Interior Launches WaterSMART Initiative

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed a Secretarial order establishing a new water sustainability strategy for the United States on February 22. Salazar showcased the Department of the Interior’s WaterSMART Initiative at a press conference featuring a geospatial presentation on water supply and demand in the high-tech operations center at the Department’s headquarters. The ''SMART'' in WaterSMART stands for ''Sustain and Manage America’s Resources for Tomorrow.''

''The federal government’s existing water policies and programs simply aren’t built for 21st century pressures on water supplies,'' Salazar said. ''Population growth. Climate change. Rising energy demands. Environmental needs. Aging infrastructure. Risks to drinking water supplies. Those are just some of the challenges.''

He noted that the 2011 budget proposed by President Obama for the Department of the Interior doubles the current enacted 2010 appropriations for water programs to move the initiative forward. It includes $72.9 million for the WaterSMART program, which is a total increase of $36.4 million over 2010.

''Local entities – water districts, water users, and local governments – have demonstrated the greatest foresight and leadership in recent years,” added Salazar. ''I believe it is time for the federal government to join the movement toward a more sustainable water future.''

As part of his order, Salazar announced that he is directing the Department to increase available water supply for agricultural, municipal, industrial, and environmental uses in the western United States by 350,000 acre-feet by 2012.

Salazar noted that stakeholders from the seven Colorado River Basin states will participate in a WaterSMART workshop on Februrary 23 in Nevada to help frame the new initiative and to discuss issues such as how to adjust to the anticipated 20% reduction in water flow in the Colorado River due to climate change. Assistant Secretary Castle, who made the geospatial presentation today, is convening the Nevada workshop.

The WaterSMART Secretarial Order has several parts, all of which are focused on improving water conservation and helping water and resource managers make wise decisions about water use.   2/22/2010

Resource(s): www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/2010_02_22_release.cfm

List of Most and Least Affordable Cities Released

CNN Money has released its latest list of America’s five most affordable and five most unaffordable housing markets. Affordability was measured as the percentage of people who could afford the median price of a home based on the region’s median income. Indianapolis, Indiana, took the top spot as the nation’s most affordable housing market, with a median home price of $106,000 and a median income of $68,100. Detroit, Dayton, Youngstown, and Akron rounded out the list of most affordable housing markets.

New York was ranked most unaffordable in the nation with a median home price of $425,000 with a median income of only $64,800. Also on the unaffordable list: San Francisco, Honolulu, Santa Ana, and Los Angeles.   2/20/2010

Resource(s): http://money.cnn.com/

Survey Finds Strong Support for High-Speed Rail

Nearly nine in ten (88 percent) Americans support the idea of using high-speed rail travel for long-distance travel within the United States, according to a survey conducted by America THINKS for the HNTB Corporation. ''The time has come for high-speed rail,'' said Peter Gertler, HNTB high-speed rail services chair. ''Stimulus money is seeding initial projects. It’ll be up to those of us in the industry – working in partnership with transportation agencies and elected officials – to keep up the momentum.''

In addition to the high level of support found for high-speed rail projects, more than four in five (83 percent) Americans agree that public transit and high-speed rail infrastructure should receive a larger share of federal funding than they do now. There was wide consensus that building additional highway capacity was not a realistic solution to solving the nation's long term transportation needs. The survey notes that the Department of Transportation under the Obama administration has been shifting funding to help develop mass-transit projects and has come up with new criteria to base a project's worthiness not only on cost considerations, but also on the ability to improve the quality of life for residents within the project's community.   2/18/2010

Resource(s): www.hntb.com/

Department of Transportation Releases 2009 Record of Accomplishments

The U.S. Department of Transportation has released a report on what the agency considers to be its best accomplishments of 2009. The list includes items such as safety, restoring economic health, promoting sustainability, and livability. Each section is given a quote by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and breaks down specific accomplishments for each of the above categories.

Specific accomplishments include creating a safety council, campaigns to reduce impaired driving, new aviation standards, the cash for clunkers program, improving fuel efficiency, restoring Suisun Bay, and encouraging transit oriented development.   2/12/2010

Resource(s): http://www.dot.gov/documents/2009dotaccomplishments.htm

HUD Secretary: Nation Must Debunk 'Drive to Qualify' Myth and Connect Housing to Jobs

Communities nationwide may inscribe various local meanings to ''sustainability,'' said Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan at the 9th Annual New Partners Smart Growth Conference in Seattle, but their common question is how to ''meet the needs of today without compromising the futures of their children and grandchildren.''

Outlining HUD efforts to ''tie the quality and location of housing to broader opportunities such as access to good jobs, quality schools, and safe streets,'' and to reverse frequent perception of the federal government as ''a barrier to smart growth rather than a partner in smart growth,'' Secretary Donovan said it’s no coincidence the sudden 2008 recession often hit hardest the neighborhoods farther away from transportation, good schools and economic possibilities. ''For all the implications of 'sprawl' – from job loss and economic decline, to alarming obesity, asthma rates and segregation, to the loss of habitat and global warming, to our dangerous dependence on foreign oil – all of them are driven by one fundamental problem: The mismatch between where we live and where we work,'' he told a session moderated by a Smart Growth pioneer, former EPA Development, Community and Environment Division (DCED) head and now District of Columbia Office of Planning Director Harriet Tregoning.

''Whatever else we do to address these problems, America must find a way to connect housing to jobs.'' With the average household spending over half of its budget on housing and transportation, and with businesses unable to compete globally without workers who can afford to live nearby, the secretary observed, few of the recently numerous market failures ''have been as catastrophic or had as many economic and environmental consequences as 'Drive to Qualify,''' a blunder facilitated by real estate agents and mortgage lenders.

Since ''the beltways and highways that drove investment away from the urban core and connected employment centers outside city limits were built by the federal government,'' the federal government must now rectify the results through a ''New Federalism Attuned to Place.'' President Obama, the secretary continued, has already moved ahead – by signing the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) last year to create jobs and brace the economy, by ordering the first agency review of all federal policies since the early 1980s to see whether they encourage or obstruct ''locally-driven, integrated and place-conscious solutions,'' and by requiring agencies to forge unprecedented-scale partnerships.

One such partnership is the HUD-DOT-EPA sustainability partnership. Rooted in six Livability Principles, to provide more housing and transportation choices and to lay the foundation for a new economy, the partnership reflects the federal government’s determination to speak ''with one voice'' on housing, transportation and environmental policy. The task isn’t to tell communities ''what to do or how to do it,'' but to offer them the resources and tools to help them realize their own visions for achieving the outcomes we all want, Secretary Donovan said, announcing a new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities as “the center-point of all HUD’s sustainability efforts.” Overseen by HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims – a Washington State native, three-term King County executive, strong advocate of Smart Growth, and the department’s ''Designated Silo Buster'' – the office, with $200 million this year, will be led by Director Shelley Poticha, formerly with the Transportation for America and Reconnecting America nonprofits.

Inviting multi-jurisdictional and multi-sector partnerships and consortia to compete for the office’s planning and challenge grants, the secretary urged their regions to build the capacity to integrate not only economic development, land use, transportation, and water infrastructure investments, but also workforce development with transit-oriented development.

Among the office’s new tools, currently under development, will be one to measure where a home is located in relation to jobs, schools and transportation – an ''Affordability Index'' that will affect many HUD formulas to ensure distribution of federal money according to ''the true affordability of a home.'' An expanded Energy Efficient Mortgage and a new Transportation-Efficient Mortgage will be based on the fundamental premise that markets work best when consumers and communities get sound information, and that ''by making information on utility and transportation costs widely available, we can drive a much broader scale of change than government ever could alone, ensuring that we never again foster a culture of 'Drive to Qualify.'''

Committed to change, Secretary Donovan said he sees his department’s entire budget of nearly $44 billion as bound to advance sustainability, intending to use its every dollar ''to put more power in the hands of communities and more choices in the hands of consumers,'' especially those in older industrial city cores, where recession voided 15 years of revitalization gains in just months. ''The sharp decline after years of progress was magnified in minority communities – where African Americans and Latinos have experienced not only a drop in homeownership rates and lost billions in wealth, but also suffered disproportionate declines in public health, educational and economic opportunities,'' the secretary stressed. ''These developments point to a broader challenge facing localities: that you can’t have a truly sustainable community if you promote segregated development patterns and concentrated poverty.''

HUD’s new Choice Neighborhood demonstration will soon commence to prove that neighborhoods can achieve a new kind of sustainability, ''bringing to bear private capital and mixed-use, mixed income tools'' to transform all their housing. As this requires revision of HUD’s fair housing policies, largely unchanged since the 1968 passage of the Fair Housing Act, HUD Assistant Secretary of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity John Trasvina, in consultation with Deputy Secretary Sims, is ''adopting a broader definition of fair housing that includes not only the racial makeup of housing, but also its orientation to opportunity – to public transportation and job centers.'' Calling the new approach ''Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing,'' Secretary Donovan said he and Deputy Sims have instructed Director Poticha to work with Assistant Secretary of Community Planning and Development Mercedes Marquez ''toward that end as we develop HUD’s new Consolidated Plan.''

Noting that the ''sprawling of the American landscape was decades in the making – its remaking won’t happen overnight,'' and that he and Deputy Sims bring different perspectives to the issues – he from the east coast and the New York City level; the deputy, from the West and the King County level – Secretary Donovan highlighted their shared viewpoint. ''One thing that drives us both is a belief that when you choose a home, you don’t just choose a home. You also choose transportation to work and to school. You choose public safety for your children. You choose a community – and the choices available in that community,'' he said. ''A belief that our children’s futures should never be determined – or their choices limited – by their zip code.''   2/4/2010

Resource(s): http://portal.hud.gov/ ; http://7thspace.com/

DOT-HUD-EPA Partnership Looks to Boost Investment in Smart Growth

The first administration to make smart growth a federal policy, President Obama entrusted its implementation to the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which created an interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities last June and now work to inject some $667 million more into the economic foundation for a ''cleaner and greener'' America.

With nothing more important now than creating jobs, wrote DOT Secretary Ray LaHood, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in a Seattle Times guest column at the start of the 9th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference, February 4-6, ''(w)e need communities where residents have easy access to jobs; where there are clean, reliable options for transportation to work and school; where housing is affordable and energy efficient; and where clean and renewable energy is abundant.''

To help that happen, they wrote, HUD is launching its Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, with $140 million in planning and challenge grants for innovation, and with funds for a new program to lower homeowner utility bills by allowing inclusion of home-energy upgrade costs in mortgages. Simultaneously, DOT is proposing $527 million to let its Office of Livable Communities fund low-income neighborhood transit expansion or similar initiatives, and offer state and local transportation agencies grants for more transportation choices that spur economic development. And the EPA Office of Sustainable Communities is strengthening its work with HUD, DOT, state and local officials ''to ensure that unprecedented investments in clean-water infrastructure support existing communities, create jobs, protect vital resources like the Puget Sound, and strengthen our country’s foundation for prosperity.''

Though the government ''can set the pace for change and provide critical funding support,'' LaHood, Donovan and Jackson pointed out, the initiative is not the government’s alone. ''We are looking to emulate Seattle and regions across America that for years have provided leadership and support, innovative ideas and partnerships, and a long-term commitment to building livable, economically competitive communities,'' they stressed. ''Working together, we can provide consumers and communities with the sustainable housing and transportation choices they need to build a stronger future for our country.''   2/3/2010

Resource(s): http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/

Federal Grants for High-Speed Rail Promise Jobs and 21st Century Transportation System

In ''an absolute game-changer for American transportation,'' the $8 billion from the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program has now been awarded to jump-start long envisioned and delayed rail projects, said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. LaHood made the statement as he welcomed President Obama and Vice President Biden in Tampa, Florida, where they announced $1.25 billion for a 168-mile-per-hour Tampa-Orlando line. Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia will receive awards, LaHood said. ''In addition to 13 corridor investments, we are also awarding several grants for improvement projects and planning. These efforts on existing routes and emerging corridors will lay the groundwork for future high-speed and intercity rail development.''

The highest grant, $2.25 billion, will spur construction of a 220-mile-per-hour Los Angeles-San Francisco line. Other top grants to boost regional connections will go to following rail projects: Eugene-Portland-Seattle-Vancouver, B.C. – $598 million; St. Louis-Chicago – $1.1 billion; Madison-Milwaukee-Chicago – $822 million; Detroit/Pontiac-Chicago – $244 million; Cleveland-Cincinnati – $400 million; Charlotte-Richmond-Washington, D.C. – $620 million; the Baltimore-Boston corridor – $112 million; and other Northeast corridors – $371 million.

Secretary LaHood pledged that passenger rail will become more efficient across the country, with high-speed rail offering competitive trip times, reducing both congestion and carbon emissions on key inter-city routes, and creating jobs. ''High-speed rail will create jobs now and for the foreseeable future,'' he elaborated on his department’s web page, citing commitment from more than 30 companies to launch or expand rail-related production if they win contracts for portions of the grant money. Those will be jobs in ''planning rail networks; designing, producing, an laying miles and miles of track; building, installing, maintaining, and operating equipment; constructing or upgrading stations, tunnels, and bridges; and operating the routes,'' the secretary wrote, stressing, ''And let’s be clear about this: that $8 billion will do its job-creation work right here in America.''   1/28/2010

Resource(s): www.whitehouse.gov/

Department of State Seeks American Corporate Engagement at World Urban Forum

Preparing its agenda for the United Nations’ fifth World Urban Forum (WUF V) in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, March 22-26, the Department of State expects the American contingent to include many private-sector participants, especially from companies engaged in urban planning, sustainable architecture, information technology, economic development or smart growth. More than half of the world’s population already lives in cities, with 70 percent projected by 2050, says the Department of State in an invitation to private sector, stressing the need ''to make urban growth environmentally sustainable, socially equitable, and economically valuable.''

Focused this year on the theme The Right to the City – Bridging the Urban Divide, the forum is ''a premier international opportunity to discuss business applications, successes, and lessons learned'' among governmental, non-governmental and corporate decision-makers addressing ''challenges and opportunities presented by urban development on the global scale.'' Speaking to the 2008 Nanjing forum, Brazilian Consul General Marcos Caramuru de Paiva told delegates all these challenges and opportunities demand joint action. ''Our home planet is only one,'' he said. ''We change addresses but consume the same globalized products, we travel the same way, we use the same natural resources and we develop together.''   1/27/2010

Resource(s): www.state.gov/

Study Says Poverty Increasing in Suburbs

A new study by the Brookings Institute concludes that America’s suburbs have become home to the largest and fastest-growing poor population in the country. Between 2000 and 2008, poor populations increased in the suburbs by 25 percent, five times that seen in the inner city and smaller towns. Suburbs in cities with a heavy emphasis on manufacturing, especially those in the Midwest, saw the largest increase in poverty within the suburbs, while those in the Northeast actually experiencing a slight decline. Sunbelt cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix were some of the worst hit by the recession. Because of high unemployment rates in these areas, the report’s authors believe that the Sunbelt will experience the greatest increase in poverty over the next two years.   1/20/2010

Resource(s): www.brookings.edu/

Blog Examines Cities with Low Car-Ownership Rates

An article on the Human Transit blog looks at the three common factors that determine which cities in the United States have a lower rate of car-ownership. The author, public transit planning consultant Jarrett Walker, notes that different areas of cities may have different rates of car ownership and that it can be difficult to gain an actual picture of what is going on based on city-wide statistics. However, even with this caveat, three major factors can be determined in car-ownership rates: high rates of poverty, dominate universities, and the age when the majority of the city was built out.

The most common factor was age. Older cities often were built in a era before the automobile and continue to sustain an urban fabric that is unfriendly to automobiles. In addition, higher rates of poverty and established universities often are found in these older areas. The author notes that because older cities were designed for pedestrians, they exhibit a lower rate of car-ownership and that ''density + design'' might serve as a solution to getting more people out of their cars.   1/20/2010

Resource(s): www.humantransit.org/

Suburbs as Art

Christoph Gielen is a German artist who has a fascination with the perfect geometries of America’s suburbs, creating an exhibit piece documenting the most artistic among them. His art consists of high-quality aerial photographs of America’s suburbs, along with commentary on how artificial and unsustainable the suburbs really are. When viewed from a helicopter, it is an interesting contradiction to see highly rational geometric suburbs within the context of unplanned and unnatural sprawl.

Gielen notes, ''I hope to trigger a reevaluation of our built environment and the methods of its development, to ask: What can be considered a viable, ecologically sound growth process?''

A slideshow of his work can be seen at the link below.   1/14/2010

Resource(s): www.metropolismag.com/

PBS Series Looks at National Planning

Professor Robert Fishman, an urban design and planning professor at the University of Michigan, writes about the impact of national planning in the United States for Blue Print America a documentary airing on PBS that tries to understand the future of transportation and urban planning in the United States.

In his article, “1808 – 1908 – 2008: National Planning for America,” Professor Fishman notes that it is a commonly held misconception that urban planning is not conducted on a national scale in the United States. Instead, Fishman argues, national planning has played a prominent role in America’s urban history and that the federal government itself was re-created after the Articles of Confederation to allow greater participation in infrastructure planning. The two main pieces of legislation Fishman discusses in this article are the 1808 Gallatin Plan that was responsible for the creation of federally backed roads and canals; and Theodore Roosevelt’s 1908 set of conservation and transportation initiatives that, in Fisherman’s words, ''guided the 20th century.''

Fishman’s article is an interesting look at the history of what has been traditionally been a behind-the-scenes for in the United States. National planning has played a profound role in history—from providing cheap land and rail road access to farmers, to building the infrastructure that helped create the Sunbelt during the depths of the depression. Federal planning has been a tremendous force in the United States, and Fishman notes that it continues to be one of the major forces shaping local and state urban policy. He concludes his article by wondering what the future may hold, and who will rise up with the leadership necessary implement a bold new plan for America’s future.   1/8/2010

Resource(s): www.pbs.org/

Land Preservation Groups Benefitting from Real Estate Bust

Conservationist organizations around the United States are buying up land to set aside, often at a fraction of what the asking price was only a couple years ago. This article in The New York Times notes that the recession has provided a silver lining for conservationist groups that are setting aside land in perpetuity for parks, watershed protection, habitat conservation and open space. Many of the deals are done with banks eager to get bad assets off their books and willing to slash prices by more than half.

However, not everyone is happy with the deals conservation groups are getting. The article notes many towns are upset at the loss of potential revenue and failure of developers to follow through after investing staff time and energy to work out development plans. In the long run, Will Rogers of the Trust for Public Land notes, conservation of prime land will make communities more attractive for residents and help encourage future development.   12/31/2009

Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/

More Universities Offering Urban Sustainability Programs

A growing number of universities are offering graduate programs in urban sustainability. “We’ve seen a growth in programs that are more focused, either on a particular geographic area or on a discipline,” says Paul Rowland, executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. This article in The New York Times notes that the emphasis on urban sustainability reflects a realization that sustainability is necessary in both nature and the built environment.

''Too much of environmental planning and policy focuses on wilderness and rural areas,'' says Julian Agyeman, professor and chairman of the department of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University, ''yet most students’ lives are lived in the urban environment.'' Universities as varied as the University of Colorado and New York, City College have all developed programs to address urban sustainability. Students, the article notes, appreciate the wide range of disciplines attracted to urban sustainability programs and adapting wide fields of study like engineering, urban planning and public policy into a unified vision.   12/29/2009

Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/

Urban Planner Ranked Among Top 50 Jobs of 2010

U.S. News & World Report has ranked urban planning as one of the top 50 jobs for 2010 with expected strong growth over the following decade. The article notes that expanding population requires investment in transportation, affordable housing, and schools—all of which require planning. It is projected that the field will grow by 19 percent from 38,400 to 45,700 jobs.

The article also contains a break down of the profession and what urban planners do on a day-to-day basis. Work in the field can include working diplomatically with competing stakeholders to come up with viable solutions, inspecting development sites for potential problems, and working with geographical information software to analysis and predict urban growth patterns.   12/28/2009

Resource(s): www.usnews.com/

Study Finds Transit-Oriented Developments Often Have Underutilized Parking Space

Robert Cervero from the University of California Transportation Center and UC Berkeley examines the common problem of providing too much parking at transit-oriented development (TOD) in this expert blog spot at ReconnectingAmerica.org. Cervero notes that too much parking ''can drive up the cost of housing, consume valuable land near transit, and impose environmental costs such as water pollution from enlarged impervious surfaces.''

One reason for too much parking at TODs could be a reliance on parking generation figures from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), says the author. He notes that ITE standards assume car ownership rates typical in suburban settings and fail to take account of the transit-oriented context of TOD developments and that those individuals drawn to urban TOD living often get rid of their personal automobile.

Cervero´s study analyzed parking usage at 31 multi-family housing projects near rail stations in the East Bay of the San Francisco area and in Portland, Oregon. He found that TOD parking provided exceed peak demand by 25 to 30 percent and notes that peak parking provided in these areas met the ITE standard of 1.2 spaces per unit while actual trip generation were well below what ITE would have predicted, suggesting a greater number of residents utilized mass-transit.

The study found that parking was most needed at large-scale complexes far from the nearest transit station. For every 1,000 feet of walking distance from a transit station, parking requirements need 0.7 more parking spaces per dwelling unit. Apartments well-served by adjacent retail had direct access to transit platforms and with a short walking distance had the lowest peak parking levels. The author concludes that ITE parking standards should be more context-specific with an emphasis on car sharing at TODs instead of creating additional parking spaces.   12/21/2009

Resource(s): http://reconnectingamerica.org/posts/are-tods-over-parked

House Jobs Bill Provides $27.5B for Highways and $9.2B for Transit

“If the goal is to create jobs, invest in buses and rail rather than highways,” said the Boston-based US Public Interest Research Group’s (US PIRG’s) Senior Tax and Budget Policy Analyst Phineas Baxandall, commenting on the new $154-billion job stimulus bill. The bill takes $75 billion in leftover money from the bank-bailout fund to provide another $48 billion for “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects that could put workers on the job by April, $26.7 billion to help states and localities avoid public worker layoffs, and $79.4 billion to expand or extend several programs for the poor and unemployed.

As the House debated the bill, eventually passed by a 217 -212 vote, with all Republicans and 38 Democrats opposed, report Reuters writer Andy Sullivan and Christian Science Monitor writer Ron Scherer, the US PIRG, the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), Smart Growth America and other public interest groups continued their campaign for a larger share of funds to boost transit as generating two times more jobs than highway construction.

According to US PIRG Analyst Baxandall, each billion invested in public transportation creates 16,419 jobs per month, in contrast to 8,781 created by funding highways. A big investment in rail, said Reconnecting America President John Robert Smith could help employ jobless auto workers, since it “takes the same skill set to build an 80-foot passenger rail car as it does to build an automobile.”

With states having 9,500 shovel-ready road, bridge and transit projects, and with the construction industry reporting 19.4 percent unemployment last month, the House bill moves in the right direction, earmarking $27.5 billion for highways, and $9.2 billion for public transportation, including $800 million for Amtrak. It also provides $4.1 billion for school repair, $2 billion for local sewer and water system upgrades and $100 million for rural drinking-water systems, and $2 billion for public and rental housing improvements.

“We are on the road to recovery and we are there because this Congress made some very important and difficult decisions to take us there,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with President Obama applauding the House bill, which will be taken up by the Senate next month. “Some may think standing by and taking no action is the right approach,” he stressed in a statement, “but for the millions of Americans still out of work, inaction is unacceptable.”

See Reuters breakdown of the bill’s allocations at www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16131092.htm.   12/16/2009

Resource(s): www.reuters.com/ ; www.csmonitor.com/

Ecosystem, Vegetation Affect Intensity of Urban Heat Island Effect

NASA researchers studying urban landscapes have found that the intensity of the ''heat island'' created by a city depends on the ecosystem it replaced and on the regional climate. Urban areas developed in arid and semi-arid regions show far less heating compared with the surrounding countryside than cities built amid forested and temperate climates.

''The placement and structure of cities – and what was there before – really does matter,'' said Marc Imhoff, biologist and remote sensing specialist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. ''The amount of the heat differential between the city and the surrounding environment depends on how much of the ground is covered by trees and vegetation. Understanding urban heating will be important for building new cities and retrofitting existing ones.''

Goddard researchers including Imhoff, Lahouari Bounoua, Ping Zhang, and Robert Wolfe presented their findings on Dec. 16 in San Francisco at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

Scientists first discovered the heat island effect in the 1800s when they observed cities growing warmer than surrounding rural areas, particularly in summer.

Urban surfaces of asphalt, concrete, and other materials – also referred to as ''impervious surfaces'' – absorb more solar radiation by day. At night, much of that heat is given up to the urban air, creating a warm bubble over a city that can be as much as 1 to 3°C (2 to 5°F) higher than temperatures in surrounding rural areas.

The impervious surfaces of cities also lead to faster runoff from land, reducing the natural cooling effects of water on the landscape. More importantly, the lack of trees and other vegetation means less evapotranspiration – the process by which trees ''exhale'' water. Trees also provide shade, a secondary cooling effect in urban landscapes.

Using instruments from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites, as well as the joint U.S. Geological Survey-NASA satellite Landsat, researchers created land-use maps distinguishing urban surfaces from vegetation. The team then used computer models to assess the impact of urbanized land on energy, water, and carbon balances at Earth's surface.

When examining cities in arid and semi-arid regions – such as North Africa and the American Southwest – scientists found that they are only slightly warmer than surrounding areas in summer and sometimes cooler than surrounding areas in winter.

In the U.S., the summertime urban heat island (UHI) for desert cities like Las Vegas was 0.46°C lower than surrounding areas, compared to 10°C higher for cities like Baltimore. Globally, the differences were not as large, with a summertime UHI of -0.21°C for desert cities compared to +3.8°C for cities in forested regions.

In a quirk of surface heating, the suburban areas around desert cities are actually cooler than both the city center and the outer rural areas because the irrigation of lawns and small farms leads to more moisture in the air from plants that would not naturally grow in the region.

''If you build a city in an area that is naturally forested – such as Atlanta or Baltimore – you are making a much deeper alteration of the ecosystem,'' said Imhoff. ''In semi-arid areas with less vegetation – like Las Vegas or Phoenix -- you are making less of a change in the energy balance of the landscape.''

''The open question is: do changes in land cover and urbanization affect global temperatures and climate?'' Imhoff added. ''Urbanization is perceived as a relatively small effect, and most climate models focus on how the oceans and atmosphere store and balance heat. Urban heat islands are a lot of small, local changes, but do they add up? Studies of the land input are still in early stages.''   12/15/2009

Resource(s): http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/nsfc-ev121509.php

FTA Announces $32 Million for Tribal Transit Projects

A new bus maintenance facility for the Navajo Nation in Arizona and a new transportation center for the Eastern Band of Cherokee in North Carolina are only two of 100 of transit projects on tribal lands that will share in $32 million in Public Transportation on Indian Reservations funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration.

The $32 million, of which $17 million will come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) Tribal Transit Program, will pay for 100 transit projects for tribes in 22 states. Proposed projects include new buses, vans and other capital equipment, as well as operations, transit planning, and the construction of new transit facilities. The $17 million in ARRA funds will cover 39 of the projects.

“We want the economic recovery to reach all of America,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “New and restored transportation infrastructure on tribal lands will help spur and sustain economic growth on those lands.”

Participants include federally recognized Indian Tribes or Alaska Native villages, groups, or communities as identified by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior.

“Safe, affordable and efficient transit service is a priority for our nation’s tribal lands, and the Recovery Act is helping us realize that goal,” said FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff.

FTA national and regional staff members reviewed 152 proposals and selected 100 based on, among other criteria, planning and coordination, demonstration of need, benefits of the project, and financial commitment of the sponsoring organization.

A list of winning projects may be found at the link below.   12/11/2009

Resource(s): http://www.fta.dot.gov/news/news_events_10912.html

National Smart Growth Conference Will Spotlight Equitable Development and Environmental Justice; Diversity Scholarships Available

The 9th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Seattle will underscore the connections between smart growth, equitable development and environmental justice with a pre-conference workshop on “Working Together for Equitable Development: Voices and Lessons from Environmental Justice and Smart Growth” on February 3, 2010. This day-long workshop will be held the day before the New Partners conference and complements the Equitable Development track of sessions that runs throughout the February 4-6 conference.

A plenary on “Smart Growth at the Intersection of Environmental Justice and Green Jobs” will also articulate how smart growth can foster green jobs, social equity and affordable housing, as our nation moves towards a more sustainable, green economy.

A limited number of scholarships and travel stipends are available to leaders from lower-income and minority communities, as well as representatives from organizations whose work is primarily focused on social equity and environmental justice. For more details or to apply for a diversity scholarship, please contact Shani Alford at salford@lgc.org or 916-448-1198 x330.

For more information about the Equitable Development Workshop and the other conference events that will be focused on the linkages between equitable development, environmental justice, and smart growth, visit www.newpartners.org/program.html.   12/9/2009

American Panelists in Copenhagen Call for Sustainable Land Use and Growth Patterns

''Urban development patterns have a significant role to play in carbon reduction. Otherwise we’ll just get knocked back by land use patterns,'' said University of California-Berkeley College of Environmental Design Professor of City & Regional Planning Robert B. Cervero during an international panel discussion at the climate change conference in Copenhagen. Cervero stressed that, ''Sustainable urbanism has to be part of the equation.''

Writer Ben Fried of dc.streetblog pointed out that transit investment alone can reduce the U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita by 10 to 20 percent, but energy savings ''embedded'' in pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented development can push that reduction to 30 percent below the current level, and up to 60 percent below the future level expected under routine sprawl-type policies. To support sustainable development patterns, the public needs to know their full economic benefits, said Utah Transit Authority (UTA) General Manager John English, briefing the audience on the formation of the public-private Envision Utah coalition in 1997, its public values research, more than 200 workshops and the resulting legislatively-endorsed 1999 Quality Growth Strategy, which offers communities a broad choice of voluntary, locally-preferred, market-based livability solutions.

Made aware of the huge infrastructure-cost savings on transit investments – with an Envision Utah transit-oriented development scenario expected to save some $15 billion by 2020, it contrast to the business-as-usual scenario, which would sink this money into roads, sewers and other infrastructure for the urban fringes – the public got on board. The savings will go for schools and parks, the UTA general manager said, concluding, ''The community was not as conservative when faced with the realities as had previously been thought.''

Learn more about Envision Utah history, programs and goals at www.envisionutah.org/eu_about_eumission.html.   12/9/2009

Resource(s): dc.streetsblog.org/

EPA Recognizes Communities for Smart Growth Achievements

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.   12/1/2009

Resource(s): yosemite.epa.gov/

2010 Great American Main Street Awards Semifinalists Announced

Collectively, the 2010 Great American Main Street Awards (GAMSA) semifinalist communities have created more than 1,100 new businesses and nearly 4,800 new jobs, rehabbed more than 950 buildings and decreased their vacancy rates by an average of 31 percent. They have generated an average of $24,104,868.70 in public investment and $43,494,647.40 in private investment. The 10 semifinalists have also demonstrated their ability to create and maintain vibrant, successful commercial districts that serve as the heart of their communities.

The 2010 Great American Main Street Awards are sponsored by Chesapeake Energy, one of the leading producers of natural gas in the U.S and the most active driller of new wells in the country. The Oklahoma City-based company has long been in the forefront of promoting increased use of clean-burning, abundant, and domestic natural gas.

A national jury composed of former award winners, community development professionals, representatives from government and foundations, and journalists who are active in community economic development and historic preservation will evaluate the semifinalists and select five winners. The winners will be announced on May 4, 2010, during the National Main Street Conference in Oklahoma City. Congratulations to all the semifinalists.

A list of semifinalists can be found at www.preservationnation.org/main-street/awards/gamsa/2010-gamsa-semifinalists/.   11/30/2009

Resource(s): http://www.preservationnation.org/

New Solar Energy Center Contributes to Green Energy Economy

''There´s something big happening in America in terms of creating a clean-energy economy,'' said President Obama at a tour of the 180-acre DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Arcadia, Florida, as Florida Power & Light (FP&L) flipped a switch to angle the 90,500 photovoltaic (PV) panels continuously toward sunrays and turn them into electricity sufficient for 3,000 nearby homes, while the president announced a $3.4 billion investment from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) ''in a smarter, stronger and more secure electric grid.'' One of the 100 varied-size grants - $200 million – went to FP&L for some 2.5 million smart meters that will cut customer energy-use costs.

The nation´s largest of its kind, the 25-megawatt DeSoto solar energy plant - built ahead of schedule within a year, at an under-budget cost of $150 million, and with almost 400 new jobs – will produce an average of 42,000 megawatt-hours (MHw) of electricity a year, save the state about 7 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 277,000 barrels of oil, and spare the air from the emission of 575,000 tons of greenhouse gases (GHG) over 30 years, the equivalent of tailpipe pollution from 4,500 cars a year. It will also increase DeSoto County´s property tax revenue by more than $2 million through 2010 and $37 million over its productive lifespan.

''And yet, to realize the full potential of this plant and others like it, we´ve got to do more than just add extra solar megawatts to our electrical grid,'' the president said. ''That´s because this grid – which is made up of everything from power lines to generators to the meters in your home – still runs on century-old technology. It wastes too much energy, it costs us too much money, and it´s too susceptible to outages and blackouts.''

Invoking iconic images of ''a tangled maze of poorly maintained back roads'' from the 1920s-30s era and President Eisenhower´s investment in the Interstate Highway System, an investment that ''revolutionized the way we travel'' and ''made our lives easier and our economy grow,'' the president stressed, ''Now, it´s time to make the same kind of investment in the way our energy travels – to build a clean energy superhighway that can take the renewable power generated in places like DeSoto and deliver it directly to the American people in the most affordable and efficient way possible.''

That investment, he continued, ''won´t just create new pathways to energy - it´s expected to create tens of thousands of new jobs all across America in areas ranging from manufacturing and construction to IT (information technology) and the installation of new equipment in homes and businesses,'' saving consumers more than $20 billion on utility bills over the next decade. But the creation of a clean-energy economy, the president said, reiterating his frequent statements, ''is going to require nothing less than the sustained effort of an entire nation - an all-hands-on-deck approach similar to the mobilization that preceded World War II or the Apollo Project. Confident in congressional ability to pass legislation that will ''make clean energy the profitable kind in America,'' he noted that the House has already done so and that the Senate moved too, with public hearings held by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer.

Pleased to report a growing consensus on the issue, the president inserted a note of caution before he sounded optimism. ''The closer we get to this new energy future, the harder the opposition is going to fight,'' he observed, ''the more we´re going to hear from special interests and lobbyists in Washington whose interests are contrary to the interests of the American people.'' Calling it ''a debate between looking backward and looking forward,'' and stating he knows ''what the American people are capable of when they´re called upon to meet big challenges,'' the president listed their many landmark accomplishments in the past and expressed his firm belief that the nation ''can blaze such trails again.''   11/27/2009

Resource(s): www.whitehouse.gov/

Federal Officials Forging Partnerships to Address Livability Issues

Focused on the new White House-led cooperation between the federal government and metro areas, and among the federal agencies in the Sustainable Communities Partnership – launched by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Transportation (DOT) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last June – the National League of Cities’ (NLC’s) 2009 Congress of Cities in San Antonio, Texas, brought in several directly involved administration officials, all as responsive to urban economic and livability needs as they are keen on feedback and support to ensure the best use of federal means.

''No longer are cities seen as a drain on our nation, instead they are viewed as the sources for inspiration and growth they’ve always been,'' said outgoing NLC President Kathleen M. Novak, mayor of Northglenn, Colorado. ''For far too long, Washington also fought with cities or simply ignored them. But they’re speaking a different language from the White House today.''

Pointing out that city ''projects and initiatives often require that housing, transportation, economic development and environmental concerns all be integrated and coordinated,'' she hailed the interagency Sustainable Communities Partnership for taking the same course, promoting it in Congress and helping shape stimulus outlays from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

New NLC President Ronald O. Loveridge, mayor of Riverside, California, continued the theme. ''Now is the time for city officials, all of us, to lead recovery and growth in our communities,'' he said. ''It is NLC’s time to ask Washington to stay focused on partnering with us to help our economy and our local budgets get back on track and to create good jobs.'' The response was unequivocal – the success hinges on shared values, close consultation and joint work.

Noting that the combined housing and transportation costs disproportionately affect low-to-moderate income households, forced to cut back on food, medicine and other necessities, HUD Deputy Regional Director C. Donald Babers said about federal livability investments, ''Moving forward, we certainly want to make sure that we have insight from those who have on-the-ground experience.'' Funding transit to lessen the need for car travel, observed DOT Deputy Assistant Secretary Joanna Liberman Turner, could help families save on transportation and free up their money for housing, education and saving accounts, with ARRA grants and other new funds enabling cities to realize cutting-edge transportation projects and generating revenue for economic rebound.

And EPA Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation (OPEI) Smart Growth Program Senior Policy Analyst Tim Torma welcomed the newly adopted Congress of Cities sustainability resolution, which urges the administration and Congress to deal with housing, transportation and economic development in a comprehensive manner, as most helpful for interagency – HUD, TOD, EPA – immediate and long-term tasks. ''The more you can point us to the problems, the more we can go to our experts and say 'let’s talk about this,''' he stressed. ''We can’t succeed in this effort unless local governments are supportive.''   11/23/2009

Resource(s): www.nlc.org/

Sustainable Sites Initiative Seeks Pilot Sites

To test its new rating system for the design, construction and maintenance of sustainable landscapes, the Sustainable Sites Initiative has opened a call for pilot projects. Any type of designed landscape is eligible, so long as the project size is at least 2,000 square feet. The call will remain open until February 15, 2010, and the initiative will work with and oversee the projects during the two-year process.

More information about the pilot projects is available at www.sustainablesites.org.   11/23/2009

Resource(s): http://www.sustainablesites.org/pilot/

Four Decades of Double-Digit Growth Halted in Fastest-Growing Suburbs

According to this article in USA Today, 24 of the 53 cities of 100,000 or more that grew by at least 10 percent every decade over the last four decades have lost population over the last two years as the recession and housing collapse take a toll on suburban growth. These “boomburbs” that grew from small towns to major cities are mostly located in the south east and west.

The article quotes Robert Lang, a professor at the University of Nevada who has noted that “this may signal a real shift in the American landscape where suburbs can no longer assume to be gaining on traditional cities.” Many of these places relied on their own growth in real-estate and construction to help keep their economies going. When the housing bubble busted, so too did the economy in these areas. Lang makes the observation that “the irony is that if they want to keep growing, they must grow as cities, which is diametrically opposite of how they got so big in the first place.”

The article goes on to note that many of these suburban areas are trying to reposition themselves to become more urban and take advantage of redevelopment opportunities, especially around mass-transit lines. The 2010 Census will show if growth has continued to trend out into urban edge communities, or if redevelopment of existing suburban and urban locations is the new focal point of growth in the United States, reversing the historic trend towards moving outward.   11/19/2009

Resource(s): http://www.usatoday.com/

Obesity Rates, Treatment Costs Can’t Fall Without Healthy Food and Active Lifestyles

Often triggered by “smoking, poor eating habits and inactivity” – all three a factor in a 129-percent obesity increase to 27 percent of the population over the last 20 years – preventable diseases such as diabetes, heart illnesses and cancer cost the nation $1.8 trillion of the $2.4 trillion spent on health care each year, says the United Health Foundation in its 20th anniversary edition of America’s Health Rankings. Emory University Professor Kenneth E. Thorpe presents a supplemental analysis that obesity alone will affect 43 percent of adults and add nearly $344 billion to direct health care costs in 2018 if nothing is done soon.

“Unless there is urgent action across our society, our already overburdened care system will be swamped by a tsunami of cost and demands from preventable chronic diseases,” stressed United Health Foundation Board Member, United Health Group Executive Vice President Reed Tuckson, M.D. “Together, as individuals, community leaders, health care professionals, employers and elected officials, we must elevate disease prevention and health promotion to the top of our agendas.”

Using five multi-point core measures – Behaviors, Community and Environment, Public and Health Policies, Clinical Care, and Outcomes – plus massive supplemental data for 2009, foundation researchers ranked Vermont as the healthiest state this year, followed by Utah, Massachusetts, Hawaii and New Hampshire. The five worst – in descending order – are South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi. As for obesity, the least affected are Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Hawaii, and Utah. Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia, Alabama, and Mississippi are the most obese, according the report.

According to Professor Thorpe’s obesity projections, Colorado will remain the best in 2018, though its rate will rise to between 25.1 and 34.6 percent, costing it $1.8 billion in treatment. Oklahoma will retain its bottom spot, with the obesity rate jumping to somewhere between 51.3 and 60.8 percent, and the treatment cost perhaps to $3.2 billion. “The take-home message from this year’s report is found in the sub-title: ‘a call to action for people and their communities,’” said American Public Health Association Executive Director Georges C. Benjamin, M.D. “Our nation’s public health professionals cannot win this battle alone; all people have to do their share. Unless we do, all of us will pay the price in higher health care costs and diminished access to care.”   11/17/2009

Resource(s): http://www.americashealthrankings.org/ResourceCenter/2009_AHR_National_Press_Release.pdf

Streetcars Making a Comeback

“Streetcars largely disappeared from U.S. cities by the 1950s, as automobiles bullied them to the margins,” but in a remarkable comeback they are now proposed in some 80 cities, “a trend bolstered by President Barack Obama’s signal he’s more inclined to pump federal dollars into streetcars than was President Bush,” observes Associated Press writer John Miller, with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently saying “this administration wants more transit options for more people and that includes streetcars,” and with streetcar foes losing November 3 electoral contests in Boise, Idaho; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Cincinnati, Ohio.

In Boise, businessman David Litster, an opponent of its planned $60-million, 2.3-mile downtown trolley loop, lost a city council race to Idaho Power Co. auditor, 2008 Obama presidential campaign activist and smart-growth supporter TJ Thomson, who will wait for an economic study and news on $40 million in prospective federal stimulus funds before any vote on the system.

In Charlotte, Republican mayoral candidate John Lassiter claimed he would have backed the proposed 10-mile streetcar line had the city had money for its likely $400 million cost, with voters electing Democratic African-American City Councilman Anthony Foxx, who last month helped override seven-term Republican Mayor Pat McCrory’s veto of a $4.5-million engineering study, confident the line will boost the downtown area. In Cincinnati, where Republican mayoral contender Brad Wenstrup tried to capitalize on local NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) opposition to the city’s planned $128-million, 7.9-mile downtown Over-the-Rhine streetcar loop, voters easily reelected Democratic African-American Mayor Mark Mallory, who expects the line to recharge its corridor no less than similar lines did in Seattle or Toronto.

The writer adds that Portland, Oregon officials credit their streetcar with having helped bring in $2.5 billion in construction since its 1997 announcement, including 7,248 housing units within three blocks of the tracts.   11/2/2009

Resource(s): http://www.wtop.com/

Factory Towns Slowest To See Relief From Stimulus

According to an Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo and Justin Juozapavicius, ''Many communities hit hardest by job losses, those built around dying factories and mills, have been slowest to see relief from President Barack Obama's stimulus plan, underscoring how hard it is for Washington policymakers to create lasting work in areas that need it most.'' The manufacturing industry has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs during the recession as the result of plants closing or scaling back. Places ''such as the southwest Missouri city of Lamar, tucked amid endless fields of winter wheat and soybeans, have seen the cornerstones of their economies disappear, leaving a gap that even billions in roadwork and government aid cannot fill.'' For the Obama administration, Lamar is ''as much a problem of expectations as it is of policy.'' For all the ''items contained in the stimulus, from tax cuts to road work to new schools, nothing could quickly replace what factory towns like Lamar had lost.''

Nationwide, only 2,500 of the 640,000 stimulus jobs announced on October 30 were in the manufacturing industry, and many of those appear to be mislabeled, say the writers. For example, teachers reportedly benefited most from the stimulus funds because ''states used federal aid to fill budget gaps, then credited the money with avoiding layoffs -- even if no such layoffs were planned.''

''We haven't seen any improvements in our town,'' said Gary Macklem, the mayor of Croswell, Mich., a small city in a county built on farming and factories, where unemployment has been nearly 20 percent all year. ''We lost two factories and the other factories are hanging by a shoe string.''   11/2/2009

Resource(s): http://www.chicagotribune.com/

EPA Seeks Public Comments on Stormwater Management

EPA is seeking public comments from owners, operators, developers, and contractors of developed sites, owners and operators of municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s), and states and U.S. territories, in order to inform a rulemaking to strengthen stormwater regulations and to establish a comprehensive program to reduce stormwater from newly developed and redeveloped sites.

Stormwater discharges from developed sites can harm water quality through increases in stormwater volume and pollutant loadings into nearby waterways. Generally, as sites are developed there is an increase in areas where water cannot infiltrate, so stormwater volume increases. The resulting stormwater flows across roads, rooftops, and other surfaces, transporting pollutants that are then discharged into waterways.

Comments must be received by December 29, 2009, as instructed at the link below.   10/30/2009

Resource(s): http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/icr_fedreg.pdf

ICMA Urges Local Governments To Report Measurable Outcomes From Stimulus

American City & County reported on an ICMA effort to help local governments track and assess the effectiveness of federal stimulus funds. ICMA issued a report, Measuring the Results of Economic Stimulus Investments: Local Government Leading the Way, that ''proposes that local governments rely on uniform outcome measures that draw on commonly collected data.'' ICMA also provides metrics to help.

ICMA Executive Director Robert O'Neill said, ''The ability of cities and counties individually and collectively to answer the question of lasting benefits not only will allow them to demonstrate progress on persistent local concerns but it also will enhance the value of local governments as program partners with the federal government.''

ICMA proposes that the use of stimulus funds ''be measured in terms of homelessness prevention, broadband initiatives, crime and public safety, energy efficiency, public housing, transit, street resurfacing, and water and sewer services.''   10/22/2009

Resource(s): http://americancityandcounty.com

Article Analyzes House Price Trends

"During the past three years, home prices grew in the beer-guzzling heartland and fell in the wine-sipping coastal states," announces CNNMoney online writer Les Christie. According to the article, most of the 23 states that had gains in the majority of their metro areas hailed from the South, the Plains and the non-coastal West. The 16 states that saw declines   10/21/2009

Resource(s): http://money.cnn.com/

Charging Clusters of Plug-In Cars Could Impact Local Utilities

High concentrations of plug-in electric vehicles could pose a serious challenge to local utilities according to an article on CNET News. Places with high concentrations of plug-ins, such as Berkeley, California, have the greatest risk of causing potential problems for utilities. Plug-in electric cars could draw the “electricity equivalent” of a home, says the article.

''You can see if you have three or five electric cars arrive in a neighborhood, you're going to overload the local circuits, and that will lead to blackouts,'' a spokesperson for PG&E, California’s local utility, said. ''So we see it as an opportunity but we also see it as a challenge of significant proportions.''

PG&E recommends that consumers have a 220-volt charging point at home, which will allow most plug-in electric cars to recharge in two or three hours, rather than six or seven hours for a regular 110-volt outlet. Although it's more convenient for consumers, that higher-voltage charging significantly boosts the draw as much as 6.6 kilowatts. PG&E plans to offer a 220-volt charger along with a timer. The consumer would be able to get lower rates by charging between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.   10/20/2009

Resource(s): http://news.cnet.com/

Habitat for Humanity Sees Gold in Vacant Housing

With thousands of homes across the nation sitting vacant, Habitat for Humanity officials see an opportunity to buy and rehab those homes, a process that can be faster and cheaper than to build from scratch.

According to Pam Kelley, reporter and columnist for the Charlotte Observer, Habitat officials say rehabbed, owner-occupied houses will ultimately boost home values in high-foreclosure neighborhoods.

''It's an incredible opportunity to turn things around,'' says Mark Andrews, Habitat for Humanity International's senior director of U.S. operations.

Although Habitat International officials don't have totals of homes being rehabbed, they report that about $80 million has been earmarked to go to between 80 and 100 chapters -- money that will be used to rehab or build 1,300 homes. The funds are from the first wave of grants from the U.S. Housing and Economic Recovery Act's Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which was established to help stabilize communities that have suffered from foreclosures and abandonment. -- Miller-McCune   9/25/2009

Resource(s): www.miller-mccune.com/

Report: Increased Transit Use Reduced Carbon Emissions by 37 Million Tons

In 2008, people in America saved 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline by riding transit in record numbers -- the amount consumed by 7.2 million cars in a year. Transportation is responsible for more than two-thirds of our dependence on oil, and about one-third of our carbon dioxide pollution, as Environment America outlined in their new report ''Getting On Track: Record Transit Ridership Increases Energy Independence.''

''People are voting with their feet by driving less and taking more public transportation,'' said Rob McCulloch, Environment America Transportation Advocate. ''Congress should listen to these voters and invest more in public transportation, which will increase our energy independence and reduce global warming pollution,'' McCulloch added.

In the U.S., last year annual transit ridership increased 4 percent, and many agencies are seeing continued growth in 2009. Washington D.C. transit ridership grew by 4.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009, according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).

''Metro and transit-oriented development are success stories for the Washington region and offer an excellent national example of the benefits of transit,'' said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. Increased transit ridership offers other benefits as well, including reduced congestion, fewer hours stuck in traffic, reductions in smog and soot pollution, and money saved by households regularly taking transit.

''Aside from the energy savings and reduction in climate change-causing carbon emissions, Metro and our other transit services offer greater travel choices and save families money,'' Schwartz said. According to APTA, a two-person household can save up to $9,167 a year by living with one less car.

In addition to fuel savings and reduced commuting costs, public transportation reduced global warming pollution in the U.S. by 37 million tons in 2008. -- Environment America   9/23/2009

Resource(s): www.environmentamerica.org/

New Smart Growth Guide for Coastal and Waterfront Communities

With more than half of the nation living in coastal counties, which also have 180 million visitors a year, the U.S. EPA, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and the Rhode Island Sea Grant Program, assisted by the Smart Growth Network (SGN), released a joint ''Smart Growth for Coastal and Waterfront Communities'' guide, to increase their awareness of and ability to confront rising sea levels, stronger hurricanes, floods, and other climate change threats.

''We're working to protect the extraordinary natural resources at the heart of recreational and economic opportunities in waterfront and coastal communities,'' said EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water Michael H. Shapiro. ''This new guide -- the first of its kind -- will help coastal and waterfront communities implement Smart Growth and sustainable development strategies, protect beneficial natural resources, and ensure that we are prepared for the environmental and economic challenges of the years ahead.''

Assistant Administrator for NOAA's Ocean Service John H. Dunningan pointed to the need for comprehensive long-term planning.

''Coastal and waterfront communities face development pressures that could affect their economy, environment, and quality of life for decades to come,'' he stressed. ''These coastal and waterfront smart growth guidelines will help communities plan for growth and development while protecting their natural resources, maritime heritage, and traditional sense of place.''

The interagency guide, says EPA in a press release, explains tools and techniques for smart growth implementation, illustrating the guidelines with case studies.

Among others, the guide shows local leaders, developers, nonprofit group officials and residents how to ''(1) protect and restore natural buffers between the community and water; (2) align natural hazard planning with development plans; (3) promote waterfront revitalization, including retrofitting historic properties for new uses; and (4) provide a variety of land and water-based options that accommodate seasonal fluctuations in transportation needs.''

Details at www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/sg-coastal.html. -- U.S. EPA   9/9/2009

Resource(s): www.epa.gov/ ; www.rdmag.com/

NRC Report: Compact Development Would Curb Driving, Reduce CO2 Emissions

As the U.S. population swells from 281 million in 2000 to 363 million in 2030 and almost 420 million in 2050, its housing stock of 105.5 million units will need partial replacement and expansion, first by a total of 57 million and then by 62 million to 105 million new units, a prospect in which the National Research Council's (NRC's) 12-member Committee for the Study on the Relationship Among Development Patterns, Vehicle Miles Traveled, and Energy Consumption sees an opportunity for a gradual shift toward higher urban densities and mixed uses, both necessary to cap and eventually reduce carbon (CO2) emissions.

If the current residential density was doubled, both through projects on the urban fringe and through strategic infill, with 75 percent of additional and replacement units in compact mixed-use communities and with their residents driving 25 percent less, the related Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), fuel use and carbon emissions would decline by 7 to 8 percent by 2030 and somewhere between 8 and 11 percent by 2050.

And even if only 25 percent of new housing units were located in such communities and if residents drove 12 or just 5 percent less, they would ensure reductions in the range of 1 percent by 2030 and 1.3-1.7 percent by 2050 or below 1 percent by that later date, respectively.

Some study committee members consider doubling the density of 75 percent of new construction feasible by 2050, because of macroeconomic trends such as higher energy prices and prospective carbon taxes, combined with increased public support for infill, transit investment, and transit-oriented development.

Others don't think it possible given prevalent housing trends, suburban land use policies and market preferences, unless states or regional agencies become decisively involved in growth management.

The committee identifies local zoning regulations that restrict density and mixed uses as one of the strongest barriers to compact development, noting its growing attractiveness to consumers, but also local concerns over traffic, taxes or property values -- legitimate, but sometimes at odds with wider demands for affordable housing and action against climate change.

In conclusion, the committee makes two recommendations: To encourage policies that support compact mixed-use development and reinforce its capacity for reduction of VMT, energy use and carbon emissions, and to make that relationship a subject of carefully designed studies, as necessary for more effective implementation of compact development.

Chaired by Harvard University Professor Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez, the committee included University of California-Irvine Professor Marlon G. Boarnet; PlanSmart NJ President Dianne R. Brake; University of California-Berkeley Professor Robert B. Cervero; METRO Portland, Oregon Senior Policy Adviser Andrew Cotugno; Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Anthony Downs; Clark University-Worcester Research Professor Susan Hanson; University of Texas Associate Professor Kara M. Kockelman; University of California-Davis Professor Patricia L. Mokhtrian; Cornell University Associate Professor Rolf J. Pendall; Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois Senior Economist Danilo J. Santini; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee Senior R&D Staff Member and Georgia Institute of Technology Principal Research Scientist Frank Southworth.

''It will take awhile for that new development to have a very perceptible effect,'' said Professor Gomez-Ibanez interviewed by USA Today writer Haya El Nasser. ''Even if we started (developing) more compact and densely today, given (that) new housing stock is only 1 or 2 percent of housing stock every year, it will be several decades before there is an impact.''

Public policy and smart growth experts regard major land use and transportation changes and linkage as imperative.

''The most important thing is to reduce the amount we drive. By just building two houses per acre from one house per acre would reduce (driving),'' pointed out Urban Land Institute Senior Resident Fellow Ed McMahon.

''What comes out loud and clear is that if the miles we drive continue to grow at the projected rate, you blow your climate goals out of the water,'' said Smart Growth America Communications Director David Goldberg about the NRC study. ''The basic message I got from this is that you can't go wrong by pursuing this strategy.''

Links to the free online report, its 4-page brief and 23-page Executive Summary at www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12747. -- National Academy of Sciences, USA Today   9/8/2009

Resource(s): www.nationalacademies.org/onpi ; www.usatoday.com/

Report Outlines Childhood Obesity Prevention Strategies for Local Governments

In an epidemic of obesity, its rate among children and adolescents of two to 18 years of age -- a group of some 23 million -- escalated from 5 to 16.3 percent between 1971 and 2006, and the related medical costs reached $147 billion for 2008, reports the Institute of Medicine (IOM)-National Research Council (NRC) 13-member Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention Actions for Local Governments, noting that they have long been helping the young through immunization, bike safety rules and other requirements, and that their jurisdiction over many aspects of land use, food marketing, community planning, transportation, health and nutrition programs, and other services makes them ''ideally positioned to promote behaviors that will help children and adolescents reach and maintain healthy weights.''

As they move in that direction, communities also should focus on health equity, to ensure ''fair distribution of health resources among all population groups, regardless of their social standing,'' the committee's report states, reminding local officials that ''(p)overty, poor housing, racial segregation, lack of access to quality education, and limited access to health care contribute to the uneven well-being of some groups of people, especially those living in historically disadvantaged communities.''

Having reviewed literature, examined pertinent reports, heard expert presentations, and explored a variety of toolkits, the committee tells local officials to consider nine healthy eating strategies and six physical activity strategies as they plan, implement and refine childhood obesity prevention measures, also recommending specific action steps for each strategy and highlighting the 12 potentially most effective steps.

The strategies and action steps aim to improve access to and consumption of healthy, safe, and affordable foods; reduce access to and consumption of calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods; raise awareness about the importance of healthy eating to prevent childhood obesity; encourage physical activity; decrease sedentary behavior; and raise awareness of the importance of increasing physical activity.

Many involve fiscal and regulatory measures.

They include incentives for supermarkets and groceries to locate in underserved neighborhoods; zoning provisions to bring in healthy food providers; cooperation with farmers' markets, farm stands, mobile markets, community gardens and youth-focused gardens; and land use and zoning regulations to expand or protect vacant public sites or parking lots for community gardens and farmers' markets.

They also specify how to increase participation in federal, state and local nutrition assistance programs; encourage breastfeeding and promote breastfeeding-friendly communities; implement taxation to discourage consumption of low-nutritional-value foods and beverages; and restrict fast food outlets near schools and playgrounds.

In its physical activity segment, the report advises local governments to encourage walking and bicycling for transportation and recreation through improvements in the built environment; adopt and implement a long-term pedestrian and bicycle master plan; build and maintain a network of sidewalks and street crossings; plan, build, and retrofit streets to reduce vehicle speeds, accommodate cyclists and facilitate walking; provide a well-connected network of off-street pedestrian and bike trails and paths; increase destinations within walking and cycling distance; work with school districts and developers to locate new schools centrally near residential areas and away from busy roads; institute a Safe Routes to School program; boost transit use through lower fares for children, families, and students, and through better access to schools, parks, recreation centers, and other family destinations; and ensure the use of school facilities after hours by community residents, if necessary, through regulatory and legislative policies addressing liability issues that might block implementation.

The report illustrates the recommendations with steps taken by Austin, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City; Henderson, Texas; Shelby, Montana; Somerville, Massachusetts; San Diego County, California; King County, Washington; and Michigan.

''Although leisure activities and food consumption are personal matters, local environments influence the choices people make,'' pointed out the committee's chairman, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eduardo J. Sanchez. ''It's hard to eat fruit instead of chips or cookies when neighborhood stores carry little fresh produce, or to bike to school on busy roads with no bike lanes. Local officials can make a dent in the obesity epidemic, as demonstrated by the examples we highlighted in this report.''

The administration is no less concerned, with first lady Michelle Obama also ready to take on the child health issue, said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at a recent Weight of the Nation meeting, sponsored in the capital by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

''Some say kids won't eat healthy foods. I don't think that's the case,'' the secretary observed, citing an example of a California school where half of the students eat at its salad bar because vegetables don't look ''like they have been saved for a month or two.''

See the report and related links at www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12674 or http://nationalacademies.org/newsroom. -- National Academy of Sciences, USA Today   9/1/2009

Resource(s): www.nationalacademies.org/onpi ; www.usatoday.com/

Smart Growth America Chief: High-Speed Rail Grants Are Down Payment for America's Future

''Public investments in high-speed rail will help create permanent jobs, reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and curb our carbon emissions,'' said Smart Growth America (SGA) President and CEO Geoff Anderson in a statement on the August 24 application deadline for the $8 billion in high-speed rail grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), confident of a ''strong commitment by states and the (Obama) administration to link our metropolitan areas, lay groundwork for a world-class rail network, and provide Americans with a full range of travel choices that also spur innovative economic development in city centers.''

The $8 billion in grants the U.S. Department of Transportation will channel to the most advantageous projects later this year can buy plenty, ''somewhere in the neighborhood of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, which is a pretty significant build-out of the Chicago area rail,'' he told WNYC public radio talk show host Brian Lehrer a day later, stressing that public demand warrants much larger outlays for rails nationwide.

''Clearly,'' he stated, ''this $8 billion has to be -- and ought to be -- a down payment on the future, and it ought to be followed up by consistent investment over the next 10, 20, 30 years, in the same way that we have over the past 10, 20, 30, 50 years in air travel and in automobile travel.''

Asked ''what states and regions seem to have their act together,'' the SGA president said many applications focus on the present systems, their congestion points, troublesome issues between passenger and freight rail, and ''other very strategic incremental investments that you can make on existing lines that give you the biggest bang for the buck.''

Mentioning Florida, California, the Midwest Region, and the Hartford (Connecticut) line as possible winners of the high-speed rail grants, he said to him the most important is the ''major shift'' in the federal transportation policy.

''That kind of transition to a system that really is a system where we have options at the community level to walk and bike, to get on public transportation to get around a region, and to get on passenger rail and high-speed rail to move us around the country -- and to connect the country economically. We can't get there in twelve months, eighteen months or two years. This is a long-term proposition,'' he observed. ''You have to think about where we need to go as a country, and what kind of transportation systems are going to support us in that.''

Listen to the full interview at www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2009/08/25/segments/139366. -- Sacramento Business Journal, Smart Growth America   8/25/2009

Resource(s): http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/ ; http://blog.smartgrowthamerica.org/

EPA Publishes New ''Guide to Smart Growth and Active Aging''

As the demographic group of Americans over 55 and overall longevity increase, ''(m)any of us have longed for the kind of age-friendly neighborhood that has different types of homes for people at different stages of life,'' along with walking paths, public transit, parks, shops and services close together, says the U.S. EPA in its newly published ''Growing Smarter, Living Healthier: A Guide to Smart Growth and Active Aging,'' offering older adults advice and links to resources on how to stay or become active, connected and engaged in local affairs.

''Participating in community activities doesn't just benefit us,'' the guide observes. ''It can be a rewarding opportunity to give back, to share our hard-won wisdom, to pass on our skills and experience.''

With a focus on basic principles of neighborhood and town design, the guide seeks to expand the awareness of why design matters, how involvement in community decisions about growth can make a place better for growing old, and how to remake a neighborhood for easier access regardless of whether it's a city, suburb or small town.

In a section on Smart Growth, the guide points out that these projects replicate ''older, traditional places,'' with mixed uses, parks, trails and community centers, diversified housing, and easy short-distance access everywhere.

In a section on transportation and mobility, it notes that the conventional developments of the last 60 years ''were a great place for many of us to grow,'' but without sufficient walking, biking and transit options they have bred and suffered traffic congestion -- now part of the national debate about energy costs, supplies and climate change effects, amplifying ''the need for a long, hard look at how our daily lives and independence are affected by the way our neighborhoods are developed.''

And in a section on staying healthy, the guide stresses the importance of ''finding, preparing and eating healthy foods,'' recommends regular walking or other forms of physical activity, and describes emerging senior living and care giving options, including multipurpose lifestyle centers and homesharing.

The guide encourages further exploration of Smart Growth strategies on the Smart Growth America web site, ''a terrific resource for ideas to improve housing, transportation, economy and environment, open space and farmland, and health and aging.''

See the guide at www.epa.gov/aging/bhc/guide/index.html. -- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency   8/20/2009

Resource(s): www.epa.gov/

Report: Walkable Neighborhoods Boost City Home Values

''More than just a pleasant amenity, the walkability of cities translates directly into increases in home values,'' writes Portland, Oregon-based Impresa Inc. principal Joe Cortright in his ''Walking the Walk'' report for the national CEOs for Cities network, having examined ZipRealty data on 93,725 housing transactions in 15 metropolitan markets nationwide along with their Front Seat-provided 100-point Walk Score, and found that each additional point above a neighborhood median boosts home values by $500 to $3,000 in 13 of those markets.

''The premium for a house with an above-average Walk Score ranges from $4,200 in Dallas to more than $30,000 in Chicago, Charlotte, San Francisco and Sacramento,'' he writes, noting that Walk Score uses Google maps to compute distances between home addresses and key destinations in 13 categories, including stores of different types, coffee shops, movie theaters, parks, bars, restaurants, schools, libraries, and fitness venues.

With one point awarded to each closest destination within a one-mile radius, and no points for anything farther away, 100 points means easy access to all amenities and services on foot, at least 75 points reflects opportunities to do without a car, and 0 points suggests full car dependency.

''The property value premium for walkability,'' the researcher observes, ''seems to be higher in more populous urban areas and those with extensive transit, suggesting that the value gains associated with walkability are greatest when people have real alternatives to living without an automobile.''

Incidentally, as to the two markets missing the trend -- Bakersfield, California, where the correlation wasn't statistically significant, and Las Vegas, Nevada, where an above-average Walk Score reduced home values by almost $7,200 -- a Walk Score online commentator writes his ''hunch is that those sprawling cities don't have enough walkable neighborhoods to create a price premium,'' with Las Vegas residents perhaps paying more ''to be farther away from The Strip.''

Confident in his study as a strong basis for the conclusion ''that improved walkability produces real economic value for city residents,'' the Impresa principal points out that it also ''may assist fiscally strapped local governments,'' heavily dependent on property taxes to maintain services.

Better walkability, he writes, ''may mean higher property values and higher tax revenue than for less walkable development.''

Noting that many Americans ''are re-examining their communities and lifestyles,'' while looking for more economically and environmentally sustainable alternatives, and that new urbanists are encouraging development overhaul ''along traditional lines, with a closer mixing of commercial and residential uses, better transit and connected, complete streets,'' he concludes, ''One of the key challenges of the next few years will be to revisit the pattern of land uses in U.S. communities, particularly in traditional suburbs,'' and change obsolete rules to create ''more diverse, mixed, and walkable communities.''

CEOs for Cities President and CEO Carol Colleta also stressed the need for change.

''There are a number of trends that are reshaping the American Dream, and the value home buyers now place on living close to more daily destinations is one of the most important,'' she said. ''Now, planning, zoning and development decisions have to catch up to consumers.''

Click here for the seminal study, or read about Impresa, Inc., CEOs for Cities, ZipRealty, Front Seat and Walk Score at www.impresaconsulting.com/, www.ceosforcities.org, www.ziprealty.com, http://frontseat.org, and www.walkscore.com/. -- Grist.org   8/18/2009

Resource(s): www.grist.org/

''Voluntary Cooperation'' at Top U.S. Departments Boosts City Renewal Efforts

Having repeatedly stressed the need to ''promote strong cities as a backbone of regional growth'' during his electoral campaign, President Obama swiftly created the White House Office of Urban Affairs, but even more amazing since Week One has been ''a kind of spontaneous combustion of voluntary cooperation'' at the top level of departments -- especially Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Education, and Environmental Protection Agency, writes Washington Post Writers Group syndicated columnist Neal Peirce on his Web site, attributing the break in the ''silos'' mentality both to the cross-departmental sway of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and to Cabinet and sub-Cabinet appointees with years of experience in progressive city and state governments.

They ''moved quickly to identify joint approaches -- synchronizing, for example, aid for new transit stops and affordable housing, or energy-saving weatherization and revitalizing low-income neighborhoods,'' the writer observes, aware that the process ''wasn't -- and isn't -- perfect,'' but glad that the Reagan-made ''urban policy vacuum,'' remedied little under the next three presidents, is over.

''Like the activist brain trust President Franklin Roosevelt brought to Washington after the Roaring Twenties era of Republican tax-little, do-little administrations, the Obama crew represents a new cycle of activist American governance,'' he continues, noting that the president has also ordered the first ''serious interagency review of all federal programs that impact cities'' since 1979.

Mayors and city activists ''believe these steps, plus the new administration's collegial, open attitudes, represent an extraordinarily positive turnaround,'' but the writer thinks stumbling blocks remain.

He starts with the White House Office of Urban Affairs, which he feels should have Metropolitan in the name, since many -- especially suburbanites -- associate urban with city decline, and since ''America can't succeed without supporting the economic engine of its cities and suburbs combined.''

Next, he recalls that many talented, committed employees left the government in years when it was denigrated, and it ''may take years to repair a hollowed out federal service.''

Finally, he points to global recession, massive home foreclosures, growing pockets of suburban poverty, and the movement of more immigrants to the suburbs, all when the federal government ''faces huge, immediate decisions on economic policy, coping with explosive budgets, climate protection, health care and more.''

Expecting ''a bumpy ride,'' the writer concludes, ''The good news: at least we've begun to open our eyes to the possibilities of smarter, connected strategies.'' -- Citiwire.net   8/9/2009

Resource(s): http://citiwire.net/

Smart Growth Principles at Heart of Proposed Livable Communities Act

Increasingly, ''people are commuting longer distances on more crowded roadways,'' at the twin cost of ''precious hours they could be spending with their families'' and ''precious dollars wasted on gas,'' said Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut, moving to help towns and regions cut congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption while saving open space, expanding affordable housing and revitalize Main Streets and urban centers, through his Livable Communities Act with more than $4.1 billion in grants.

Co-sponsored by four other Democratic Senators, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Michael Bennet of Colorado and Dan Akaka of Hawaii, the act will offer competitive planning grants and challenge grants, establish an Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities at the Department of Housing and Urban Development for oversight of both grant programs, and create an Interagency Council on Sustainable Communities, with representatives from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other agencies, to coordinate federal sustainable development policies.

The competitive planning grants, in a proposed amount of $400 million over four years, will help the winners draw up ''comprehensive long-term plans that integrate transportation, housing, land use, and economic development.''

The challenge grants, projected at $3.75 billion over three years, will spark implementation of these plans ''through investment in public transportation, affordable housing, complete streets, transit-oriented development, and brownfield redevelopment.''

The grant money, notes Streetsblog Capitol Hill writer Elana Schor, would have to be provided through appropriations bills, ''but authorizing the spending is a crucial first step.'' -- Streetsblog Capitol Hill, Office of U.S. Senator Chris Dodd   8/6/2009

Resource(s): http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php ; http://dc.streetsblog.org/

Sustainability Task Force Created in Department of Homeland Security

''Expanding our sustainability efforts will allow us to more effectively deploy our resources to fulfill our critical security mission,'' said Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano after the first meeting of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force, to which she appointed 14 public and private sector experts in early June, including city planner-architectural designer Jeff Speck, co-author of the acclaimed Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream (2000) and the Smart Growth Manual (2005), its second edition soon on the shelves.

Among other early smart-growth advocates on the task force are U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Board of Directors Chair Gail Vittori, USBGC's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Steering Committee Member Muscoe Martin, and former Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty.

''This task force will accelerate our efforts to purse renewable resources and increase efficiency throughout the department,'' the secretary stressed, confident that incorporation of sustainable practices into DHS operation will benefit national security and yield cost savings.

Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force Chair Dr. Lydia Thomas is a member of the Virginia Governor's Commission on Climate Change, and a trustee and former president and CEO of Noblis, Inc., a Falls Church, Virginia-headquartered nonprofit science, technology and strategy organization; Vice Chair Jared ''Jerry'' Cohon is President of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Vice Chair Sunil Paul is Founder of Spring Ventures, LLC., a San Francisco, California-based multi-strategy investment fund, focused on development of fuel cell systems, solar power and other clean technologies. -- U.S. Department of Homeland Security   8/4/2009

Resource(s): www.dhs.gov/

New Online Toolkit for Creating Open Space Campaigns

Formed by the San Francisco-headquartered Trust for Public Land (TPL) in 2000 to serve the conservation community as a partner in its balloting and lobbying efforts, the Conservation Campaign (TCC) released an online Campaign Toolkit, specifically designed to help local activists initiate, conduct and win public campaigns to preserve open space and create parks.

The toolkit, says a TPL press release, includes a campaign guide -- ''a step-by-step manual for winning a ballot measure campaign'' -- success case studies, website hosting basics, and information about TCC professional services.

The only national organization with the sole focus on political action to secure public funds for conservation, TCC has backed more than 250 successful ballot measures which have generated billions of dollars over the past eight years.

Along with the TCC toolkit, TPL offers the public and agency personnel its new Conservation: An Investment That Pays report.

''Too often, we still hear the argument that creating parks and conserving land is too expensive, especially in hard economic times,'' writes TPL President and CEO Will Rogers in forward to the report. ''We hope that the research and many examples cited in the report will help you to promote conservation for its many benefits, including the boost parks and open space can give to a community's bottom line.'' -- Trust for Public Land   8/4/2009

Resource(s): www.tpl.org/

New FTA Project Rating Method Could Boost Federal Funding for Multi-Modal Projects

To help remove the stark inequity between federal outlays on roads and transit -- and to secure aid for light rail as an integral part of the Columbia River toll bridge and I-5 construction jointly planned by Washington and Oregon to ease congestion in the five-mile Vancouver-Portland corridor -- Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Subcommittee Democratic Chairman Patty Murray (WA) augmented the FY 2010 THUD appropriations bill with a provision to make the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) count local investment in such multi-modal projects and treat them as wholes in its cost-benefit analyses rather than qualify each mode separately for federal funds.

''This provision puts the Columbia River Crossing (CRC) in a strong position to compete for federal funding,'' she stressed. ''It will ensure that instead of using outdated, conventional methods to rate transit projects the FTA takes into account all of the benefits this multi-modal project brings to the region's commuters and economy.''

The light-rail portion of the $4.1 billion CRC project, which includes some $3 billion in highway widening and intersection improvement costs, reports Oregonian writer Dylan Rivera, could now receive $750 million in federal money, and the road portion could get $400 million, with more than $1 billion expected from bridge tolls, and the rest covered locally.

Transportation officials in both states applaud the provision.

''We can't thank Senator Murray enough for her wisdom in crafting legislative language that will enable the I-5 Columbia River Crossing to compete more effectively for federal dollars,'' said Washington State Department of Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond. ''We believe the project embraces a modern way of thinking about improving our nation's transportation infrastructure by integrating light rail and highway needs into the same solution.''

Oregon Department of Transportation Federal Affairs Advisor Travis Brouwer pointed to the artificiality of FTA evaluation of the Vancouver light rail extension along the planned bridge as a separate, stand-alone project.

The highway component accounts for most of the whole project's costs, he observed, but its light rail adds ''no benefit from the FTA's perspective.''

More about the project at www.columbiarivercrossing.org. -- Oregonian   7/30/2009

Resource(s): http://murray.senate.gov/ ; www.oregonlive.com/

Oberstar Asks White House to Back Up Words With Action on Emissions

When highway planners want a new road, ''they don't go through the gymnastics of a cost-effectiveness index'' the federal government requires for transit projects, they ''get the money, and build a road,'' said House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Democratic Chairman James Oberstar at a public release of Cambridge Systematics' study Moving Cooler: An Analysis of Transportation Strategies for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, telling Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary John Porcari and Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff that they won't get ''a head start on these strategies'' if his $450 billion bill stalls.

The White House, observes Streetsblog Capitol Hill writer Elana Schor, is pressing for an 18-month postponement of the next six-year transportation bill though Chairman Oberstar cautions against delay in reforming the inequitable current system that favors highway construction over transit.

''The president gets it -- the crowd around him doesn't,'' he concluded, calling it difficult to double transit investment ''if you've got a millstone around your neck.''

Another key transit and non-car mobility advocate, Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming Vice Chairman Earl Blumenauer said to expand transit, Congress will ''raise gas and diesel taxes sometime in the next decade,'' but ''not while the economy is in freefall.'' -- Streetsblog   7/28/2009

Resource(s): http://dc.streetsblog.org/

Moving Cooler Study Suggests ''Bundled'' Strategies to Cut GHG Emissions

Since its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation grew almost two times faster than from other sectors in 1990-2006 and now account for some 28 percent of the total, the nation needs better vehicle and fuel technology, but also less vehicle travel and more mobility modes at higher operational efficiency and traffic flow for the whole network to reach the American Clean Energy and Security Act targets of 17 and 83 percent emissions cuts below the 2005 level by 2020 and 2050, states a new Cambridge Systematics study, presenting nearly 50 strategies in nine categories, the top two of which focus on pricing and taxes, and on land use and smart growth.

Sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FTA), Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly with several interest and advocacy groups, the Moving Cooler study estimates the potential effectiveness of individual strategies and strategy ''bundles'' to cut GHG emissions by ''inducing people to use less fuel-intensive means of transportation (e.g. walking, bicycling, riding in a bus or train, or carpooling)'' and by reducing fuel consumption ''through transportation system improvements.''

Assessing the potential results of three implementation levels -- expanded current practice, an aggressive and a maximum effort -- for six logical ''illustrative bundles of strategies,'' the study shows that the most effective ones within the bundles ''are local and regional pricing and regulatory strategies that increase the costs of single occupancy vehicle travel, regulatory strategies that reduce and enforce speed limits, educational strategies to encourage eco-driving behavior that achieves better fuel efficiency, land use and smart growth strategies that reduce travel distances, and multi-modal strategies that expand travel options.''

Though some implementation costs are substantial, so are ''the direct vehicle cost savings realized nationally, through reduced travel and reduced fuel consumption.''

For five of the six bundles, the average vehicle ownership, maintenance and repair cost savings exceed the annual implementation costs ''by up to $72 billion for an aggressive level of deployment and up to $112 billion for a maximum level of deployment during a 40-year time frame,'' not counting benefits for mobility, travel time, safety, user fees, environmental quality, economic development or public health.

Still, in terms of national energy independence, the reduced vehicle use means savings of 85 million to 470 million barrels of oil a year, and 110 million to 660 million barrels, respectively.

''Strong economy-wide pricing measures, beyond the local and regional pricing strategies included in some of the illustrative bundles, could generate GHG reductions well beyond those that could be achieved by the bundles,'' the study says, noting that an additional ''aggressive deployment'' gas fee, equaling $0.60 a gallon in current dollars, starting in 2015 and rising to $1.25 in 2050, could ensure an additional 17-percent GHG emissions reduction by that time, but that a ''maximum effort'' fee of $2.40 in 2015 -- the equivalent of current European fuel taxes -- rising to $5 in 2050, would result in an additional emissions cut of 28 percent.

While some Moving Cooler strategies -- including speed limits, congestion pricing, eco-driving, and operational and transit improvements -- could be implemented quickly and generate GHG reduction before 2020, others would require more time, especially those in bundles involving shifts in development and land use patterns to increase densities and minimize vehicle travel.

''The notable reductions for these strategies are realized in the outer decades of this analysis, in 2030 and beyond,'' the study finds, stressing that they depend on development policy changes and significant investment in transit, but ''could achieve meaningful GHG reductions by 2050, ranging from 9 to 15 percent without economy-wide pricing.''

See the links to study data and press coverage at the resource link below. --Moving Cooler   7/28/2009

Resource(s): www.movingcooler.info/

College Campaigns to Send Land-Use Student to Climate Change Conference

At 21, future smart-growth professional Noah Hodgetts, now a land use planning and environmental law senior at College of the Atlantic (COA), Bar Harbor, Maine -- the nation's first to become Carbon NetZero in December 2007 and called ''America's Greenest'' by the Bangor Metro magazine last March -- knows his generation will face an ever-heavier impact from global warming, feels strongly ''it is up to youth like him to ensure that the world does remain livable,'' and wants to attend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen this December to appeal for inclusion of sustainable transportation in global treaties.

A Newton, Massachusetts native and 2006 graduate of Waltham's Gann Academy, the Jewish High School of Greater Boston, says a COA press release in The Boston Globe, Noah Hodgetts has been studying global climate issues with a dozen colleagues in a class they have jointly created for the Copenhagen summit.

''This is the conference to go to for the future of climate laws,'' he said. ''Although climate change isn't my main focus, it is such a large part of what we deal with today and therefore essential to have a handle on what is going on.''

The press release notes the school ''was founded in 1969 on the premise that education should go beyond understanding the world as it is, to enabling students to actively shape its future,'' while pioneering ''a distinctive interdisciplinary approach to undergraduate education -- human ecology -- that is especially well suited to developing the types of leaders needed by all sectors of society'' in the changing world.

''The Copenhagen Conference,'' said COA President David Hales, ''has the potential to be the single most important international negotiation of the last two centuries. No matter what issue one cares about most -- hunger, children's health, water, poverty, energy and the economy -- what happens in Copenhagen will have massive impact for good or ill. These students will live in the future that will be shaped by the negotiations. They believe it is essential for them to be present so that the diplomats who negotiate the treaties can never forget that their actions in December will affect the planet for centuries to come.''

The COA press release invites donations to help Noah Hodgetts travel to Copenhagen.

Mail should be addressed to College of the Atlantic, c/o ''Road to Copenhagen,'' 105 Eden St., Bar Harbor, ME 04609; tel. (207) 288-2944 ext. 350.

More about COA and its programs at www.coa.edu. -- The Boston Globe   7/17/2009

Resource(s): www.boston.com/

White House Hosts First Urban and Metropolitan Policy Roundtable

''For too long, federal policy has actually encouraged sprawl and congestion and pollution, rather than quality public transportation and smart, sustainable development,'' said President Obama as he welcomed ''some of the finest urban thinkers'' at the White House's first Urban and Metropolitan Policy Roundtable, calling the subject ''near and dear'' to his heart, since he lived almost all his life ''in urban areas'' and received his ''greatest education on Chicago's South Side, working at the local level to bring about change in those communities and opportunities to people's lives.''

That experience gave him ''an understanding of some of the challenges facing city halls all across the county,'' challenges ''particularly severe today because of this recession,'' he noted, worried that four in five cities have had to cut services and 48 states face budget deficits.

Absent ''the most sweeping economic recovery plan in our nation's history,'' the President said, ''our cities would be in an even deeper hole, and state budget deficits would be nearly twice as large as they are right now, and tens of thousand of police officers and firefighters and teachers would be out of a job as we speak.''

Still, to rebuild the cities ''on a newer, stronger foundation,'' he continued, the nation needs urban and metropolitan strategies ''that focus on advancing opportunity through competitive, sustainable, and inclusive growth,'' but without the old divide between city and suburb because they now ''come together and recognize they can't solve their problems in isolation,'' while holding 85 percent of the nation's jobs and generating 90 percent of its economic output.

''Now, that doesn't mean investing in America comes at the expense of rural America; quite the opposite,'' the President stressed. ''Investing in mass transit and high-speed rail, for example, doesn't just make our downtowns more livable; it helps our regional economies grow. Investing in renewable energy doesn't just make our cities cleaner; it boosts rural areas that harness that energy. Our urban and rural communities are not independent; they are interdependent.''

To make the White House ''a partner who knows that the old ways of looking at our cities just won't do,'' he said, he has directed the Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Policy Council, the National Economic Council, and the new Office of Urban Affairs ''to conduct the first comprehensive interagency review in 30 years of how the federal government approaches and funds urban and metropolitan areas so that we can start having a concentrated, focused, strategic approach to federal efforts to revitalize our metropolitan areas.''

Promising to make sure ''federal policies aren't hostile to good ideas or best practices on the local level'' and to invest only in what works, the President exemplified the goal with two of his budgetary proposals -- Promise Neighborhoods, modeled on ''an all-encompassing, all-hands-on-deck effort that's turning around the lives of New York City's children, block by block,'' and Choice Neighborhoods, which ''focuses on new ideas for housing in our cities by recognizing that different communities need different solutions.''

Turning to the new interagency partnership led by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the President said they will work together to ensure ''that affordable housing exists in close proximity to jobs and transportation,'' which means ''shorter travel times and lower travel costs,'' along with ''safer, greener, more livable communities.''

And complimenting cities that didn't wait for the federal government, and have ''become their own laboratories for change and innovation,'' he mentioned Denver, Philadelphia and Kansas City.

''Three different cities with three unique ideas for the future,'' he said, announcing visits of his Cabinet and Office of Urban Affairs members in all three this summer ''as part of an ongoing national conversation to lift up best practices from around the country, to look at innovations for the metropolitan areas of tomorrow.'' -- Washington Post, The White House   7/13/2009

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/ ; www.whitehouse.gov/

HUD Deputy Secretary Sims Brings Smart Growth to the Table

Under President Obama's directive for federal agencies to ensure they promote, not hinder, good local ideas or best practices, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Deputy Secretary Ron Sims, who credits his appointment to his 12-year Smart Growth track record as Executive for King County, Washington, and who oversees HUD's daily operations, also leads its effort to identify its own legal and regulatory barriers ''that inadvertently impede smart growth and sustainable development,'' writes Seattle Times reporter Eric Pryne, with the deputy secretary stressing, ''We're no longer a housing agency. We're a community-development agency.''

Smart growth was discussed in his interview with President Obama and was immediately addressed by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan when they first met, he noted, saying it's not the federal role to tell state and local governments how to plan or regulate land use, but part of his job is to persuade more of them to explore smart growth, and the agency will offer grants ''to stimulate and encourage'' new approaches.

HUD's proposed 2010 budget includes $140 million to help local governments adopt plans and rules for integration of housing, land use and transportation, with Deputy Secretary Sims also hoping for better ways to provide affordable housing in ''smart'' communities.

At HUD since May, the reporter writes, the deputy secretary has taken an apartment near transit and a bike path in such a nationally renowned ''smart'' community, Arlington, Virginia and he will be biking to the office despite summer heat.

Sustainability advocates, the reporter adds, call the Obama administration's focus on smart growth ''unprecedented.''

Referring to a recent Senate testimony in its support by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Seattle-based Quality Growth Alliance Chairman Patrick Callahan said the joint appearance showed ''a different, rational approach to growth in America,'' while Smart Growth America Communications Director David Goldberg pointed out that HUD in particular has mostly been missing in action on smart growth until now. -- Seattle Times, The Spokesman-Review   7/12/2009

Resource(s): http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ ; www.spokesman.com/

ARRA Transportation Funds Bypassing Urban Projects

The 100 largest metropolitan regions house two-thirds of the country's population, generate three-quarters of its economic activity, and suffer the worst traffic jams -- which the newest Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) annual mobility study of 439 urban areas blames for the waste of 2.8 billion gallons of fuel and 4.2 billion of productive hours, at a total cost of $87.2 billion in 2007 -- but a New York Times analysis of how states will spend the $16.4 billion allocated so far out of their 70-percent share of the $26.6 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus money shows more than half of it going to shovel-ready projects in rural areas.

The remaining 30 percent of the $26.6 million, report Times writers Michael Cooper and Griff Palmer, was sent to metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), which did not face forefeiture of funds if not approved before a June 30 deadline. The MPOs will likely use the extra time to select and fund projects requiring more preparation in metro areas.

''If we're trying to recover the nation's economy, we should be focusing where the economy is,'' said Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program Senior Fellow Robert Puentes. ''But states take this peanut-butter approach, taking the dollars and spreading them around very thinly, rather than taking the dollars and concentrating them where the most complex transportation problems are.''

With the Times analysis showing over half of ARRA money committed by states to ''pavement improvement'' projects, nearly a tenth to bridge repair or replacement, and more than a quarter to road widening and construction of additional roads and bridges, experts see continuation of a typical trend.

''We have a long history of shortchanging cities and metropolitan areas and allocating transportation money to places where few people live,'' pointed out City University of New York Assistant Professor of Urban Planning Owen D. Gutfreund, author of ''20th Century Sprawl: Highways and the Reshaping of the American Landscape,'' Oxford University Press, 2004.

In some states, he noted, internal politics dictated the spread of the money to districts of as many lawmakers as possible, while in other states, distribution formulas favor rural areas or give priority to state-owned roads, often also in the countryside.

Having called for ending sprawl and ensuring the cost-effectiveness of federal transportation funds, the writers observe, Obama administration officials are watching stimulus expenditures nationwide to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the system.

''The transparency that comes with Recovery Act funds is letting us see what's happening in real time, and that's a good thing,'' said Transportation Undersecretary for Policy Roy Kienitz, former Surface Transportation Policy Project Executive Director, Maryland Secretary of Planning for Governor Parris N. Glendening, and Deputy Chief of Staff for Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. ''Understanding where recovery dollars go and why will help us determine how to shape long-term transportation policies with the goal of getting the most benefit for every dollar.''

See the newest TTI mobility report at http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/. -- New York Times   7/8/2009

Resource(s): www.nytimes.com; http://tti.tamu.edu/

EPA Administrator Jackson: Clean Energy Act Is Best Chance to Preserve Public Health, Natural Environment

''President Obama called upon the Senate to demonstrate the same commitment we saw in the House to building a clean-energy foundation for a strong American economy,'' said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson at the beginning of her testimony before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, grateful for its hearing just two legislative days after the historic passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act by the House, and confident the Senate is no less determined to reduce the nation's dependency on foreign oil, create millions of jobs, and cut air pollution.

''Clean energy is to this decade and the next what the Space Race was to the 1950s and '60s, and America is behind. Governments in Asia and Europe are ahead of the United States in making aggressive investments in clean-energy technology,'' the Administrator observed, pointing out that the nation is also late in ''the task of leading the world's major greenhouse-gas emitters to reverse our collective emissions' growth in time to avert catastrophic climatic changes that would severely harm America's economy and national security within our children's lifetimes.''

Concerned that the international effort to reduce emissions ''will not begin in earnest unless and until the United States leads the charge,'' Administrator Jackson cited Congressional Budget Office findings that the Clean Energy and Security Act's net cost for average households will be less than 50 cents a day in 2020, and less than 70 cents for the wealthiest 20 percent, while the poorest 20 percent would actually gain more than ten cents a day.

And even if in the few states ''where people drive very long distances and rely almost exclusively on electricity,'' the average family's net cost were twice the national average, ''it still would be just a dollar a day,'' she noted, a figure that misses both ''the economic benefits of saving our children from living with increased drought, fire, pests, flooding, and disease,'' and ''the benefit of decreasing our dependency on foreign oil.''

Stressing that the House bill is backed by labor unions, manufacturing companies, electric utilities, consumer advocates, and environmental groups, Administrator Jackson had a few words about detractors.

''Of course, there are still interest groups out there opposing this effort,'' she said. ''But I think the tide is turning against the defenders of the status quo, who want more of the same policies that made us dependent on foreign oil and that caused America to forfeit the lead in the burgeoning global competition to sell clean-energy technology.'' -- U.S. EPA   7/7/2009

Resource(s): www.epa.gov/

Celebrating Energy Independence on Independence Day

''This 4th of July, what better way to celebrate America's birthday than to declare energy independence and seize control of our economic destiny?'' asked Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Executive Director David Yarnold in his Sacramento Bee essay after the U.S. House passed the Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, pointing out that besides ''weaning us off foreign oil, the bill will also create a flood of new jobs as we convert our economy to clean energy.''

By capping carbon emissions, the bill will generate demand for cleaner energy and spur creation of related jobs, he writes, noting that a single wind turbine ''contains 250 tons of steel and 8,000 parts, from ball bearings and electronic controls to gearboxes,'' with manufacturing jobs created throughout the country, especially in the Midwestern heartland, and with the opportunity for technology export to China and elsewhere.

''Opponents of the Clean Energy and Security Act, many of them so stuck in the past that they don't even acknowledge the scientific reality of global warming, are trying to bully consumers with the same old solution-free scare tactic. They warn of outrageous increases in energy costs based on distortions and discredited studies,'' Director Yarnold observes. ''Both the EPA and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) say that, under the Act, the average household will pay about 12 cents more a day -- the cost of brewing a pot of coffee. That's nothing next to the cost of doing nothing, which would be beyond calculation.''

With the Senate due now to take up the bill, the EDF director assures readers that their voices matter and tells them that senators can be contacted at www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm. -- Sacramento Bee   7/2/2009

Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/

Transit Support May Have Added to Vote Total for Clean Energy Act

The eight Republican ''traitors'' who joined 211 Democrats in the House to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act late last month -- Leonard Lance, Frank LoBiondo and Chris Smith of New Jersey, Mary Bono Mack of California, Mike Castle of Delaware, Mark Kirk of Illinois, John McHugh of New York, and Dave Reichert of Washington -- faced an immediate assault from the party for ''selling out taxpayers'' and may become targets of conservative retribution in their next primaries for reelection, with Democratic insiders considering the potential political fratricide especially mindless since Speaker Nancy Pelosi had the votes to pass the bill without Republican support.

The 44 Democrats who voted against the bill ''were granted license to cast those votes (hoping to appease more conservative constituencies),'' reports Huffington Post writer Sam Stein, noting that on the other side, the eight Republicans, all with ''green'' credentials, kept in mind their more liberal electorates.

American Enterprise Institute Fellow Steve Hayward feels the same.

''I think each had different reasons for voting for the bill, mostly electoral self-preservation,'' he wrote in an e-mail. ''I am sure Pelosi had eight more votes if she needed them among Democrats who are worried about re-election.''

Nevertheless, Streetsblog Capitol Hill reporter Elana Schor points out that the eight Republican climate ''traitors'' have something else in common besides environmental endorsements -- ''a local investment in transit.''

Their support of transit and their willingness ''to buck their leaders on the climate bill'' seem to be linked, even if not directly, she writes, adding, ''What's more important is that communities where transit plays a central role are communities where action on climate change is valued -- no matter what party the local lawmakers belongs to.'' -- Huffington Post   6/30/2009

Resource(s): www.huffingtonpost.com/ ; http://dc.streetsblog.org/

House Passes Nation's First Climate Bill

In a major political victory for President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, won despite the defection of 44 farm-state Democrats and support from only eight Republicans, the House voted 219-212 for the nation's first federal climate control bill, the Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, co-sponsored by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming Chairman Ed Markey, whose flexibility on some contentious practical issues underscored the paramount importance of the key goal -- to cut U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 17 percent from the 2005 level by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.

In one concession, report Washington Post writers Steven Mufson, David A. Fahrenthold and Paul Kane, authority over a program that would offer farmer incentives, or ''offsets,'' for tilling techniques that trap carbon dioxide in the soil was shifted from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the Department of Agriculture (USDA).

If Senate leaders take a similar tack, ensure their climate bill's passage, and the final legislation becomes law, the writers note, the nation will see ''vast changes in the ways energy is made, sold and used,'' with gradually higher costs for fossil-fuel-based electricity and more funds for ''clean'' power from renewable sources like wind and the sun.

Calling the bill passage ''an extraordinary first step,'' President Obama pointed out in an Oval Office interview for The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times that it contains ''not only a framework for cap and trade, but huge significant steps on energy efficiency, a renewable energy standard, huge incentives for research and development in new technologies, incentives for electric cars, incentives for nuclear energy, (and) clean coal technology.''

Accompanied by his Assistant for Energy and Climate Carol Browner and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, President Obama included a pointed remark in his opening statement.

''There are critics from the left as well as the right; some who say it doesn't go far enough, some who say it goes too far,'' he said. ''I am convinced that after a long period of inaction, for us to have taken such a significant step means that we're going to be in a position to advance technologically, obtain huge gains in efficiency. I think what we are going to see is that if we're able to get this in place that it's going to be very similar to the Clean Air Act of '91 or how we approached acid rain, where all the nay-sayers are proven wrong because American ingenuity and technology moves a lot faster when incentives are in place.''

And mentioning his conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and acknowledging that European leaders ''would like to see even more aggressive targets,'' President Obama said, ''My argument to her and to the Europeans is we don't want to make the best the enemy of the good. We did not get into this situation overnight, we're not going to get out of it overnight. By putting a framework in place that is realistic, that is common-sensical, that protects consumers from huge spikes in electricity costs while setting real, meaningful targets -- what we are doing is changing the political conversation and the incentive structures for businesses in this country.''

Click here to see the full transcript of the Oval Office interview. -- Washington Post, Reuters   6/29/2009

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/ ; www.reuters.com/

ARRA Surface Transportation Funds Missing the Smart Growth Mark

With transit ridership ''at all times highs'' and car use down, the $26.6 billion in flexible Surface Transportation Program (STP) funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) ''provided golden opportunities for states and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to make game-changing plays and invest in transportation options . . . unfortunately most of them are striking out,'' commented Smart Growth America (SGA) President Geoff Anderson on its worrisome ''States and the Stimulus'' report, which shows a commitment of $21.3 billion so far, but only 2.8 percent reserved for bike, pedestrian-focused or other non-motorized projects, and just 0.9 percent for mass transit.

The huge total of 94.2 percent nationwide committed to highways reflects 62.9 percent for system preservation and 31.3 percent for new capacity, the former choice much better than the latter, the report points out, since road and bridge repair projects generate more jobs and greater long-term economic benefits by spending most money on labor rather than equipment and land acquisition.

''Despite a multi-trillion dollar backlog of road and bridge repairs, states committed almost a third of the ARRA STO money -- $6.6 billion -- to new capacity road and bridge projects rather than to repair and other preservation projects,'' the report observes, wondering why Kentucky decided to spend 88 percent of its $421 million in flexible funds on new roads despite having 38.3 percent of lane miles in poor shape and 573 structurally deficient bridges.

''And if the state can't afford to maintain what it has, how does it plan to maintain the new roads?'' the report asks, citing the District of Columbia, Delaware and Iowa as the right models.

They will spend roughly 58, 72 and 77 percent of their funds on repairs, with Iowa earmarking another 6 percent for new capacity. The district and Delaware will invest the rest -- 41.5 and 27.9 percent, respectively -- in bike and walkability projects, while Ohio will split its remaining money, 5 to 11 percent, between such projects and transit.

''Most states did not use funding to fill the giant backlog in public transportation investment,'' the report concludes, calling nationwide allocation of less than $190 million (0.9 percent) of the flexible money total ''grossly inadequate.''

Even with a separate $8.4 billion in ARRA money dedicated to mass transit projects, ''the total commitment to public transportation falls short of the need.''

See the report and web links to its extensive press coverage nationwide, largely focused on specific area or city issues at www.smartgrowthamerica.org. -- Smart Growth America, Phoenix Business Journal   6/29/2009

Resource(s): www.smartgrowthamerica.org ; www.phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/

EPA Administrator Jackson Energized by Cooperative Work With Federal Departments

The best part of her job ''is being a part of President Obama's administration,'' feeling ''the real change in attitude about the environment, the fact that the president sees the environment as a crucial step towards our economic recovery,'' said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in an exclusive interview for Grist TV, happy both to have had her agency ''come out swinging'' and to join top presidential energy and climate change advisors and several department secretaries in his ''green Cabinet'' at work to ''break down the silos that have traditionally stymied federal policymaking and action.''

The team includes Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology John Holdren, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley and the secretaries of transportation, agriculture, commerce, labor, energy, interior, and housing and urban development -- Ray LaHood, Tom Vilsack, Gary Locke, Hilda Solis, Steven Chu, Ken Salazar, and Shaun Donovan, she noted, recalling a recent Senate hearing on smart growth, where Secretary LaHood followed her testimony with an extraordinary message on ''the importance of thinking smartly about land-use planning as part of the transportation bill.''

Asked about the ominous ''Global Climate Change Impact in the United States'' report from the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), Administrator Jackson said her agency used much of the same science in its ''draft finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.''

Once the finding is fully detailed and verified, EPA will fulfill its legal obligation, affirmed by a Supreme Court decision almost two years ago, to regulate these gases ''in the context of the Clean Air Act.''

Still, she said, ''we have to watch Congress because if a law passes that takes away that authority or changes it in some way, we have to be ready for that.''

But as discussions proceed, ''we're going to continue to carry out our responsibilities to the American people'' and work with the DOT and California on auto regulations.

She expressed optimism about prospects for a national climate policy in time for the global negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark this December, but she also pointed out that EPA has an agenda ''broader than climate change,'' including renewal of its commitment ''to science, to the law and transparency.''

With research showing that 60 percent of Americans inhabit areas failing air standards for other than CO2 pollution, with the percentage higher in some urban areas, Administrator Jackson said, ''Climate change is a long-term threat, but things like ozone pollution and particulate pollution is much shorter and can have acute health impacts, even death.''

She also emphasized EPA obligations to improve water quality, clean up brownfields, control toxic chemicals, and ensure environmental justice, an issue long sidelined.

Those who made it ''their life's passion,'' Administrator Jackson said, should know ''that they have a seat at the table and a voice and that they're listened to, that (environmental justice) is not an afterthought to be redressed later, but that in decision making, in policy making, we give consideration to make sure that those who are poor, those who are disproportionally impacted for whatever set of reasons, aren't being asked to accept an additional share of environmental burden because it's easier or because they're disenfranchised,'' which includes ''people of color.''

Equally important ''is that we don't just deal with the bad stuff, but as we see this new economy growing -- green jobs, green collar, green energy . . . -- that we get some of that good stuff going as well, so that a lot of communities who may feel separate from environmental issues suddenly have a real stake in them, because they literally make their living through green energy or through site cleanup,'' she stressed, concluding, ''And you don't just give someone a job when that happens, you build an environmentalist from the ground up.'' -- Grist TV   6/23/2009

Resource(s): www.grist.org/ ; www.globalchange.gov/

CCAP Reports Highlight Economic, Environmental Benefits of Smart Growth

In two major reports this month -- ''Ask the Climate Question: Adapting to Climate Change Impacts in Urban Regions'' and ''Cost-Effective GHG Reduction through Smart Growth & Improved Transportation Choices: An economic case for strategic investment of cap-and-trade revenues'' -- the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) documents the urgent need for the federal government to ''help advance local climate adaptation efforts,'' and to dedicate ''10 percent of cap-and-trade allocation values toward smart planning and low-carbon transportation investments,'' promising further analysis of the profitability of such outlays in a ''Growing Wealthier: The Economic Benefits of Smart Growth'' report this summer.

Pointing out in the ''Ask the Climate Question'' report that the ten cities and counties in its 2006 Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative have already found their ''experience in hazard mitigation, flood management, water conservation and land use planning'' useful for their climate change strategies, the CCAP recommends four federal steps to advance local preparations for climatic impact.

The federal government should ''improve climate science and modeling, including regional downscaling; support local adaptation by creating climate extension service networks to provide local governments with technical assistance on implementation of adaptation solutions; expand programs that encourage proactive, pre-disaster adaptation, such as FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant program; and facilitate dialogues among cities, counties, and states to share best practices in adaptation planning and implementation.''

In the subsequent ''Cost-Effective GHG Reductions through Smart Growth & Improved Transportation Choices'' report, the CCAP notes that Congress has moved to reduce transportation's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by requiring better fuel economy and lower GHG content so far, and now should focus on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and make it possible for people to drive less.

Since typical analyses assume a high ''cost per ton'' for GHG reductions, and overlook smart growth, improved transportation choices, and congestion pricing as means to cut VMT, reduce infrastructure costs, and increase consumer savings on fuel, insurance and time, while boosting local tax revenue, the CCAP focuses on these missed issues, finding that ''comprehensive application of best practices could reduce VMT per capita by 10 percent and reduce annual GHG emissions 145 MMTCO2 (million metric tons of carbon dioxide) in 2030 -- equivalent to the annual emissions of some 30 million cars or 35 large coal plants.''

Viewed holistically, ''many transportation-related emissions reductions are not only cheaper than reductions in the utility and petroleum sectors, but also would help ease the cost of compliance on those sectors,'' the CCAP observes, identifying five economic benefits of integrated smart growth planning.

It can ''reduce infrastructure costs by approximately 25 percent or more; attract private investment, increasing municipal revenues through real estate taxes; reduce household costs, freeing up disposable income, especially for working families; improve energy security by reducing dependency on oil; and increase walking and bicycling, improve public health and reduce medical costs.''

Given the range of the benefits, the federal government could immediately ''remove barriers to low-carbon transportation'' by funding ready-to-go transit, bicycle and pedestrian projects, nationwide, with $3.7 billion for unmet cyclist and pedestrian needs, and with $248 billion sought by 78 regions in 37 states to launch 400 projects for mass transit. CCAP Director of Transportation and Adaptation Programs Steve Winkelman, principal report author, expects the data, economic benefit calculations, and policy recommendations to carry their weight in congressional debates on the next six-year transportation-funding bill, to replace the one expiring September 30.

''It is time to invest in our citizens, to improve their health, their quality of life, their neighborhoods and their employment opportunities -- by supporting smart growth and improved transportation options,'' he said. ''The U.S. should seek investments that bring the greatest benefits to society, particularly during this economic downturn. This study shows that smart growth pays dividends to all citizens.''

Read the reports: Ask the Climate Question: Adapting to Climate Change Impacts in Urban Regions (44 pages) and Cost-Effective GHG Reductions through Smart Growth & Improved Transportation Choices (25 pages). -- Center for Clean Air Policy   6/18/2009

Resource(s): www.ccap.org/

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

Resource(s): http://banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Home.Home

Smart Growth Leaders Hail EPA-HUD-DOT Partnership

Having respectively championed smart growth's concepts, goals and practices from inside and outside EPA since the mid-1990s, gradually expanding its knowledge and support on the federal, state and local levels, Smart Growth America President Geoff Anderson -- until last year the EPA Development, Community and Environment Division director, earlier aiding his predecessor Harriet Tregoning, now DC Planning Director, to launch EPA's Smart Growth program -- and the capital area's Coalition for Smarter Growth Executive Director Stewart Schwartz applauded EPA-HUD-DOT teamwork in the new Partnership for Sustainable Communities as long overdue and crucial for the nation's future.

''Government agencies tend to focus exclusively on their own issue areas. But the issues of housing, transportation and the environment are so deeply linked that any true solutions will involve all three of these agencies,'' pointed out President Anderson. ''Smart Growth America is encouraged to see these agencies working together to solve problems rather than trying to solve just their own piece of the puzzle. These goals will help all three agencies in their partnership to do the same thing SGA is trying to do: make our growth, development and transportation fair, equitable, environmentally sustainable and affordable for all Americans.''

Coalition for Smarter Growth Executive Director Schwartz focused on regional opportunities.

''The Coalition for Smarter Growth has worked for 12 years to promote smart growth policies in the Washington, D.C. region and as a result we are well situated to be a national model. Our region must take advantage of this shift in federal policy,'' he said. ''With our nation facing huge financial strains, we need to use existing resources more wisely, and that's just what can happen with this integrated approach. Whether it is the redesign of Tysons Corner, the Purple Line, development at the 15 underutilized Metro stations in Prince George's County, or revitalization of commercial corridors like Route 1 in College Park and Fairfax or Route 234 in Manassas, the new federal approach could ensure that we combine revitalization with transit investment, repair and replacement of aging water and sewer systems, and preservation, enhancement and energy efficiency retrofits of a broad mix of housing. The result will be smarter land use, a cleaner environment, and a more efficient use of our tax dollars.''

Other smart growth advocates expressed the same satisfaction and optimism.

National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Smart Growth Program Director Kaid Benfield wrote that a March announcement of joint HUD and DOT work on ''metro-area coordination of housing, transportation and land use planning'' left him wondering about EPA's absence.

''After all, both the Clinton and Bush administrations maintained a truly committed and innovative smart growth division (DCED) in their policy office (OPEI), now headed for the Obama administration by Maryland smart growth veteran John Frece,'' he observed, now reassured by EPA's entry into the partnership.

''EPA's smart growth staff really has the best and the brightest, in my opinion and I'm not just saying that because they are friends of mine,'' he added. ''They are very, very good at what they do, and even with a relatively small budget have produced some of the best research in the field. HUD and DOT will be fortunate to have them as a partner, and so will the country.''

In Seattle, the diverse Quality Growth Alliance, which works on the best ways to accommodate another 17 million residents and 1.2 million jobs in the four-county Central Puget Sound region by 2040, gave much credit for the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities to former long-time King County Democratic Executive Ron Sims, now HUD Deputy Secretary.

''We're blessed to have benefited from Deputy Secretary Sims' tireless work ethic and leadership on the issue that affects so many individuals and families through the Central Puget Region,'' said its member John Hempelmann, principal of the Cairncross & Hempelmann law firm, with Alliance Chair Pat Callahan, Urban Renaissance Group CEO, stressing that the partnership ''signals a different, rational approach to growth in America; an approach marked by an understanding between transportation, land use, and the environment.''

More on the subject at www.smartgrowthamerica.org, www.smartergrowth.net, and www.nrdc.org. -- Smart Growth America, Coalition for Smarter Growth, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, National Resources Defense Council, Quality Growth Alliance   6/17/2009

Resource(s): www.smartgrowthamerica.org ; www.smartergrowth.net/

EPA Joins HUD, DOT in Partnership for Sustainable Communities

''Where you live affects how you get around, and how you get around often affects where you live. Both decisions affect our environment. In order to have the most effective greenhouse gas reduction strategy, we should have a strategy to reduce vehicle miles traveled. In order to provide truly affordable housing, we should take into account what residents must pay for transportation, energy, and water,'' testified EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, announcing EPA's entry into the three-agency Partnership for Sustainable Communities -- spearheaded by Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood -- and stressing that ''(s)mart growth principles are equally important in urban, suburban and rural areas.''

The partnership, Administrator Jackson said, gives the agencies ''an opportunity to share knowledge, resources, and strategies that will improve public health and the environment, cut costs and harmful emissions from transportation, and build more affordable homes in communities all over the country.''

Noting that land use decisions ''are, and should be, primarily made at the local, state, and tribal level,'' but also that ''federal policies, rules, and spending influence development patterns,'' she told the committee: ''We have an interest -- indeed, an obligation -- to ensure that our actions do not favor development that adversely affects the environment and public health.''

When it pollutes the air, waterways and drinking water or ''disproportionally harms disadvantaged communities,'' she stated, ''it is a federal responsibility in general -- and specifically an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) responsibility -- to protect Americans from these problems.''

Through their partnership, she continued, the three agencies will work together for well-designed, energy-efficient, and affordable housing; for an integrated transportation, land use, and environmental planning system, with more options for reaching jobs, schools and services; and for clean waterways, air and land.

''We have created a framework that will guide the cooperative development of policies, regulations, spending priorities, and legislative proposals,'' the administrator said. ''Together, these development strategies emphasize environmental, economic, cultural, and social sustainability. Our collective implementation of those policies at state, local, and tribal levels will assure that we accommodate our nation's anticipated growth in smarter, more sustainable ways.''

As ''a real world example,'' she cited EPA-championed reclamation and redevelopment of the 138-acre Atlantic Steel Mill brownfield in Atlanta, Georgia into dense mixed-use Atlantic Station --''a national model for smart growth.''

With 6 million square feet of LEED-certified offices, 2 million square feet of retail and entertainment space, 1000 hotel rooms, Atlantic Station will eventually offer 3,000 to 5,000 residential housing units.

Its shuttle to a commuter rail stop already circulates 1 million people a year, space for anticipated light rail is reserved, and residents drive ''an average of less than 14 miles per day,'' in contrast to 32 miles driven by other Atlantans.

What's more, compact and efficient land use ''reduced annual stormwater runoff by almost 20 million cubic feet a year.''

Turning to healthy communities and equitable development, Administrator Jackson focused on the prospect of joint EPA-DOT-HUD work ''to revitalize neighborhoods that have suffered from decades of disinvestment,'' and that contain many of the estimated 450,000 brownfields nationwide.

Though brownfield redevelopment is often difficult, especially for disadvantaged communities, she testified, their proximity to transportation and services are crucial ''to transforming years of disinvestment into a future of prosperity,'' with ''employment and educational opportunities, safe and affordable homes, access to recreation, health care, and other needs of daily life, all close enough together that people can choose to safely walk, bike, or take transit instead of driving.''

Since market demand for such neighborhoods all over the country is so strong that it ''has driven up housing costs in many smart growth area, too often putting them off-limits to lower-income residents,'' EPA is already working ''to create more environmentally responsible affordable housing in these neighborhoods,'' she said, mentioning recent EPA Smart Growth Program help for four communities in the Hartford, Connecticut area.

''As a nation, we face the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression,'' Administrator Jackson concluded. ''At the same time that we face this economic crisis, there is not a moment to lose in protecting public health, the environment, and confronting the rapid advance of climate change.'' -- U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs   6/16/2009

Resource(s): http://banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Home.Home

House Panel Oks Funding Boost for EPA

In yet another step to align federal outlays with the new environmental and climate change policies, the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Committee unanimously cleared a bill to increase funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department and the Forest Service from $27.6 billion to $32.3 billion, just $25 million less than sought by President Obama, but with the fund structure especially advantageous to the EPA, whose current budget of $7.6 billion would reach $10.6 billion, or over $80 million more than the President expected.

''During the previous administration, the programs and activities funded by this subcommittee really suffered,'' said its Democratic Chairman Norm Dicks, ''Now we are beginning to address major shortfalls and invest in America's environment.''

Republicans praised his handling of the bill, note Greenwire reporters Robin Bravender and Taryn Luntz, but also voiced reservations.

''Providing a 17 percent overall increase in funding -- and an astonishing 38 percent increase for the EPA -- when our country is experiencing the worst economic situation in decades is not a responsible way to govern,'' commented House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Jerry Lewis. ''We must hold the line on spending and make budget choices that are sustainable and that do not rely on continued deficits and borrowing.''

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, his committee scheduled to review the bill on June 18, stressed the need to create jobs and reinvigorate underfunded programs.

''I make no apology for the role that this bill plays in trying to help put this country back to work at the same time that we take care of woefully long negligence that has reflected in areas such as ... clean water and in, yes, in areas including climate change.''

The bill, the Greenwire reporters add, includes $419 million for climate change adaptation and research -- $189 million above the fiscal 2009 level, and $24 million more than requested by the President.

It also leaves intact the presidential request to boost water infrastructure funding from $1.5 billion to $3.9 billion, but increases allocations for great water bodies from $123 million to $667 million -- $89 million above the presidential proposal -- with $475 million dedicated to a major Great Lakes restoration initiative.

Noting that the bill requires the EPA to set an ''action agenda'' as part of the restoration plan due in 2011, Subcommittee Chairman Dicks said ''we want a plan that will lead to the recovery of the Great Lakes, and we want it to be independently, scientifically verified by an outside group of experts.'' -- Greenwire   6/10/2009

Resource(s): www.eenews.net/gw/

New Healthy Communities Toolkit Targets Childhood Obesity

Alarmed by the American obesity epidemic, with more than 23 million children and adolescents overweight or obese, $117 billion in annual costs, and concerns that ''this generation of young people may be the first in U.S. history to live sicker and die younger than their parents' generation,'' the national Leadership for Healthy Communities program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation partnered with 11 policy-maker organizations at every level of government to promote school, community and child health, releasing their joint smart-growth-friendly ''Action Strategies Toolkit: A Guide for Local and State Leaders Working to Create Healthy Communities and Prevent Childhood Obesity'' last month at a Washington, D.C. summit, followed by a June 10 presentation for the Healthy Communities Network Webinar.

''Through daily decisions about budgets, laws, regulations or zoning, policy-makers can help develop healthier and more viable communities,'' write Leadership for Healthy Communities Director Maya Rockeymoore Cummings and the partnering leaders in the introduction to the toolkit. ''For example, government leaders can facilitate land-use policies, such as mixed-use development, and support public parks and transit options, including walking paths and bicycle lanes. They can create incentives to attract supermarkets and farmers' markets to underserved communities and improve the nutritional quality of foods and beverages in schools.''

The signatories stress that their toolkit strategies ''have tremendous potential to change the trajectory of our children's future.'' Signatories include:

• Council of State Governments Executive Director David Adkins
• National League of Cities Executive Director Donald J. Borut
• National School Boards Association Executive Director Anne L. Bryant
• United States Conference of Mayors Executive Director Tom Cochran
• Local Government Commission Executive Director Judy Corbett
• American Association of School Administrators Executive Director Daniel A. Domenech
• National Association of Counties Executive Director Larry E. Naake
• International City/County Management Association Executive Director Robert J. O'Neil, Jr.
• National Conference of State Legislatures Executive Director William Pound
• National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund Executive Director Arturo Vargas
• National Association of State Board of Education Executive Director Brenda L. Welburn

The first part of the toolkit addresses active living and the built environment, including transportation, land use, open spaces, parks and recreation, quality physical activity in and near schools, and safety and crime prevention.

The second part focuses on healthy eating, specifically on quality school nutrition, supermarkets and healthy food vendors, farm-fresh local foods, restaurants, and food and beverage marketing.

Both specify issues and cite research in each category, list and explain terms, identify potential stakeholders, outline policy and program options, and offer advice on getting started.

Access the toolkit online at www.leadershipforhealthycommunities.org/actionstrategies -- Leadership for Healthy Communities   6/1/2009

Resource(s): www.leadershipforhealthycommunities.org/

Report Evaluates States' Progress Toward Smart Growth

With some states long at work to promote compact development, protect natural resources and the environment, offer a variety of transportation choices, supply affordable housing, and ensure net positive impacts, and with the stakes in their success raised by new environmental needs to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, and climate-change effects, the Cambridge-based Lincoln Institute of Land Policy concluded in its pioneering Smart Growth Policies: An Evaluation of Program and Outcomes report that ''achieving smart growth is possible, but states must remain focused on their key policy goals,'' since no single approach is ''right for all states.''

Co-authored by Lincoln Institute President Gregory K. Ingram and 20 other academicians and experts, who studied a variety of 1990-2000 data on four states with and four without legislative smart growth programs -- Florida, Maryland, New Jersey and Oregon; and Colorado, Indiana, Texas and Virginia -- the report found that no state ''did well on all performance measures'' though all succeeded ''in one or more of their priority policy areas.''

For example, Maryland successfully focused on natural resource protection through its land preservation programs and purchases of farmland conservation easements; New Jersey slowed home price escalation and encouraged rental and multifamily housing production; and Oregon set up urban growth boundaries to save much of Willamette Valley's farmland from development, and significantly reduced traffic growth by promoting transit, biking and walking.

''At the same time, some smart growth states failed to achieve objectives in policy areas that were not given high priority during the study period, such as providing affordable housing in Oregon and Maryland, and managing the spatial structure of urban growth in Florida,'' the report points out, also noting that Colorado has no state smart growth program, but outperformed some smart growth states ''by supporting local government actions to pursue effective land use planning within a regional context.''

In its three sets of recommendations, the report includes statements that any ''top-down or bottom-up smart growth policies must be coordinated at the regional level'' to achieve their objectives; that smart growth policy makers should use ''economic incentives, such as pricing and tax policies that have shown promise in other countries'' and consider ''the income distribution consequences of their policies;'' and that credible ''commitment from different levels of government is crucial for the successful implementation of smart growth programs.''

Report authors expect their findings and recommendations to be ''useful for formulating policies in today's context of high energy costs, historic housing market volatility, and increasing pressures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,'' stressing, ''Many smart growth objectives are precisely the outcomes posited to address the current challenges facing state and local policy makers.''

Read the report at www.lincolninst.edu/pubs/smart-growth-policies.aspx. -- Lincoln Institute of Land Policy   5/29/2009

Resource(s): www.lincolninst.edu/

Emissions Cuts, Energy Efficiency Standards for Buildings Included in Clean Energy and Security Act

After an intense lobbying campaign by supporters and opponents, reports New York Times writer John M. Broder, the House Energy and Commerce Committee split roughly along party lines in a 33-25 vote for the Democrat-sponsored American Clean Energy and Security Act, which establishes cap-and-trade for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, requires greater use of renewable energy, sets new efficiency standards for buildings, lighting and industrial facilities, and seeks 17 and 83 percent GHG emissions cuts from 2005 levels by 2020 and 2050, respectively.

With this legislation and his own actions, including a landmark deal with auto manufacturers, unionists and conservationist on tough mileage and emissions standards for new cars and trucks beginning in 2012, the writer observes, President Obama ''is assembling the pieces of a credible American package'' for decisive United Nations global-warming-treaty talks in Copenhagen, Denmark this December.

''When the bill is enacted,'' said Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman, who co-sponsored it with Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming Chairman Edward J. Markey, ''we'll break our dependence on foreign oil, make our nation a leader in clean-energy jobs and technology and cut global warming pollution.''

Still, Republican Congressman Mike Rogers summed up his party's objections by calling the bill ''the biggest energy tax'' in the country's history, and the writer sees it on ''a torturous path through several more House committees,'' with Senate Democratic leaders saying they lack the votes for its approval in the current form.

The lobbying campaign to influence its shape might even increase.

Though many large companies and most big utilities support the bill, if only as ''the least-bad option'' for inevitable emissions control, while the major environmental groups are, ''for the most part, enthusiastic backers,'' the writer notes, the National Association of Manufacturers and the United States Chamber of Commerce on one side, and Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Public Citizen on the other, have problems.

The former argued the bill would hurt companies, drive jobs abroad, and do little to stem climate change; the latter appreciated Chairman Waxman's efforts, but complained that ''the decision-making process was co-opted by oil and coal lobbyists,'' with the bill reflecting ''the triumph of politics over science, and the triumph of industry influence over public interest.''

League of Conservation Voters Gene Karpinski felt differently.

''Clearly, it's an unprecedented step forward in the critical effort to create millions of clean-energy jobs, reduce our dependence on oil and protect our planet from global warming pollution.'' -- New York Times   5/21/2009

Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/

Agreement Reached on New Fuel Economy Standards

''For the first time in history, we have set in motion a national policy aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing greenhouse gas pollution for all new trucks and cars sold in the United States of America,'' said President Obama in a Rose Garden announcement of a once-thought-impossible agreement between the White House, states, environmental groups, auto companies and the United Auto Workers (UAW) on a five-year program to build on the 2011 fuel economy standards his administration established earlier and raise them ''to an industry average of 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016, an increase of more than eight miles per gallon per vehicle.''

This, the President observed, ''will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years'' -- more ''than we imported last year from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Libya and Nigeria combined,'' or ''the projected equivalent of taking 58 million cars off the road for an entire year.''

With fuel-efficiency and low-emission technology projected to raise vehicle prices by $600 in 2012, ''the cost of driving these vehicles will go down, as drivers save money at the pump,'' the President stated, certain they will recoup the additional investment ''in just three years'' and, over the life of a vehicle, typically save about $2,800 through better gas mileage.

''The fact is, everyone wins,'' he said, flanked by UAW leaders and top executives of 10 of the world's largest auto companies: Ford, Toyota, GM, Honda, Chrysler, BMW, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, and Volkswagen. ''Consumers pay less for fuel, which means less money going overseas and more money to save or spend here at home. The economy as a whole runs more efficiently by using less oil and producing less pollution. And companies like those here today have new incentives to create the technologies and the jobs that will provide smarter way to power our vehicles.''

What's more, the agreement will eliminate uncertainty about the relationship between a Department of Transportation (DOT) fuel efficiency standard and a potential Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tailpipe emission limit, with DOT and EPA now ready to work together and adopt the same rule, avoiding ''an inefficient and ineffective system of regulations that separately govern the fuel economy of autos and the carbon emissions they produce.''

It will also end a ''series of major lawsuits'' triggered by California's push for its own standards, which would be adopted by 13 other states and the District of Columbia once California obtained a federal waiver, with all of them now embracing the just-set national goal.

''I also want to note that the agreement we have announced today is part of a far larger effort,'' President Obama stressed, pointing out that as he speaks, California Democratic Representative Henry Waxman is chairing a meeting of his Energy and Commerce Committee, ''which is working on an equally historic energy bill that will not only help our dependence on foreign oil, prevent the worst consequences of climate change, and build a clean energy economy, but will provide more than $15 billion to help build the cars and trucks of the future right here in America.''   5/19/2009

Resource(s): www.whitehouse.gov/

Clinton Foundation/USGBC Partnership Announces 16 Urban Sustainability Projects

''As the Earth's population increases and our cities grow, we need to ensure we have the models in place to sustain our way of life in an increasingly urbanized world,'' said former President Clinton at the C-40 Cities Climate Change Leadership Group Summit in Seoul, South Korea, announcing a partnership between the William J. Clinton Foundation's Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) on a Climate Positive Development Program, under which 16 large-scale projects in 10 nations, including two in the U.S., will demonstrate strategies to get urban carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions below zero.

''The Climate Positive Development Program,'' he told the international summit of some 70 major cities, ''will set a new global standard for developments that will minimize environmental impacts and benefit economies as we build and rebuild homes, schools, and businesses.'' Read the complete press release.

USGBC President, CEO and Founding Chairman Risk Fedrizzi stressed the importance of ''solid metrics'' for a global benchmark, saying, ''We know this from our experience with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), and believe it's fundamental to delivering immediate and measurable results.''

To bring the net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the 16 showcase projects below zero, the program will help local governments and developers work together on economically sound innovations in construction, clean energy generation, waste and water management, transportation and outdoor lighting.

The two American models for sustainable urban growth are Destiny, Florida, the nation's first ''eco-sustainable city'' planned by the Pugliese Company on 41,300 acres in Southern Osceola County, and the Treasure Island Redevelopment Project, San Francisco, California, the pedestrian-friendly and bus-and-ferry-oriented transformation of a former 450-acre naval station on Treasure and Yerba Buena islands by the Lennar Corp. and others into a ''green,'' LEED-certified urban neighborhood, with some 6,000 housing units and 300 acres of open space.

The other 14 urban sustainability models include two in Australia, one in Brazil, two in Canada, two in India, one in Panama, two in South Africa, one in South Korea, one in Sweden, and two in United Kingdom.

Once completed, these initial 16 Climate Positive complexes will accommodate nearly a million residents and workers.

''I am sure our effort to fight global warming will be a successful one,'' said summit host Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, ''if initiatives like the Climate Positive Development Program continue to be widely accepted around the world.''

More about the program and the two American developments at ''C40 Cities: An Introduction,'' , The William J. Clinton Foundation, DestinyFlorida.com, and California EPA. -- Clinton Foundation, New York Times   5/19/2009

Resource(s): www.clintonfoundation.org/ ; www.nytimes.com/

Transportation for America Steps Up Campaign for ''Smart'' Transportation Funding

Transportation for America Steps Up Campaign for ''Smart'' Transportation Funding As House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar continued his push for greater non-highway allocations in the new six-year transportation funding bill, expected in early June, the Transportation for America (T4A) coalition stepped up its parallel public campaign, with Bike to Work Day's launch of the ''My Commute Sucks'' website, asking Americans throughout the country to vent their traffic frustrations online and tell Congress in a blunt petition: ''My commute sucks and it's not getting any better. Stop pouring billions into a broken system. Transportation shouldn't be an expensive, dirty burden. Fix it, clean it, make it work!''

Although Senate Democrats have recently floated a bill estimating ''that the national population will reach 420 million by 2050, potentially crowding roads and transit systems to a standstill,'' writes E & E Greenwire reporter Saqib Rahim, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee spokesman Jim Berard cautioned against excessive expectations.

''My commute sucks, too. So you can add me to your list,'' he said about his 30-mile drive each way between Annapolis, Maryland and Capitol Hill, noting that transit will get a larger share of money than ever before, but that the 80-to-20-percent ratio between road and transit funding won't be completely reversed.

Nevertheless, the momentum is shifting, with the reporter observing that transportation, responsible for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions nationwide, ''is one of the major political handles to the climate change problem.''

Also, the sedentary, car-dependent lifestyle poses several health risks.

Accordingly, the new campaign site tells readers: ''Sitting in a metal box on a sea of asphalt surrounded by the toxic gases that are cooking our planet sounds like a lousy way to start and end your day,'' and Transportation for America Director James Corless, who walks to a metro station for a short ride into Washington, D.C., compares highway expansion to ''fighting obesity by loosening your belt.''

He hates ''sitting in traffic'' and emphasizes ''a point of diminishing returns'' in construction of ever more roads.

''By the time you add the sixth or seventh lane on the Beltway, it's not doing much,'' he told the reporter. ''It's a Band-Aid. We need to get smarter.''

See www.mycommutesucks.com and www.mycommutesucks.org/comment.php. -- E & E Greenwire, New York Times   5/15/2009

Resource(s): www.eenews.net/cw ; www.nytimes.com/

Nation's Transportation Policy Could Be Headed for Major Overhaul

''A national surface transportation policy for our country is long overdue,'' said Senate Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security Subcommittee Chairman Frank Lautenberg as he and Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV introduced legislation that requires the forthcoming five-year transportation funding bill to reduce per capita vehicle miles traveled (VMT) each year, cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 40 percent by 2030, and increase the non-truck freight share by 10 percent by 2020.

Intended to guide the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee work on the bill to replace the six-year Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), which expires in September, the Senate legislation suggests the nation's transportation policy faces ''a major overhaul, with a strong emphasis on reducing automobile use and carbon emissions, and boosting public transit, inter-city rail and rail freight service,'' reports Washington Post writer Alec MacGillis, noting that two key questions remain open.

The first question is how the government will make up for declining gas tax revenue to fund the bill, likely to cost at least $400 billion; the second question is how much of this amount, 80 percent of which has been routinely spent on highways, will now help transit.

Nevertheless, Smart Growth America and Transportation for America Communications Director David Goldberg said both Congress and the White House have indicated the new transportation-funding bill could institute a vital change, telling the writer, ''We are optimistic.''

See details of the two previous bills, TEA 21 and SAFETEA-LU at www.fhwa.dot.gov/tea21/index.htm and www.fhwa.dot.gov/safetealu/index.htm. -- Washington Post   5/14/2009

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Hard Data Sought to Support More Funding for ''Active Transportation''

In a promising effort to reintroduce the bicycle as the vehicle of choice whenever feasible, rehabilitate feet as an equally advantageous means of ''active transportation,'' and make Congress ensure fair shares of funds for related programs and infrastructure in the next five-year transportation bill, writes E&E Climatewire reporter Evan Lehmann, ever more teachers and parents want to instill a need for such physical activity in kids, while conservationists, city officials and researchers work to provide hard data on the trend and its multipronged long-term benefits.

''It's all about habit,'' said Boulder, Colorado, Crest View Elementary School Principal Ned Levine about the 25 percent of his students -- 130 of some 520 -- who participate in the so-called Freiker (short for ''frequent biker'') program and ride bikes each day.

Conceived and technically honed by parent and small software firm owner Robert Nagler in 2006, the program allows students to track and compare their ridership on a Web site, which receives school trip numbers from a post-mounted automatic counter that detects a chip attached to each student's helmet, with the top riders awarded various prizes at the end of a school year, including the most-treasured iPods.

''There was a big jump in ridership,'' he told the reporter, ''Now when it's zero degrees, there's 25 or 30 kids riding.''

Altogether, the reporter finds, the 11 elementary schools in the Freiker program -- in Colorado, California, Oregon and Ottawa, Canada -- have recorded 121,213 rides since 2005, with the first high school, in McFarland, Wisconsin, joining the program earlier this month, and organizers hoping to reach a total of perhaps 20 schools by the end of the year.

McFarland High School teacher Jeff Kunkel expects its Freiker to really take off next year, once prizes are offered, but he also foresees obstacles.

''We're going against a pretty ingrained car culture. Trying to challenge that is our new task,'' he said, his dedication shared on the national level by many others, including Rails to Trails Conservancy Director of Research Thomas Gotschi.

''That's what we need -- a mind shift,'' he stressed. ''You don't always have to drive.''

According to his group's recent ''Active Transportation for America'' report, proper infrastructure could help increase biking and walking by 13 to 25 percent, with vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reduced between 70 billion and 200 billion a year, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions cut between 33 and 91 million tons.

Thus, a national movement to count bikers and pedestrians.

Long done with vehicles, the counting is now necessary to shift more federal funds from highways to active transportation modes, the reporter notes, citing the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project.

''One of greatest challenges facing the bicycle and pedestrian field is the lack of documentation on usage and demand,'' the project coalition says on its Web site, ready to request federal money for automatic count systems in 20 cities.

But meantime, school programs such as Freiker yield significant and persuasive results.

''Those rides can make a difference,'' the reporter writes. ''U.S. EPA says that 'leaving your car at home just two days a week will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 1,600 pounds per year.' That is the equivalent of an average American's total emissions for one month.''

Read the ''Active Transportation for America'' report and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project news at www.railstotrails.org/whatwedo/trailadvocacy/atfa/index.html and http://bikepeddocumentation.org. -- E&E Climatewire   5/12/2009

Resource(s): www.eenews.net/

International Code Council to Create Green Building Code

''It has become clear to us that to advance the goal of achieving more sustainable building performance, some regulatory framework is needed for areas where market forces are not enough,'' stated Washington, D.C.-headquartered International Code Council (ICC) CEO Richard P. Weiland in a press release from the April 22 Earth Day session in the Chicago District Office, announcing initiation of a ''Green Building Code Development Project'' -- targeted at traditional and high-performance buildings -- which will set criteria to make green construction everyday practice.

The code will likely focus on energy and water-use efficiency, materials and resource conservation, indoor environmental quality and overall building impact on the environment, with residential issues addressed through ICC 700 -- the 2008 National Green Building Standard, developed in partnership with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and approved last January by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the first ''green'' housing rating system to earn its seal.

''We have arrived at an opportune time to build on the information and resources available to us to design a useable code as a model for green building programs,'' said ICC Board President Adolf Zubia. ''We plan to use the same principles that have made the Code Council family of codes so successful, which is the development of model regulatory material that is consistent, coordinated and developed in a consensus process.''

With the ICC Board of Directors scheduled to discuss the project May 4, the press release invites public feedback for the meeting through GreenBuildingCode@iccsafe.org. -- International Code Counci 04.22.2009   4/22/2009

Resource(s): www.iccsafe.org/

Chesapeake Bay, Puget Sound Featured in ''Poisoned Waters'' Documentary

At the launch of the modern environmental movement on the first Earth Day -- April 22, 1970 -- some 20 millions of Americans staged street protests against toxic rivers and the loss of bald eagles, with President Nixon forced to create the Environmental Protection Agency and Congress able to adopt the Clean Water Act over his veto, writes Baltimore Sun environmental reporter Tim Wheeler in a preview of PBS-TV Frontline's two-hour ''Poisoned Waters'' documentary, which exposes and exemplifies this national problem through longtime Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound deterioration due to nearby development and ''the multiplicity of untested and potentially harmful chemicals'' that end up in waters nationwide.

Narrated by veteran journalist Hedrick Smith and aired the night of April 21, the documentary includes on-camera interviews with bay and sound fishermen, some industrial polluters, federal scientists, and prominent environmental advocates and experts, such as former Baltimore Sun bay columnist Tom Horton.

Though the Clean Water Act, which sought to make all national waters ''fishable and swimmable by 1983,'' the reporter observes, persuaded many if not most factories, sewage plants and other industrial dischargers to clean up their act, and though EPA has recently tightened farm runoff regulations, long-lasting chemicals remain in waterway sediments, enter the aquatic food chain, and affect human consumption.

At the same time, biologists are attributing ''new and largely invisible threats'' to ''the soup of hormones and chemicals getting into the water from consumer products like medicine, soaps, toothpaste and household cleaners.''

The documentary also shows the destructive impact of sprawl on natural water-protection buffers and the collision between efforts to curb sprawl and both the cherished tradition and legal principles of private property rights.

Illustrating ''the worst and the best'' of the development issue with the Washington, D.C. area's Tysons Corners as ''the poster child for sprawl'' and Arlington as ''a model of 'smart growth,' with development clustered around Metro subway stops,'' the Sun reporter notes, the documentary makes clear two things.

First, despite transit-oriented development progress, ''sprawl and the attendant stormwater runoff are a growing threat to fish and water quality everywhere''; second, the future of the nation's waters ''depends on engaging the public,'' but also on ''getting everyone to take responsibility'' for a personal contribution to the overall problem.

''It's about the way we all live,'' Washington State Department of Ecology Director Jay Manning told the documentary viewers. ''And unfortunately, we are all polluters. I am; you are; all of us are.'' -- Baltimore Sun   4/20/2009

Resource(s): http://baltimoresun.com/

HUD Secretary Donovan: Create Mortgage Incentives for Energy-Efficient Homes

''When you buy a car, you know very clearly what the energy efficiency of that is because there's a number on the windows. It says: Here's the gas mileage. We don't know that for housing,'' said Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, telling journalists his agency and federal energy officials want to see mortgage incentives for energy-efficient homes -- based on ''a relatively simple scoring system for housing that would allow you to understand what you're buying and at the same time allow lenders to factor that into their mortgage.''

A Harvard-trained architect, four years with New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development before coming to HUD, reports Washington Post Writers Group member Kenneth R. Harney in the Los Angeles Times, Secretary Donovan thinks the system should also factor in job-commuting costs.

''Most people don't realize that the average American family spends over 50 percent of their income on a combination of housing and transportation,'' the secretary observed, noting that home prices in far-flung suburbs may be lower but the transportation costs become huge, and that sprawl itself reflects a massive energy-consumption inefficiency.

''If in the long run there's a cost of $5,000 to upgrade a house that will produce $10,000 in savings over time for utilities, the perfect tool to realize those savings is a mortgage,'' he said, expecting to overhaul the energy-efficient mortgages, for years on the books in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), but poorly marketed and little used. -- Los Angeles Times   4/12/2009

Resource(s): www.latimes.com/

Report: ''Job Sprawl'' Has Far-Reaching Economic Effects

As the National League of Cities (NLC) and 12 other co-sponsors of the April 2009 National American City Quality Month program advance local conversations on how community planning and smart growth will curb urban sprawl and make cities more socioeconomically sustainable, the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program shows in its new report that all the nation's 98 major metropolitan areas gained jobs between 1998 and 2006, but 95 of them lost shares of downtown employment to the suburbs -- ''job sprawl'' that can undermine both long-term regional and national prosperity.

'''People sprawl' has long been known for its effect on the environment, infrastructure, tax base, quality of life, and more. Now, we must recognize what 'job sprawl' means for the economic health of the nation,'' said Metropolitan Policy Program Senior Research Analyst and report author Elizabeth Kneebone, finding the trend persistent over years of economic expansion and decline.

''The location of jobs is also important to the larger discussions about growing the number of jobs,'' pointed out Brookings Senior Fellow Robert Puentes. ''Allowing jobs to shift away from city centers hurts economic productivity, creates unsustainable and energy inefficient development, and limits access to underemployed workers.''

Noting that the $787 billion federal stimulus package aims ''to create or save millions of jobs, but it is unclear where those jobs will be created,'' he stressed the need for awareness of all policy options ''to reverse these job sprawl patterns.''

Entitled ''Job Sprawl Revisited: The Changing Geography of Metropolitan Employment,'' the report shows only 21 percent of workers on jobs within three miles of downtown, with 45 percent employed more than 10 miles away from the city center.

Regionally, in market size categories of over 500,000 jobs and 165,000-500,000 jobs, the worst job-sprawl areas are Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Michigan and Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, New York -- with77.4 and 67.4 percent of jobs more than 10 miles away from city centers, respectively; and the best for shares of jobs within three miles of city centers are Virginia Beach-Norfolk, Newport News, Virginia-North Carolina and Honolulu, Hawaii -- with 36.4 and 55.6 percent.

The report emphasizes that ''state and regional leaders must coordinate economic development and land-use strategies to promote more robust, inclusive, and sustainable future growth.''

Click here for details of the National American City Quality Month campaign for preparation, adoption and implementation of a Nationwide Urban and Regional Development Plan, or click here for the full text of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program report on job sprawl. -- National League of Cities, Brookings   4/6/2009

Resource(s): www.nlc.org ; www.brookings.edu/

Smart Growth Act of 2009 Introduced on Capitol Hill

To help strengthen the nation's recovery in all economic, social and environmental categories, California Democratic Congresswoman Doris Matsui introduced the Smart Planning for Smart Growth Act of 2009 (H.R. 1780), saying it ''creates the framework needed for states and communities to meet greenhouse gas reduction goals through more focused short-, medium- and long-term land use and transportation planning'' and ''addresses the climate crisis by giving larger communities the incentives they need to grow and develop in a way that complements our national global warning strategy.''

Since the transportation sector emits about a third of the U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, notes OBSNews.com, the nation will not reach its greenhouse gas reduction goals ''unless we improve the way we plan densely populated communities and utilize our transportation network with a focus on reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT).''

Congresswoman Matsui's bill, the agency observes, provides a comprehensive approach to VMT reduction and offers communities more means to grow and prosper. -- OBSNews.com   3/31/2009

Resource(s): www.obsnews.com/

Bill Would Encourage States to Link Transportation, Land-Use Decisions

On a parallel sustainability track with presidential policy, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey unveiled a comprehensive climate and energy bill, under which all states, assisted by U.S. EPA, would have three years to assess their transportation and land use, and set 10- and 20-year targets for related greenhouse gas emission cuts both throughout a state and in any metro area of at least 200,000 residents, while EPA, working with the Department of Transportation, would create a competitive grant program to help finance projects designed to meet the reduction targets.

The bill would encourage states to expand bus, light-rail and other transit systems, and reexamine land-use planning ''to create cities that require less driving and achieve increased mobility,'' writes Energy & Environment Daily reporter Josh Voorhees, calling the legislative push to link transportation and land-use decisions at state and city levels ''a major first step in efforts to recast the nation's transportation strategy to curb emissions and fuel consumption.''

The state targets would be set under EPA supervision by state transportation, environmental and economic agencies, he observes, ''to reduce transportation emissions each year below 'levels projected under a business-as-usual scenario,''' first ensuring their stabilization and ultimately reduction in a given year, perhaps as soon as 2010.

The bill also advises states to consider such emission reduction measures as rezoning for mixed uses, construction of sidewalks and bike paths, together with congestion pricing, high-occupancy tolling, and revision of parking rules.

Expecting similar provisions in a pending surface transportation bill, which will provide the bulk of federal funds for roads, rail and other transit modes over the next six years, the reporter quotes Transportation For America Director James Corless, who applauds the legislative advance of smart growth.

''These provisions have been creeping in, slowly at first, and in the last five years at a more rapid pace,'' he pointed out. ''A lot of our problems are not between metro regions, but in metro regions.''

Environmental Defense Fund Climate and Infrastructure Director Colin Peppard also welcomes the policy shift.

''That signal has been sent,'' he stressed. ''What we're seeing is that the transportation policy and energy policy people are really starting to talk. Hopefully that will lead to some real core changes.'' -- Energy & Environment Daily   3/30/2009

Resource(s): http://eenews.net/eed/

Strategies Outlined to Expand Housing Opportunities Near Transit

''Living near public transit and using it regularly can result in a significant savings for all families. This savings can be critical for low-income households that need to make every dollar count,'' stated Oakland, California-based Reconnecting America CEO Shelley Poticha after Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan pledged to expand metropolitan transportation options and affordable housing, a statement she elaborated on a week later at a ''Creating Livable Communities'' symposium held by Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Christopher Dodd.

Her group's Center for Transit-Oriented Development (CTOD) quantified the benefits of mixed-income housing along key transit lines in Boston, Charlotte, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver and Portland on the pages of the landmark 2007 study, ''Realizing the Potential: Expanding Housing Opportunities Near Transit,'' and its 2008 update.

The first study found that households in auto-dependent neighborhoods spend an average of 25 percent of their budgets on transportation, in contrast to just 9 percent spent by those near transit.

The 2008 update, ''Realizing the Potential: One Year Later,'' added equally significant numbers.

It showed that households near transit produce 43 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than others in the region, with neighborhoods in Chicago's Central Business District (CBD) producing 78 percent less emissions per household.

Also finding that working families weren't able to increase their home ownership share despite the market downturn, because housing prices still are too high for them and credit is tight, the study cautioned that fewer low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) buyers means reduction of funds for mixed income projects, and that speculators have driven up land prices along planned transit corridors in Charlotte and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

With the timing of land regulations and transit construction bound to ''have an impact on both speculation and development -- a phenomenon the CTOD is exploring further in new research,'' the latest study recommended LIHTC program changes and greater flexibility for inclusionary zoning policies to ensure they can be waived in weak housing markets.

In addition, the study noted that ''land acquisition funds are emerging as an important tool to enable the purchase of land near transit while it's still affordable,'' and advised officials to target resources for mixed-income housing at ''entire transit systems --including bus lines -- in order to maximize opportunities for truly affordable lifestyles.''

Links to both studies at http://reconnectingamerica.org/public/stories/347. -- Reconnecting America   3/26/2009

Resource(s): http://reconnectingamerica.org/public/ra

Commentary: Obama Needs to Treat Metro, Suburban Regions as a Whole

Increasingly diverse, economically potent and decisive for margins in congressional and presidential elections, including the last one, the nation's suburbs shouldn't be contrasted politically with cities, but both should be treated together ''as seamless, synergistic wholes,'' write Virginia Tech Metropolitan Institute Co-Director Robert Lang and Hofstra University National Center of Suburban Studies Director Lawrence Levy in a Citistates Group guest column, asking President Obama to ''ensure that his urban advisors adopt a broader metro focus by creating an advisory council that includes suburban members as partners.''

By ''bringing the suburbs in forcefully -- and officially -- into the administration,'' they write, the president would gain support for the cities, because helping cities and suburbs ''realize that their futures are inextricably -- and now desperately -- tied will go a long way toward promoting powerful regional coalitions for mutually beneficial projects.''

So far, they consider the president's signals to suburbanites ''less than reassuring.''

Describing the background of the president, his special assistant for urban affairs Derek Douglas and White House Office of Urban Policy Director Adolfo Carrion Jr. as ''decidedly urban,'' they worry that the president said 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas or cities, while this number applies to ''metro areas,'' with almost two-thirds living in the suburbs.

''This is not petty semantics,'' the two scholars continue. ''The misused data reflects a wide-spread misunderstanding of the suburbs' role in American life -- which, like it or not, is enormous. And the suburbs' demand for more attention -- including more federal stimulus funds -- is not merely parochial pleading from prosperous people who don't know real economic pain. They do.''

The writers mention suburban foreclosure and poverty rates, a Hofstra University poll showing 40 percent of suburbanites as ''living pay check to pay check,'' a Brookings Institution study finding more poor people in the suburbs than in the central cities, and suburban congestion and pollution.

''Instead of spending more on suburban road widening and extensions, a strong suburban advisory group would urge that Obama use his bully pulpit on behalf of expanding suburban bus and rail lines,'' they write. ''Instead of digging up undeveloped land, suburban leaders would advise Obama to promote the replacement or expansion of sewers in suburban downtowns. The additional sewage capacity will allow for higher rise residences and businesses that could be more affordable and exciting and consume less energy.''

And the president ''should literally watch his words,'' they conclude. ''It's not urban or suburban policy he should talk about, but the more inclusive metro one.'' -- Citiwire   3/22/2009

Resource(s): http://citiwire.net/

Peirce: Hope for Metro Regions in New White House Office?

''Can the new White House Office of Urban Affairs live up to grand expectations?'' asks Citistates Group writer Neal Peirce in a commentary on its ''humongous'' task of shifting the federal focus from ''tired (and waning) subsidies for troubled inner cities'' toward entire metropolitan regions and implementing the president's urban strategy, which he promised during his electoral campaign will be ''about South Florida as much as Miami, about Mesa and Scottsdale as much as Phoenix, and about Stamford and Northern New Jersey as much as New York City.''

Indeed, the writer observes, the nation's 363 metro regions ''encompass broad swaths of multiple center cities, downtowns, suburbs and exurbs'' -- the top 100 credited for 92 percent of air passenger boardings, 67 percent of major research universities, 75 percent of workers with graduate degrees, and 78 percent of patents -- and their economic success fosters national prosperity.

But much of that success, he writes, paraphrasing the president's election and transition urban affairs task forces leader Robert Weissbourd, depends on how well the regions ''invest in the untapped assets of their older neighborhoods and hard-pressed working class people, both in center cities and suburbs.''

To make the process smooth and effective, the White House Office of Urban Policy will work ''across federal departmental lines to reshape programs and approaches,'' while engaging the Office of Management and Budget and Congress, the writer notes, told by the presidential adviser that to get help under current rules, a city needs to fill out hundreds of ''request for proposal'' applications to two dozen federal departments.

The situation isn't better on the regional level, said Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program Director Bruce Katz, with metro leaders frustrated by tangles of rules and conditions for no fewer than 108 federal transportation programs, 180 economic development programs, and 44 workforce-training programs.

Intrigued by the new White House office's long-term possibilities, the writer mentions the prospects for increased metro wealth-generating capacity, updates of census tools for better measurement of each metro's status on linking transportation, housing and workforce issues, and targeted policy changes to eliminate provisions that unintentionally hamper metropolitan work.

With presidential adviser Weissbourd strongly suggesting that each metro's civic and government leaders should work out customized linkage plans for their infrastructure, workforce, housing, transportation and business, and that the White House Office of Urban Policy should clear such plans for positive cross-departmental response, the writer adds, Brookings program director Katz sees the policy's potential as ''a refreshed federalism'' for this century. -- Citiwire.net   3/22/2009

Resource(s): http://citiwire.net/

DOT-HUD Task Force to Focus on Livable Communities Initiative

As the White House plots a long-term sustainability and resource-management course, with a ''livable communities'' initiative among top presidential priorities in the 2010 FY budget, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will work through a joint task force to involve the public in planning, expand transportation alternatives and transit-oriented development, and provide less costly housing near jobs, while coordinated federal investments in livability will encourage urban regions to create and follow integrated housing, land-use and transportation plans.

''Livability incorporates the concept of collaborative decision-making,'' said Secretary LaHood in testimony before the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, noting that the new congressional transportation funding act also opens up an opportunity to recast the federal transportation policy and address housing and land-use concerns.

Secretary Donovan, observes E & E Daily reporter Josh Voorhees, said the combined DOT-HUD task force will work out federal housing-affordability measures that will include transportation, energy and other costs, to inform consumers and enable the market to price housing accordingly.

He called the costs of housing and transportation intrinsically linked, but the former often underestimated, since many suburban homeowners and renters, who fail to factor in the time and money spent on commuting or running errands, have really traded ''relatively high housing costs for high transportation costs in their search for affordable housing.''

Subcommittee Democratic Chairman John Olver and Republican ranking member Tom Latham applauded the DOT-HUD partnership, though the latter expressed doubt if the ''livable community'' initiative's focus on transit can help widely spread rural and suburban areas.

In response, Secretary Donovan pointed out that sustainability is a flexible rather than a one-size-fits-all concept, which can be tailored to make both urban and rural lives better.

''What we are talking about here,'' he stressed, ''is not a zero-sum game.'' -- Energy & Environment Daily   3/19/2009

Resource(s): www.eenews.net/

Frece to Join EPA as Head of Smart Growth Program

A Baltimore Sun Maryland State House bureau chief for 11 years until 1996, then former Governor Parris N. Glendening's Special Assistant for Smart Growth and his Office of Smart Growth Communications Director, instrumental in the 2000 creation of the University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education, which he later joined, its Associate Director John Frece left to direct the EPA's Development, Community and Environment Division (DCED), home of the agency's multi-disciplinary and increasingly productive Smart Growth program.

''There will be a lot of climate change activity in this administration, and EPA will be in the center of that,'' Director Frece told Baltimore Sun reporter Tim Wheeler, confident that ''smart growth will be a piece'' of federal carbon footprint solutions.

Having helped coordinate smart growth efforts among state agencies for Governor Glendening, Director Frece envisages close federal cross-agency coordination to promote smart growth principles in policies on transportation, housing and urban development, and post-disaster recovery.

Knowledgable about the pressures, frictions and nuances of legislative processes, local challenges and power plays, which he chronicled and analyzed in his Sprawl and Politics. The Inside Story of Smart Growth in Maryland (SUNY Press, 2008), Director Frece also knows communities' needs for greater educational, technical and financial assistance to plan long-term land use, development and sustainability.

Optimistic about the prospects, he noted in conversation with the Baltimore Sun reporter that both President Obama and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson have expressed support for smart growth.

For more about his book, the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education, and the EPA Smart Growth program, see www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=61609, www.smartgrowth.umd.edu and www.epa.gov/opei/ocmp/dced.html. -- Baltimore Sun   3/12/2009

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

Smart Growth Could Play Larger Role in Fight Against Climate Change

In another step to strengthen EPA climate research, cooperative reach and regulatory oversight, President Obama announced the imminent nomination of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Gina McCarthy as EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation, with a White House press release noting that before taking over the Connecticut DEP in 2004, ''she served as the Deputy Secretary of Operations for the Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development, a 'Super Secretariat' that coordinates policies and programs of that state's environmental, transportation, energy and housing agencies.''

Coming two days after EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson proposed the agency's first comprehensive system ''for reporting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases'' from major sources nationwide, the presidential choice of Commissioner McCarthy as the EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation is expected to help expand the smart growth role in the fight against climate change.

''She understands not only all the issues involved in air pollution and global warming but has seen them from a state perspective as well as a national one,'' Clean Air Watch President Frank O'Donnell told E & E's ClimateWire reporter Robin Bravender.

If confirmed in her EPA job, the reporter observes, she will immediately face the task of reviewing ''a series of controversial Bush-era clean air regulations that have been sent back to the agency by federal courts,'' while moving to complete mercury and clean-air interstate regulations, to curb power plant pollutants.

''Obviously, there's going to be a huge amount on her plate,'' commented the Clean Air Watch president. ''In all these cases, she is very familiar with them because Connecticut has been on the receiving end of a lot of emissions from other areas.''

In related news, just days before the White House named her DEP Commissioner as a prospective EPA Assistant Administrator, Connecticut Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell announced that infrastructure projects funded through the nearly $450 million from the state's $3 billion share of the federal stimulus (ARRA) money will have to contain a 25 percent 'green' component.

This stipulation, said her press release, ''goes beyond federal mandates and is designed to bolster Connecticut's emerging green collar workforce'' and conserve energy and natural resources.

See the White House press release or Governor Rell's press release.   3/12/2009

Resource(s): www.eenews.net/cw/

Retooling America's Suburbs for Mixed-Use Living

''The American suburb as we know it is dying,'' observes Time magazine writer Bryan Walsh, noting that experts estimate the number of shopping-mall and big-box closures at 148,000 last year and predict a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes nationwide by 2025, but stressing that ''all the steel, concrete and asphalt that went into making the suburbs can't simply be tossed out in favor of something new, even if perfectly green,'' because of basic economics.

''As much as possible, we need to redirect development to existing communities and infrastructure,'' points out Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Smart Growth Program Director Kaid Benfield. ''Otherwise, we're just eating up more land and natural resources.''

Many sprawl-sapped regions have realized the need and opportunity to remake their suburbs and already moved ahead, the writer reports, mentioning communities as different as Lakewood, Colorado and Long Beach, California, both of which are transforming boarded-up malls into mixed-use complexes with retail stores, offices, and apartments.

All such projects ''are developer-driven, because the market wants them,'' says Retrofitting Suburbia co-author Ellen Dunham-Jones, though she also tells the writer that many Americans will still prefer the suburbs as offering more privacy.

Nevertheless, and even if the most spread-out suburbs won't be able to make the transition and be successful like the older inner ones, including Tysons Corner, Virginia, which ''will have the mass transit, public space and economic gravity to thrive postrecession,'' the writer concludes, ''the result will be a U.S. that is more sustainable -- environmentally and economically.'' -- Time   3/12/2009

Resource(s): www.time.com/

Transit Gains Continue Despite Job Losses, Falling Gas Prices

Although high gas prices until late last year and the increasingly painful economic crisis curtailed the nation's vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and boosted transit ridership, neither the steep gas-price plunge since the fall nor disastrous job losses have stopped transit gains or diminished the urgent need for investment in transit upgrades and expansion, a long-overlooked policy requisite once more documented by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) in its newest report, which shows that Americans ''took 1.7 billion trips on public transportation in 2008'' -- 4 percent more than in 2007 and the most in the 52 years.

''Even as gas prices fell for the second half of the year and hundreds of thousands of people lost jobs, more and more people chose to ride public transportation throughout the country,'' said APTA President William W. Millar at an APTA conference in Washington, D.C., launching a Public Transportation Takes Us There advocacy campaign, to strengthen public and congressional support for transit investment not only in the incoming federal transportation bill, but also in any energy or climate change legislation.

''Given our current economic conditions, people are looking for ways to save money and taking public transportation offers a substantial savings of more than $8,000 a year,'' he continued, stressing transit's economic, environmental and energy importance.

''Every year, public transportation saves 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline and reduces our nation's carbon emissions by 37 million metric tons,'' he pointed out. ''Clearly, public transportation is part of the solution for our country's national goals of energy independence and carbon emissions reduction.''

APTA researches found the highest 2008 ridership gain for light rail -- streetcars and modern or heritage trolleys -- at an annual total of 8.3 percent, followed by increases of 4.7 percent for commuter rail, 3.9 percent for buses, and 3.5 percent for heavy rail, or subways, with demand response, or paratransit, up by 5.9 percent.

Despite the increased ridership, reports Washington Post writer Lena H. Sun, many transit agencies felt forced to cut service or raise fares, because of enormous budget deficits and sharply reduced revenue from property and sales taxes.

Transit officials, she notes, think ridership is likely to slip this quarter due to the protracted economic slump, but they expect stimulus-funded projects, which will start this spring, to show the benefits of transit investment.

''There are a lot of eyes watching those of us who are in receipt of stimulus funds,'' commented APTA President Millar, confident that quick spending of the money to create jobs and build ''tracks to somewhere'' instead of ''a bridge to nowhere,'' will make federal policymakers ''much more inclined to listen and invest additional sums.''

See APTA transit ridership increase data at www.apta.com/research/stats/ridership -- Public Transportation Takes Us There, Washington Post   3/9/2009

Resource(s): www.apta.com/ ; www.washingtonpost.com/

Transportation Secretary LaHood: Projects Need to Preserve, Enhance Communities

''The era of one-size-fits-all transportation projects must give way to one where preserving and enhancing unique community characteristics, be they rural or urban, is a primary goal rather than an afterthought,'' said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood at his January confirmation hearing in the Senate, and now Congressional Quarterly writer Colby Itzkowitz reports that his proposal for the next surface transportation funding bill ''will focus heavily on the idea of 'livable communities,' '' linking land use, housing construction and local mobility, and involving multi-agency coordination on a scale never before seen at the federal level.

Observers point out, the writer notes, that the federal government has ignored mobility within communities since the 1950s, to build the interstate highway system, which increasingly fueled sprawl.

''It should not be that radical an idea to link up land use with the infrastructure policies that go along with it,'' commented Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program Fellow Robert Puentes. ''The problem is institutional inertia and the previous lack of federal leadership to integrate this kind of integrated thinking.''

No more.

Secretary LaHood and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan have already discussed how to spur affordable housing near transit, build shorter street blocks easier for walkers, and expand transit into more areas.

''You will see an administration proposal focused around livable communities,'' promised Transportation Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Joel Szabap, with both House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John W. Olver and Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Development Chairman Christopher J. Dodd expecting close legislative coordination with their cabinet counterparts.

''Decisions that affect housing and transportation have to be made jointly, not in a vacuum,'' observed the former recently, while the latter said in a speech, ''By coordinating housing and transportation policy to encourage smart land use, we can generate economic growth and create vibrant communities where people can live and work with a smaller carbon footprint.''

Much depends on people finding better alternatives to cars.

''When you are ready to give up your keys, you need to have other options,'' said Transportation for America Campaign Director James Corless. ''This is not about Congress telling communities they need to become more livable, it's about them (the departments) providing the resources.''

One of the first state leaders able to set that policy and enact smart-growth legislation, as early as 1997, former two-term Maryland Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening (Jan 1995-Jan 2003), now president of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C., agrees federal incentives are a must.

''The challenge has been just as all of the states started moving toward major smart-growth programs, the national government was simply not involved, and in many cases they (administration officials) were hostile to it, favoring major road construction over transit or walkability projects,'' he told the writer, stressing, ''It is very clear to all of us that the Obama administration clearly gets it on smart growth.'' -- Congressional Quarterly   3/6/2009

Resource(s): http://corporate.cq.com/ ; http://fastlane.dot.gov/

Major Urban Roads See Drop in Peak Hour Congestion

Last year, peak hour congestion on major urban roads in 99 of the 100 largest metro areas, except Baton Rouge, Louisiana, decreased 30 percent -- being 15 to 60 percent lower each hour of every day depending on day and time -- not because of road expansion, but because of some 3 percent fewer vehicle miles traveled (VMT), an unprecedented decline forced by higher gas prices and economic hardships, and a kind of incidental ''transportation demand management,'' writes CEOs for Cities chief economic analyst Joe Cortright in an Infrastructurist guest commentary on Kirkland, Washington-based INRIX' second annual National Traffic Scorecard, built on many billions of real-time travel data sent from nearly a million GPS-equipped cars and trucks.

Inviting readers to imagine ''how many tens or hundreds of billions it would cost to reduce congestion by 30 percent by building new roads,'' the Portland-Oregon Impresa consulting firm economist points out that the nation ''could just as effectively -- and more efficiently -- accomplish the same purpose with other policies, especially variable road pricing.''

Reported earlier by the Federal Highway Administration (WHWA), the 3 percent VMT decline could produce the 30 percent congestion drop, now evidenced by INRIX, because traffic congestion ''is subject to a tipping point -- what economists call non-linearities,'' the Impresa expert explains.

''Add an additional car to a crowded road at rush hour, and traffic slows down a bit, and then the 'carrying capacity' of the road declines,'' he writes. ''Traffic engineers estimate that most roads carry their maximum throughput -- number of vehicles per hour at about 40 miles per hour -- so as traffic slows below that speed, the road actually loses capacity and goes slower and slower, producing a traffic jam.''

The phenomenon ''has an important implication for transportation policy,'' the economist observes. ''Pricing the roads to reduce peak volumes even slightly -- by encouraging those with flexible schedules to take the trip at some other time, go by another mode, or forego the trip altogether -- makes the system work better for everyone else and actually increases its capacity.''

The road pricing technology ''has been implemented around the country through 'fast pass' electronic tolling,'' and its large-scale introduction has had ''a significant effect on congestion in London and Stockholm,'' he adds, concluding, ''If we truly want to have a smart transportation system for the 21st century, we'll see the lessons of the 'tipping point.'''

See the INRIX press release and its National Traffic Scorecard for 2009 and 2008 at www.inrix.com/pressrelease.asp?ID=65 and http://inrix.com/scorecard/. -- Infrastructurist   3/5/2009

Resource(s): www.infrastructurist.com/

T4America Coalition Wants Federal Transportation Funding to Break Status Quo

''Targeted investments that expand public transit and create walkable, bikeable communities offer a triple bottom-line return -- creating living-wage jobs, providing a vital link between low-income Americans and job centers, and improving health by reducing congestion and our carbon footprint,'' said PolicyLink (socioeconomic equity research and action institute) President Judith Bell at a Washington, D.C. forum, where the national Transportation for America (T4America) campaign introduced its new coalition of more than 225 organizations and 17,000 individuals for a federal transportation funding bill that breaks the status quo, reduces oil dependency, brings opportunity to all and lets businesses compete and thrive in the 21st century.

''The development of the Interstate highway network over the past half century was appropriate for the time,'' commented Brookings Institution Visiting Fellow Chris Leinberger, University of Michigan Graduate Real Estate Development Program Director and President of LOCUS -- Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors. ''A more balanced approach today, including far more transit, biking and pedestrian systems, along with repairing our existing highway network, is crucial for the real estate industry and the markets we serve.''

Natural Resources Defense Council Federal Transportation Policy Director Deron Lovaas mentioned another reason.

''Our transportation policy must solve our nation's energy and climate threats, not exacerbate them,'' he stressed. ''Transportation for America's road map will launch a visionary national infrastructure project for the first time in fifty years, creating jobs while protecting the environment.''

Accordingly, in its comprehensive policy platform, Transportation for America urges federal commitment to (1) responsible investing that holds recipients of federal funds accountable for progress toward national objectives; (2) a new strategy for creating a 21st century transportation system that enhances economic opportunity for all, creates jobs, and elevates our position in a competitive global economy; (3) a program that improves essential connections within and between metropolitan areas while reducing dependence on petroleum and meeting national objectives for curbing climate change; (4) a more strategic approach to managing land use and transportation to improve efficiency, access, health, and safety, while reducing per capita vehicular travel; and (5) a serious and concerted effort to address the impacts that transportation systems have on health and safety of Americans.

Simultaneously, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its 2009 Growth and Transportation Survey, which found most Americans agreeing that a smart-growth approach to transportation helps build sustainable communities.

''When asked what the federal government's top priority should be for 2009 transportation funding,'' reports a NAR press release, ''half of all respondents recommended maintaining and repairing roads and bridges, while nearly one third said 'expanding and improving bus, rail, and other public transportation.' Only 16 percent said 'expanding and improving roads, highways, freeways and bridges.'''

Addressing the coalition, Oregon Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer called it perhaps the ''most formidable'' ever in a push for transportation reform. -- Transportation for America, National Association of Realtors   2/26/2009

Resource(s): www.t4america.org/ ; www.realtor.org/

Residential Development Shifts Toward Urban Centers

In a fundamental real-estate-market shift toward smart growth, urban core communities in half of the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas have dramatically increased their numbers and regional shares of new residential building permits since 2000 -- a socioeconomic recovery credited mainly to less crime, changed demographics and strong demand for housing in walkable neighborhoods near high-paying jobs, reports the U.S. EPA in a quantitative ''Residential Construction Trends in America's Metropolitan Regions'' study, conducted in the Development, Community, and Environment Division (DCED) and based on Census Bureau data for the 18-year period of 1990-2007.

With many large urban redevelopment, transit-oriented or brownfield reclamation projects still requiring ''changes in local regulations or public infrastructure investments to be successful,'' the study identifies two clear implications for smart growth.

''First, regions often cited as leaders in promoting growth management and redevelopment (Portland, Denver, Sacramento and Atlanta) are among the medium sized cities where the shift inward has been most dramatic. Second, in metropolitan regions with large and diverse central cities with strong ties to the global economy (New York, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles) the market fundamentals are shifting toward redevelopment even in the absence of formal policies and programs at the regional level.''

These regional trends gain importance in the national context. The number of new residential units in all categories and regions increased steeply each year between 2001 and 2005, but its sharp 2006-07 decline wasn't even.

Single family units and condos ''have declined most rapidly, while the construction of multifamily units has fallen more modestly,'' with the number of new high-density units staying at the 200,000 per year built during ''the height of the real estate boom,'' and construction of rentals slightly up in 2007.

Nevertheless, the study observes, the change in residential construction patterns ''is not yet reshaping the face of urban America as a whole,'' with much of the construction still taking ''undeveloped land at the urban fringe'' and few or regionally insignificant changes in its city shares.

''Although urban core neighborhoods have doubled or tripled their share of residential construction since the early 1990s, they still account for less than half of all new residential units in most regions,'' the study concludes, posing several key questions for further research.

They deal with residential construction patterns within jurisdictions, site redevelopment, density increases, pedestrian-friendly and transit-oriented projects, land use regulations, infrastructure provision, incentive programs and other overlapping issues and trends.

''Resolving these questions will provide a more complete picture of the policy implication of these trends,'' the study points out. ''First, it could further qualify the approaches that most effectively increased the overall rate of redevelopment. Second, it could also identify specific policies and strategies that state and local governments can put in place to capitalize on these trends. Finally, continued research will also be needed to shed light on the right mix of policies as we emerge from the current real estate market turmoil.''

Details at www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/construction_trends.htm. -- U.S. EPA   2/25/2009

Resource(s): www.epa.gov/

President Obama Calls for Renewable Energy, Transportation Efficiency in First Address to Congress

''We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century,'' said President Barack Obama in his first address at the joint session of Congress, telling the nation to expect ''cuts back on programs we don't need,'' but calling investments in energy, health care and education ''absolutely critical to our economic future,'' and pointing out that ''to truly transform our economy, to protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.''

Therefore, the president asked Congress to send him ''legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy,'' determined to ''invest $15 billion a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power, advanced biofuel, clean coal, and more efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.''

Convinced that everyone knows how ''years of bad decision-making and a global recession have pushed our automakers to the brink,'' the president said: ''We should not, and will not, protect them from their own bad practices. But we are committed to the goal of a retooled, reimagined auto industry that can compete and win. Millions of jobs depend on it. Scores of communities depend on it. And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.''

The climate change statements, observes Climatewire writer Darren Samuelsohn in a report carried by The New York Times, brought the president a standing ovation from almost all House and Senate Democrats, with five Republican Senators also rising when he called for carbon cap-and-trade legislation.

They were Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mel Martinez of Florida, and John McCain of Arizona.

Click here to read the complete text of the speech. -- The New York Times   2/25/2009

Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/

President Obama Establishes White House Office of Urban Affairs

Two days after signing the $787.2 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which injects billions into cities and metro areas to boost their infrastructure, socioeconomic potential and overall sustainability, President Barack Obama established the White House Office of Urban Affairs and put two New Yorkers at key policy posts -- naming as the office director former two-term Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, until now the President of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and as his own special assistant for urban affairs the former Director of the Economic Mobility Program at the Center for American Progress, Derek Douglas, until now New York Governor David A. Paterson's counsel and Washington D.C. office director.

''I look forward to working with these talented leaders to bring long overdue attention to the urban areas where 80 percent of the American people live and work,'' the president said of Director Carrion and Special Assistant Douglas. ''Vibrant cities spawn innovation, economic growth, and cultural enrichment; the Urban Affairs office will focus on wise investments and development in our urban areas that will create employment and housing opportunities and make our economy more competitive, prosperous, and strong.''

As Bronx Borough President, says a White House press release, Adolfo Carrion oversaw the creation of 40,000 housing units and 50 schools, and the expenditure of $7 billion for capital and infrastructure projects, along with investment of more than $400,000 in new parks and parkland renovation.

Earlier, he served on the New York City Council, worked as the city's urban planner, and taught in its public schools.

Special Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs Derek Douglas began his professional and public career as a Counsel at O'Melveny & Myers LLP and an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, coming later to the Center for American Progress, and eventually to the New York State administration.

Both New York City Independent Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York State Democratic Governor David A. Paterson congratulated the new White House urban policy aides and thanked them for their city and state improvement efforts.

Adolfo Carrion ''played an enormous role in the development of our South Bronx Initiative, a plan to revitalize an area that -- though it has made an impressive comeback -- still faces high rates of poverty,'' stated Mayor Bloomberg. ''Adolfo's commitment to fighting poverty is strengthened by his willingness to support innovative approaches to entrenched urban problems and pursue sustainable development; he has been a strong voice for the environmental goals outlined in PlaNYC -- our vision for a greener, greater New York. Cities around the country face similar challenges to New York, and as mayors work together to address them, it's encouraging to know that we will have such a strong ally within the White House.''

Governor Paterson had equally good words about and wishes for Special Assistant Derek Douglas.

''As my Washington Counsel and Director, Derek has been instrumental in crafting the State's federal policy and he has provided my Administration with sound counsel and insight,'' the governor stressed in a statement. ''His commitment to New York and advocacy on the State's behalf has benefited us all.''

In his first interview, White House Director of Urban Affairs Adolfo Carrion said: ''The focus on the nation's urban centers as places of innovation and as contributors to the lion's share of economic activity is really the right national approach that's been missing for at least eight years. ''I'm first and foremost glad that this president has made a serious commitment to investing in metropolitan regions. When you look at the economic crisis that we're facing, the fuel to our economy has been our cities, so taking that huge stimulus package and focus on growing smart cities is, I think, smart policy.'' -- White House Press Office, New York Times   2/19/2009

Resource(s): www.whitehouse.gov/ ; www.nytimes.com/

Report: High-Speed Rail Funds Added to Stimulus Bill During Final Bargaining Session

Most of the $8 billion for high-speed rail in the $787.2 billion economic stimulus bill was ''added in the final closed-door bargaining at the instigation of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel,'' reports the Capitol Hill-focused Politico newspaper's writer David Rogers, told by the chief of staff that the president ''wanted to have a signature issue in the bill,'' and by other administration officials that his 2010 budget will seek $1 billion more annually for high-speed rail projects over the next five years.

The increased high-speed-rail amount passed with minimal adjustments, he writes, because the three moderate Republican senators who backed the entire stimulus package -- Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania -- need mobility improvements in their congested Northeast corridor, and because their conservative colleagues ''seemed almost blind'' to the president's role in the funding push.

''In their campaign to find pork barrel projects in the stimulus bill, they painted the whole funding as a scheme by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on behalf of Las Vegas interests seeking a rail link to Los Angeles,'' the writer observes, finding him happy though amused by Republican conjectures.

''I'm glad I get the credit in Nevada, but this is Obama's number one priority. This is his legacy issue out of this bill, because we need these high-speed corridors,'' Senator Reid pointed out. ''I'll take credit but frankly didn't have much to do with it other than carry forward with what Obama wanted.''

Calling the $8 billion ''a landmark transportation investment with regional effects in almost every corner of the nation,'' the Politico writer notes that compared with former President George W. Bush, who last October signed a bill that secures up to $1.5 billion for high-speed rail through 2013, President Obama will commit eight times more by that date.

With Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood having 60 days to present a strategic plan for the funding, the ''combination of large capital upfront -- followed by annual appropriations -- fits the prototype for the infrastructure bank once considered for, but never included in, the recovery bill,'' the writer concludes, his conclusion rephrased by White House Chief of Staff Emanuel.

''High-speed rail is the infrastructure bank,'' he said, stressing that Secretary LaHood can assign funding priority ''to projects that support the development of intercity high-speed rail service.'' In its summary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed by President Obama in Denver, Colorado on February 17, just four days after it passed Congress, the broad-based Transportation For America coalition provides key details of transportation and related outlays, including $27.5 billion for highways, 8 billion for high-speed rail and intercity passenger service, $6.9 billion for transit capital projects, and $1.5 billion in supplemental discretionary grants for projects with national, metropolitan or regional significance.

Read the summary and an earlier statement on the act's final numbers at http://t4america.org/blog/archives/672 and http://t4america.org/blog/archives/670 www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-02-17-obama-railroads_N.htm. -- Politico   2/17/2009

Resource(s): www.politico.com/

President Obama: More Effective Regional Transportation Planning Needed

Based on input from economists ''across the political spectrum,'' the emergency stimulus package, though pared somewhat in Congress, reflects their consensus on the spending scope and mix, said President Obama in his on-the-record interview with five columnists during a flight to Chicago, noting that each of the package's three key components -- tax cuts, state fiscal relief, and infrastructure outlays -- has timeframe or effectiveness pluses and minuses, and that he expects the incoming transportation bill to boost further infrastructure investments through funding reform and better local planning.

Tax cuts, the president observed, can work quickly, but do not necessarily promise a dollar-for-dollar jump in consumer spending, while infrastructure investments may produce ''the biggest multiplier effect,'' with a dollar leveraging a dollar and a half, but the process taking longer to show full economic results.

The president wished the package had GOP support from more than just three senators, but understanding ''a sincere philosophical difference'' with his stance among some Republicans and a tactical demonstration of party conformity among others, he stressed, ''My bottom line was not how pretty the process was; my bottom line was am I getting help to people who need it.''

Calling the package ''a great start,'' he cited creation of 3 million to 4 million jobs, progress on energy through doubling alternative fuels and retrofitting buildings for greater efficiency, a host of incentives for innovation in new technologies, along with measures to improve education, reform health care, and repair bridges and roads.

Asked about infrastructure again, the president reiterated that the recovery package provides ''a jolt to the economy above and beyond what we're doing already in the federal budget,'' and that he would like Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to work out with the various congressional committees ''some long-term reforms in how transportation dollars flow'' to regions and localities.

''I think right now we don't do a lot of effective planning at the regional level when it comes to transportation. That's hugely inefficient,'' he said. ''Not only does it probably consume more money in terms of getting projects done, but it also ends up creating traffic patterns, for example, that are really hugely wasteful when it comes to energy use. If we can start building in more incentives for more effective planning at the local level, that's not just good transportation policy, it's good energy policy.''

Supportive of an infrastructure bank idea, which would involve elected officials along with engineers ''in thinking and planning how we're spending these dollars,'' the president said he may face some objections in Congress, but there should be a way ''to get the most bang for the buck, because the needs are massive and we can't do everything,'' with the cost of road, bridge, sewer system and other infrastructure improvements estimated at a couple trillion dollars.

Since ''we know we're not going to have that money,'' he pointed out, ''it would be nice if we said here are the 10 most important projects and let's do those first, instead of maybe doing the 10 least important projects but the ones that have the most political pull.''

Reminding the columnists that he inherited a trillion-dollar-plus structural budget, ''engineered by some of the very critics'' of his stimulus package, the president said his number one priority for the rest of the year ''is to get the right structure'' for the successor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) -- established last year with up to $700 billion for banks and other institutions threatened by the subprime mortgage disaster -- while spending the already authorized $300 million ''as wisely as possible'' and ''injecting transparency and trust into the financial system.''

He also promised a housing program to relieve people who risk losing their homes, financial regulations to ensure the crisis doesn't happen again, an ''innovative and aggressive push for health care reform,'' and another one for ''an energy policy that puts us on a path to sustainability.'' -- Washington Post   2/13/2009

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Want to Help the Environment? Move to the City

Those who really want to help the environment should ''stay away from it'' and move ''to high-rise apartments'' in the city, writes Harvard University Economics Professor Dr. Edward L. Glasser, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow, in a D.C. Examiner guest column, citing his and UCLA Economic Professor Matthew Kahn's joint findings that in 62 of the nation's 66 major metropolitan areas they studied, ''carbon emissions are significantly lower for people who live in central cities than for people who live in the suburbs.''

With the highest emission gap between the central city and suburbs found in New York City, where an average city resident ''emits 4,462 pounds less of transportation-related carbon dioxide'' than an average suburbanite, Professor Glasser attributes the city's comparably large cuts in emissions from home heating and electricity to its ''famously tiny apartments,'' calling Manhattan ''one of the greenest places in America.''

As to the four metro areas where central city carbon emissions exceeded those in the suburbs -- Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Dayton, and Detroit -- the professor notes that their central cities are hampered by high electricity consumption due to their stock of old, large and energy-inefficient homes, while the Los Angeles city-suburban emissions difference is further affected by increasing numbers of new energy-efficient homes in the suburbs.

Still, thanks to its temperate climate, California has all five of the metropolitan areas with lowest overall carbon emissions -- San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, the professor observes, considering it ironic that ''that California environmentalists have, for decades, been fighting to limit development in their state.''

Pointing out in his opening paragraph that ''when environmentalists resist new construction in their dense but environmentally friendly cities, they inadvertently ensure that it will take place somewhere else -- somewhere with higher carbon emissions,'' Professor Glasser calls for policy reevaluation.

''If climate change is our major environmental challenge, the state should actively encourage new construction, rather than push it toward other areas,'' he concludes. ''It should ease restrictions in the urban cores of San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego. More building there would reduce average commute lengths and improve per-capita emissions Higher densities could also justify more investment in new, low-emissions energy plants. Similarly, limiting the height or growth of New York City skyscrapers incurs environmental costs. Building more apartments in Gotham will not only make the city more affordable; it will also reduce global warming.'' -- Examiner   2/11/2009

Resource(s): www.dcexaminer.com/

Study: Hybrid Vehicles, Smart Growth Key to Reducing VMTs and Tailpipe Emissions

With transportation accountable for about 30 percent of domestic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions six years ago and for more since then, a landmark Georgia Tech study found that in a fight against climate change, the U.S. needs a full shift to fuel-efficient hybrid-electric vehicles and, especially, to smart growth as key for reduction of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and related tailpipe pollution, stressed the study's lead author, City and Regional Planning Associate Professor Brian Stone, saying, ''We show that it's critical to have both technology and land-use policies to deal with CO2.''

Just published online by the Environmental Science & Technology (EST) magazine, the study looks ''at two general approaches on how to deal with the challenge of climate change,'' Professor Stone explained. ''One approach is to improve vehicle technology and become more efficient. We can use less gas and reduce tailpipe emissions of CO2. The second approach is to change behavior by changing the way we design cities. We can travel less and take more walking and transit trips.''

Accordingly, using census population, socioeconomic and land-use data from 1970-2000 for their long-term ''business as usual'' vs. policy-change estimates, the Georgia Tech researchers modeled the potential 2000-2050 emissions levels for 11 major metropolitan regions in six Midwestern states under a full-hybrid-fleet scenario alone and in combination with two scenarios of higher urban density -- a Portland, Oregon type and a more aggressive push to double city populations -- as a central component of smart growth.

''An entire fleet of hybrid electric vehicles in 2050 could reduce average emissions of CO2 back to 2000 levels,'' reports EST writer Rhitu Chatterjee, summarizing their findings. ''An all-hybrid fleet, combined with the first smart-growth scenarios, could drop emissions another 4 percent; and if it were combined with the second smart-growth scenario, emissions could come down another 6 percent.''

In comparison with the prospective ''business as usual'' results for 2050, the writer notes, ''the more aggressive smart-growth policies in conjunction with an all-hybrid fleet'' could reduce the CO2 emissions by 25 percent.

In other words, he points out, the main conclusion is that ''(r)eplacing all existing cars with hybrid electric ones can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but curbing urban sprawl and enforcing smart-growth measures can knock those emissions down a notch farther.''

See details and related news at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es900293g, www.planning.gatech.edu and www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/index.htm. -- Environmental Science & Technology   2/11/2009

Resource(s): www.newswise.com/

President Obama Discusses Growth Issues at Fort Myers Town Hall Forum

''The days where we're just building sprawl forever, those days are over,'' said President Obama at a Fort Myers town hall forum in a first of this kind and level smart-growth policy articulation, replying to Bonita Springs Councilwoman Janet Martin, who told him Florida cities fund their transportation infrastructure through impact fees, but since that revenue has now dried up, they are falling behind with roadwork, water projects or acquisition of solar panels, and need commuter rail and ''a lot of things'' for infrastructure and mobility in the state to cut dependence on foreign oil without drilling in the Gulf.

Pointing out that ''states all across the country are going what Florida's going through,'' and that ''not only do we need to rebuild our roads and our bridges, our ports, our levees, our dams, but we also have to plan for the future,'' the president said that's why he would like ''to see high-speed rail'' wherever possible.

''I would like for us to -- to invest in mass transit, because, potentially, that's energy-efficient, and I think people are a lot more open now to thinking regionally in terms of how we plan our transportation infrastructure,'' the president stated, expressing his sprawl days ''are over'' stance and adding, ''I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody ... recognizes that that's not a smart way to design communities.''

Click here to see the full transcript of the president's Fort Myers remarks, including answers to questions from the audience. -- News-Press   2/10/2009

Resource(s): www.news-press.com/ ; www.salon.com/

President Obama Acts on Fuel Efficiency, Asks EPA to Reconsider California's Request for Tailpipe Emission Cuts

In a swift break from his predecessor's climate change policy, President Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider its 2007 denial of California's request for permission to enforce a 30-percent tailpipe emissions cut for new cars and light trucks by 2016, and ordered the Transportation Department to implement the 2007 federal bill to increase the fuel-efficiency of new cars from an average 27.5 to at least 35 miles per gallon between 2011 and 2020, with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton simultaneously naming former White House aide and its chief Kyoto Protocol negotiator Todd Stern as an envoy for the current global greenhouse gas reduction talks.

''We must have the courage and commitment to change,'' said President Obama, accompanied by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

''Year after year, decade after decade, we've chosen delay over decisive action. Rigid ideology has overruled sound science. Special interests have overshadowed common sense.''

And referring to some concerns about the prospective costs of tougher tailpipe emissions standards at the time of a $17.4 billion federal bailout promised to GM and Chrysler last month, the president added, ''Our goal is not to further burden an already struggling industry. It is to help America's automakers prepare for the future.''

The sales of American cars plunged from 16 million a year over the past decade to 13.2 million in 2008, report Bloomberg news writers John Hughes and Alan Ohnsman, noting that in a 2004 suit against California's new emissions standards automakers estimated the cost of modifying vehicles for its 11-percent share of the market at about $6 billion a year, or $3,000 per vehicle, and that now at least 17 states want to follow in California's footsteps.

After the president's announcement, reports Sacramento Bee writer Chris Bowman, the Alliance of Automobile Manufactures muted its opposition to the California standards, its president Dave McCurdy expressing readiness ''to work with the administration on developing a national approach.''

Conservationists feel vindicated by the president's move, reports Boston Globe writer Lisa Wangsness.

''He's telling the states that they can lead, the feds that they're going to have to follow, and really telling the whole world that the knuckle-dragging U.S. is lifting its knuckles off the ground and we are going to take the global warming issue very seriously,'' said Safe Climate Campaign Director Dan Becker.

Others agreed.

''These are monumental decisions that will have an immediate impact in reducing global warming pollution in the United States,'' commented Natural Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke. ''By raising fuel efficiency standards, our cars will burn less gas, Americans will save at the pump, and our country will be less dependent on oil.''

Coalition for Clean Air senior policy adviser Tim Carmichael observed, ''Everyone who has tracked the development of automobile technologies knows that the entire industry can do much more to reduce emissions and improve fuel efficiency.''

Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger echoed these statements.

''For too long Washington has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to the environment,'' he said at a state capitol news conference. ''Now California has a partner and an ally in Washington, at the White House.'' -- Sacramento Bee, Boston Globe, Bloomberg.com   1/27/2009

Resource(s): www.bloomberg.com/ ; www.boston.com/

''Green'' Management of Stormwater Runoff Key for Long-Term Water Quality

As communities become environmentally conscious and involved, they modify and reach beyond old development-impact reduction methods to more interlinked, efficient and cost-effective strategies at site, neighborhood and regional levels, writes EPA Development, Community, and Environment Division (DCED) Acting Director Lynn Richards in her ''Managing Stormwater Runoff: A Green Infrastructure Approach'' paper in the Planning Commissioners Journal (Winter 2009), calling decisions ''about where and how our towns, cities and regions grow'' the first and perhaps the most important for long-term water quality.

A comprehensive green infrastructure approach to stormwater management, she points out, seeks to preserve and enhance natural features, including forests, meadows, wetlands, greenways, trails and similar areas; recycle land by directing development to already degraded sites, with parking lots, vacant buildings and abandoned malls; reduce land consumption and development footprints by using parcels more efficiently; and reuse stormwater by directing it into the ground through infiltration, evapotranspiration or capture-and-reuse techniques.

Citing a 2002 study by American Rivers, the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) and Smart Growth America, which found that the nation's 20 regions with most extensive land development between 1982 and 1997 now suffer annual losses of 300 to 690 billions gallons of rainwater that would otherwise have filtered into streams and aquifers, Director Richard stresses the need for greater overall land-use efficiency to reduce impervious areas and manage stormwater runoff more effectively.

''The single most effective strategy for efficient land use is redeveloping abandoned shopping centers or underutilized parking lots rather than paving greenfield sites,'' she writes, listing several related ''green infrastructure approaches'' at the local level.

They include ''incorporating natural landscape features and functions into a neighborhood's street and road network, buildings and other developed areas; narrowing streets and roads; reducing parking requirements or establishing parking minimums; connecting open space and recreation areas; and co-locating a range of land uses (such as retail, residential, civic, and schools) to minimize impervious cover.''

Turning to ''site-specific practices aimed at maintaining natural hydrologic functions by absorbing and infiltrating precipitation where it falls,'' she recommends the use of rain gardens, green streets, bio-swales, and other infiltration arrangements, all of which ''naturally treat runoff on-site'' and help reduce the impervious surface.

As to the role planning commissions can play to make it happen, Director Richards expects them to re-examine zoning codes, subdivision regulations and other development ordinances ''for provisions that can lead to unnecessary impervious cover'' and hinder green solutions in stormwater management.

Accordingly, she advises a focus on compactness and higher densities, incentives for redevelopment, tough street standards and road design guidelines, lower parking and building setback requirements, denser site coverage and optimal height limits, along with adequate landscaping and tree preservation provisions.

''A green infrastructure approach to stormwater management can provide benefits for all stakeholders: the municipality has more effective and efficient stormwater management, residents have more attractive neighborhoods, and developers have more choices on how to manage runoff,'' Director Richards concludes. ''Moreover, it can change how we think -- and plan -- for stormwater. With green infrastructure, stormwater is viewed not as a headache, but as an impetus for better, more environmentally oriented communities.''

See the instructions for downloading the full text and a related article at www.plannersweb.com/articles/instructions.html. -- Planning Commissioners Journal   1/26/2009

Resource(s): www.plannersweb.com/

Notes from New Partners Conference: U.S. Approaching ''Fundamental Change'' in Housing Dynamics

The current economic turmoil is partly rooted in sprawl, with 2000-2008 single-family home construction so exceeding demand that last year Americans lost $2 trillion in home values, mostly in the distant suburbs, reports Associated Press writer Heather Clark from the 8th annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference on building safe, healthy and livable communities, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where many speakers and panelists examined demographic, lifestyle and market trends toward ''green'' development, resource conservation and overall long-term sustainability.

''We are at the cusp of a fundamental change in the housing dynamics in this country, and we're not aware of it,'' said University of Utah Professor of City and Metropolitan Planning Arthur C. Nelson, pointing out that once the ''baby boom population'' begins selling homes and moving to attached and rental housing, half of the units built between now and 2020 will have to be for renters.

To accommodate this demographic segment and meet even wider demand for ''green'' building design, mixed uses and easy accessibility, Professor Nelson advised conversion of old and defunct strip malls -- often near transportation routes and others stores -- into multi-family housing.

Like others, he also stressed the need for more housing atop shops and restaurants, around transportation hubs and along rail lines, and in neighborhoods where everything is accessible on foot or by bike.

Such smart growth, the writer observes, would let people spend less time in cars, which could improve their health, while lower tailpipe emissions would benefit the environment.

At the same time, nearby farmers -- saved from residential pressures -- could increase local food supplies to cities, and developers would respond to market demand by replacing up to three-quarters of the building stock through green construction.

''The dead mall is our future. Embrace it,'' the professor concluded, noting, ''The private sector will pay more rent for a green building than a regular building because they actually save money over time.''

He and other experts, the writer adds, believe that the Mountain West region offers the best opportunity to advance smart growth.

The five-state region is growing fast, with 86 percent of the population already living in its five ''megalopolitan areas'' -- the Front Range from Denver to Colorado Springs; the Sun Corridor from Phoenix to Tucson; Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos; the Salt Lake City area; and the Las Vegas area.

Their combined population will double to about 27 million and jobs to 15.7 million by 2040, which will require construction of 7 million homes and 9.4 billion square feet of other space.

Confident of change in routine development patterns, the writer reports, conference speakers cited the current economic crisis as evidence that ''the era of single-family homes in disconnected cul-de-sacs that require long commutes'' is at its end. -- Associated Press   1/24/2009

Resource(s): www.svherald.com/

FHA Reports Record Drop in Vehicle Miles Traveled

Between November 2007 and November 2008, the number of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) dropped by 12.9 billion, or 5.3 percent, reports the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), calling it the largest decline ''since monthly data estimates began in 1971'' -- one that ''dwarfs the 49.9 billion VMT decline of the 1970s, a decade characterized by high gas prices, fuel shortages and a recession.''

FHA spokesman Doug Hecox attributes the reduced driving to job losses, home-price slides, and other factors rather than the record gas costs last year, notes Wall Street Journal writer John Kell, quoting his remark that a steeper cut in rural driving shows ''an overall shift in American consumer planning to coordinate trips more efficiently.''

The spokesman also sees the public as more environmentally conscious and ready to reduce its carbon footprint.

Last July, when gas prices soared nationwide, the writer observes, drivers ''cut back considerably,'' slashing trips to movies or malls, and switching to carpools or more fuel-efficient cars.

See details, including regional data, at www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/tvtw/tvtpage.htm. -- Wall Street Journal, Federal Highway Administration   1/22/2009

Resource(s): http://online.wsj.com/ ; www.fhwa.dot.gov/index.html

President Obama Urged to Launch National Smart Growth Campaign

On the day President Barack Obama took office, the Seattle-based Worldchanging global media network urged him in an open letter, signed by more than 2,400 prominent journalists, writers, thinkers and activists, to ''call on all Americans to prepare for a national transformation,'' to ''drive home the point that the things we must do to fight climate change are also the things we need to do to generate a strong economic recovery,'' and to ''call for a national crusade to turn America into a climate-neutral nation by 2030'' -- all this helped by 10 proposed policies, under which the president would first ''set a national greenhouse gas cap'' and ''launch a national smart growth campaign.''

The greenhouse gas cap, the letter says, would be ''fortified by an aggressive auction-and-dividend approach, so that the proceeds of auction of carbon permits are returned to the people of the U.S. to offset any rising energy expenditures.''

The smart growth campaign would oblige ''all federal agencies to examine their policies' effects on the built environment'' and to fund ''only infrastructure projects which stop sprawl and promote compact community and transportation choices,'' with preferential support for ''location-efficient mortgages and urban development bonds.''

Next, the Worldchanging letter signatories ask President Obama to set national building standards that ''will require all buildings to be carbon neutral by 2030,'' promote wastewater reduction and green infrastructure expansion, and spur green jobs for urban youth.

They want him to redirect all funding and support for fossil fuels ''into clean energy capacity,'' promote smart grids and plug-in electric cars, and take up former Vice President Gore's challenge to meet all national electricity needs from clean sources by 2020.

They also expect his administration to rewrite the Farm Bill, make carbon sequestration and biodiversity primary goals in management of public land and waters; restore respect for science in the national debate, and invest in research institutions, including universities; fund green innovation study in universities, community colleges and schools, and create block grants for NGOs and local governments that spread innovations in communities and businesses; vigorously apply environmental enforcement, investigate corruption and influence-peddling, enforce transparency and accountability, and raise the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cabinet-level status; and take leadership ''in international climate, trade and development talks ... pushing hard for a treaty that sets developed world climate neutrality by 2030, and global climate neutrality by 2050, as its targets.''

See the letter and related news at www.worldchanging.com. -- Worldchanging   1/20/2009

Resource(s): www.worldchanging.com/

Poll: Americans Want Stimulus Funds to Expand Transportation Choices

''Realtors build communities and believe smarter transportation and infrastructure development will help create more livable and vibrant neighborhoods,'' said National Association of Realtors (NAR) President Charles McMillan, a Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage broker in Dallas-Fort Worth, commenting on a jointly sponsored NAR and Transportation for America (T4America) national poll, which found just 20 percent of respondents who want the economic stimulus transportation money to pay only for ''road and bridge projects that can be started right away and create an immediate boost to the economy.''

In contrast, 80 percent of respondents want the investment not only to create jobs, but also to help reduce oil dependency, improve the environment and expand transportation choices, even if job creation is temporarily delayed.

The same 80 percent believe the stimulus funds should go for highway repairs and public transit rather than new roads, with 45 percent saying the package should ''definitely'' or ''probably'' exclude highway construction.

Similarly, the public sees energy conservation as a high national priority, with 89 and 58 percent of respondents, respectively, agreeing or agreeing strongly that transportation investments should help reduce energy use, and with 75 percent looking for reduction of carbon emissions that contribute to global warming and climate change.

''We believe it is possible to invest the stimulus money both wisely and quickly,'' stressed Transportation for America Co-chair Geoff Anderson. ''Because this is a down-payment on long-term economic stability, it is clearly asking that Congress and the administration line up our investments with important national goals.''

Read the T4America press release and related news at http://t4america.org/blog and www.REALTOR.org. -- Transportation for America, National Association of Realtors   1/16/2009

Resource(s): www.t4america.org/

Open Memo to President-Elect Obama Urges Coordinated Efforts to Meet Infrastructure Goals

''Job creation and green economy -- and the even broader aims of productive, inclusive and sustainable growth -- require the need to reform as we invest,'' write Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program Director Bruce Katz and Fellow Robert Puentes in the first of the Brookings Presidential Transition Project's series of open memos to President-elect Barack Obama, urging him to ''improve the White House policy structure on infrastructure issues'' as crucial for getting his massive economic recovery investments right.

''Infrastructure investments in recent decades have lost direction and failed to focus on key areas,'' they point out. ''Current federal infrastructure policies and programs are highly compartmentalized, often working at cross-purposes. In transportation, for example, we are one of the few industrialized countries that fails to link aviation, highways, freight rail, mass transit and passenger rail networks.''

To fulfill his electoral campaign vision for economic expansion, including ''strengthening America's transportation network, investing in new energy and electricity, committing to metropolitan strategy and connecting rural America,'' they write, the National Economic Council, Domestic Policy Council and Office of Management and Budget ''should coordinate efforts to meet infrastructure goals -- and use these goals to guide spending.''

They advise the president to create a National Recovery and Renewal Commission to watch over spending and lay out a long-term infrastructure investment strategy, beginning with scrutiny of the 2011 fiscal year budget ''to make federal infrastructure spending transparent and connected'' and ''help sequence legislation on climate, energy and surface transportation.''

They also advise him to create a National Infrastructure Bank to assist in ''innovative infrastructure projects of true national significance;'' articulate a national vision of infrastructure, with ''a rigorously strategic approach to infrastructure policymaking that draws from ideas of other nations and respects differences from one corner of our nation to another;'' and empowers states and metropolitan areas.

''The federal government needs new partnerships to promote environmental sustainability and to strengthen metropolitan economies. A national sustainability challenge could be established to entice and fund partnerships that join housing, transportation, energy and other systems across states, localities and the private sector,'' the Brookings scholars write, stressing that projects ''may cluster mixed-use facilities, build mixed-income housing close to transit stations, institute congestion pricing or extend commuter rails.'' -- McClatchy   1/14/2009

Resource(s): www.mcclatchydc.com/

Glendening: Stimulus Package Needs to Support Sustainable and Equitable Growth

To realize the full potential of President-elect Barack Obama's massive stimulus package not just in restoring jobs, but also in putting the nation on a long-term sustainability track, said Smart Growth Leadership Institute President and former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening in a Public Radio weekly Living on Earth environmental program, the expected investment of more than a trillion dollars within two years should go largely for transit, walkable communities, schools, technology, and green infrastructure, including expansion of solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.

Asked by his host Steve Curwood about smart-growth benefits for the economically disadvantaged, Governor Glendening pointed to neighborhood revitalization and affordable housing.

He acknowledged that in the past, and even now in some cities, redevelopment in neglected communities often meant gentrification as conversion of old buildings into ''$600,000 condominiums'' forced the poor out, but noted that ''inclusionary zoning'' and other smart-growth measures can protect neighborhood residents from displacement by making sure they get an affordable place to stay.

If an investor or a residential builder proposes a multi-unit project in a depressed neighborhood, ''it is not unreasonable to require that a certain percentage of those units should be at a much more moderate price for either rent or purchase,'' the governor said, stressing that smart growth promotes revitalization, but that ''it cannot come at the expense of those already living there and those who so desperately need that range of housing cost.''

He was equally pragmatic in answer to a question about how the stimulus package may be affected by the congressional earmark system, under which senators and representatives often load legislation with special funds, or ''pork,'' sought by their area constituents or allied interest groups but not always warranted in the larger context.

Hopeful that ''the sheer force of both the crisis, but also of President Obama's vision and the political power that he's going to come into office with'' will enable him to steer the stimulus money and subsequent expenditures far more ''to broad policy than to the specific earmarks,'' Governor Glendening cautioned against premature or exaggerated expectations.

''Now, I understand earmarks is part of the process, and no matter what he or anyone else does, it's going to continue to be part of the process,'' he observed. ''But within that process, you could have a certain transparency and particularly transparency about how does this expenditure relate to other national goals.''

If a major national goal ''is energy efficiency and reducing the reliance on petroleum,'' any state list of transportation projects submitted for stimulus funding should be evaluated accordingly, he explained.

If the projects were to just add more road lanes or more interstates, they should not rank very high for the federal funds, but if they reflected a fix-it-first approach, promised walkability or offered transit, all of which help in efforts to reduce energy use and to slow climate change, then they should rank higher.

''That still permits senators and Congress members to bring some of the pork home, but to bring it home in a way that is consistent with those national goals,'' Governor Glendening pointed out, saying that even a halfway decision-making change that could move the country toward energy sustainability and recognize the impact of sprawl would be a great victory.

And if he had a trillion dollars in his smart-growth account, he would do ''what President-elect Obama's going to do, and that is rely greatly on state and local decision making,'' but he also would set ''pretty tight guidelines.''

His questions about any state project would include: ''Does it reduce vehicle miles traveled? Does it reduce energy consumption? Does it reduce carbon emissions? Does it make a community more economically competitive? Is it equitable?''

With these types of questions, the stimulus package could position the country far better'' in the long run,'' Governor Glendening concluded. ''And that's how I think we ought to be looking at these monies.'' -- Living on Earth   1/9/2009

Resource(s): www.loe.org/

President-Elect Obama Pledges to Rebuild America's Infrastructure

''We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime,'' a crisis reflecting ''an era of profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate board rooms to the halls of power in Washington, D.C.'' and requiring congressional passage of his American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan possibly in the next few weeks, said President-elect Barack Obama in a speech at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, assuring the nation that the plan ''won't just throw money at our problems,'' but will ''invest in what works'' -- in sustainable energy, education, health care and infrastructure.

''It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth. But at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the cycle that is crippling our economy, where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs, which leads to even less spending, where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit,'' the president-elect pointed out. ''That's why we need to put money in the pockets of the American people, create new jobs and invest in our future. That's why we need to restart the flow of credit and restore the rules of the road that will ensure a crisis like this never happens again.''

He said his plan will ''save or create at least 3 million jobs over the next few years'' -- creating jobs mostly in the private sector and saving ''the public sector jobs of teachers, police officers, firefighters, and others who provide vital services;'' and ''spark the creation of a clean energy economy'' by doubling alternative power production within three years, modernizing more than 75 percent of federal buildings, and improving the energy efficiency of 2 million homes.

''In the process,'' he continued, ''we will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced, jobs building solar panels and wind turbines, constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings, and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain.''

Similarly, his plan provides for better health-care quality at lower cost; for new classrooms, labs and libraries for schools, community colleges and universities, along with high technology and new teacher training; and for rebuilding America.

''Yes, we'll put people to work repairing crumbling roads, bridges and schools, by eliminating the backlog of well-planned, worthy and needed infrastructure projects, but we'll also do more to retrofit America for a global economy,'' the president-elect stated, determined to build a ''smart'' electrical grid, expand broadband lines nationwide, invest in science, research and technology, and ''provide immediate relief to states, workers, and families'' bearing the brunt of the recession.

''To get people spending again,'' he said, ''95 percent of working families will receive a $1,000 tax cut, the first stage of a middle-class tax cut that I promised during the campaign and will include in our next budget.''

To restore confidence in government, he urged bipartisanship, pledged a transparent decision-making process and online access to investment documents, and asked Congress to bar ''earmarks and pet projects'' from the recovery bill.

Telling leaders in both parties to put urgent national needs above partisan interests, he also called for ''the same sense of urgency'' in work to stabilize and repair the nation's financial system.

This must include reform of ''a weak and outdated regulatory system so that we can better withstand financial shocks and better protect consumers, investors and businesses from the reckless greed and risk-taking'' at the expense of future prosperity.

''No longer can we allow Wall Street wrongdoers to slip through regulatory cracks. No longer can we allow special interests to put their thumbs on the economic scales. No longer can we allow the unscrupulous lending and borrowing that leads only to disruptive cycles of bubbles and bust,'' the president-elect stressed, ''It is time to set a new course for this economy, and that change must begin now.'' -- CNN.com   1/8/2009

Resource(s): www.cnn.com/

Smart Growth Advocates Hope for Less Emphasis on Road Projects in Economic Stimulus Package

In preparation for a congressional debate on the final shape of President-elect Barack Obama's envisioned economic stimulus package, which now includes $25 billion for infrastructure, state transportation officials listed 5,000 projects that could start within six months and create several million jobs nationwide, while smart-growth and conservation groups cautioned against too many roads on the $64-billion wish list and not enough mass transit or other ''green'' options, observes American Public Media Marketplace Sustainability Desk reporter Sarah Gardner, asking both sides to explain their main focus.

''When you talk about green, right now the kind of green that most concerns our American worker is the kind that's going to pay the mortgage,'' said American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Media Relations Manager Tony Dorsey, noting that this kind of infrastructure spending not only puts ''boots on the ground on the construction site,'' but also creates ''white-collar jobs, engineering jobs, jobs in the architectural field,'' along with ''jobs in steel plants and in concrete facilities.''

All that is fine, says the other side, but it could be done without inviting more gas use, air pollution and sprawl.

''They're projects that have been in the pipeline for a while, from a time when gas was cheap and we were seeing a growth in driving every year,'' pointed out Transportation for America and Smart Growth America Communications Director David Goldberg. ''And it doesn't make sense to build them as though it were 1950.''

Friends of the Earth Transportation Policy Analyst Colin Peppard agreed, with his nonprofit in the midst of a broad public and legislative ''New Roads = New Pollution'' and ''Road to Nowhere'' campaign to eliminate highway construction from the economic stimulus bill and ensure that its funds are spent quickly and well.

''And by well,'' he told the Marketplace reporter, ''I mean spent on projects that are going to reduce our use of oil and reduce our global warming emissions.''

All about the campaign and the project list at www.RoadToNowhere.org and www.transportation.org. -- Marketplace   1/7/2009

Resource(s): http://marketplace.publicradio.org/ ; www.foe.org/

Trains ''Gaining Steam'' as Right Transportation Investment for Today

''Across the nation, trains are gaining steam as the right transportation investment for our times,'' with an ever-larger coalition of public and business interests seeking rail expansion as the best multi-purpose endeavor in the face of the increasingly unaffordable ''luxury of single-purpose investments,'' writes University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education Associate Director John W. Frece in a Baltimore Sun op-ed column, expecting President-elect Barack Obama to boost these efforts through his planned White House Office of Urban Policy.

A former Baltimore Sun reporter and author of a recent book ''Sprawl and Politics: The Inside Story of Smart Growth in Maryland,'' Director Frece notes that the broad coalition sees rail ''as a way to reduce greenhouse gases, to offset high gas prices, to mitigate or at least avoid highway congestion, and to save rural resources by fostering more compact, transit-oriented city living.''

Its activists, and other savvy leaders who have already initiated costly and politically difficult transit projects in their states, know that soon the nation will have no choice.

He offers four practical arguments.

''America cannot reduce emissions that cause climate change without a strategy to get people out of their cars and reduce 'vehicle miles traveled.' In the 'post-petroleum era,' the ever-higher cost of fuel will eventually render gas-powered vehicles too expensive for moving people or freight. The federal highway fund is broke, highways are no longer seen as a cure for congestion, and air and water pollution concerns about roads and driving can no longer be ignored. Finally, for national security reasons, Americans understand we have to cut our dependence on foreign oil.''

And mentioning new or planned rail lines in New Mexico, California, Colorado and the Washington, D.C. area, Director points out that voters approved $75 billion for 23 rail initiatives nationwide last month and that Congress endorsed record funding to improve Amtrak in the Northeast corridor, along with more than $3 billion over five years to help states expand rail service.

In this context, he quotes Colorado-based transportation planner Jim Charlier, whom the coalition asked to draw up a plan to link the nation's 10 biggest ''mega-regions'' through high-speed rail by 2030.

''We've built the first half of our transportation system,'' the planner said of the Interstate Highway System. ''Now we have to start building the second half.'' -- Baltimore Sun   12/29/2008

Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/

It's Not Too Late to Rebuild America's Infrastructure

Having easily surfed the Web on his laptop aboard ''a sleek high-speed train'' from downtown Hong Kong to its ultramodern airport, New York Times op-ed columnist Thomas S. Friedman landed at ''dingy'' Kennedy Airport and rode to Washington on the Acela, ''America's sorry excuse for a bullet train,'' with his cellphone connection lost three times in 15 minutes, feeling as if transplanted ''from the Jetsons to the Flintstones'' and thinking about what has happened to the nation's quality of life and infrastructure -- their decline especially painful in a time of economic crisis.

''My fellow Americans, we can't continue in this mode of 'Dumb as we wanna be,''' he writes in his column. ''We've indulged ourselves for too long with tax cuts that we can't afford, bailouts of auto companies that have become giant wealth-destruction machines, energy prices that do not encourage investment in 21st-century renewable power systems or efficient cars, public schools with no national standards to prevent illiterates from graduating and immigration policies that have our colleges educating the world's best scientists and engineers and then, when these foreigners graduate, instead of stapling green cards to their diplomas, we order them to go home and start companies to compete against ours.''

These practices, combined with ''a trend of diverting and rewarding'' the nation's best for financial rather than real engineering -- making money out of money instead of designing equipment and tools to ''improve the lives and productivity of millions'' -- precipitated the current troubles.

Like General Motors, which lost more than $72 billion in the past four years but reassigned or dismissed few executives, ''we don't need just a bailout,'' the columnist stresses. ''We need a reboot. We need a build out. We need a build up. We need a national makeover.''

With President-elect Barack Obama having bipartisan support for a $1 trillion stimulus investment, ''we must make certain that every bailout dollar, which we're borrowing from our kids' future, is spent wisely'' -- to train teachers, educate scientists and engineers, pay for research and build ''the most productivity-enhancing infrastructure.''

If this money is ''spent on pork, it will be the end of us,'' he warns, confident that the nation ''still has the right stuff to thrive ... the most creative, diverse, innovative culture and open society,'' crucial for a competitive advantage.

''China may have great airports, but last week it went back to censoring The New York Times and other Western news sites,'' he observes, calling the move ''really, really dumb'' in a world dependent on people's imaginations and global collaboration.

''And that's why for all our missteps, the 21st century is still up for grabs,'' he concludes, adding, ''John Kennedy led us on a journey to discover the moon. Obama needs to lead us on a journey to rediscover, rebuild and reinvent our own backyard.'' -- New York Times   12/23/2008

Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/

Voters Approve Nearly 72 Percent of Election '08 Transportation Funding Initiatives

Doubling the typical approval rate of other state ballots, voters across the country passed about 72 percent of transportation funding initiatives this month -- 23 proposals in 16 states to increase sales taxes, use part of property tax revenue or issue bonds, mostly for mass transit, reports the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Transportation Excellence, noting that together with the earlier endorsement of 12 similar measures in eight states, the public committed a total of more than $75 billion this year to expand transportation choices, improve performance and ensure economic competitiveness, an especially strong message to Congress in a time of financial distress.

''Americans understand that public transportation has many benefits,'' commented American Public Transportation Association (APTA) President William W. Millar. ''Taking public transportation is the quickest way to beat high gas prices and save money. It is also one of the most effective actions a person can take to reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change.''

Before the election, transit advocates ''wondered what was going to weigh most on voters,'' he later told Wall Street Journal writers Christopher Conkey and Paul Glader.

''It was pretty clear people voted for the future. The page has turned on transportation in America.''

The turn, the writers observe, is good news for big companies in ''the mass-transit business,'' including Siemens AG, Bombardier Inc., and Alstom SA, as well for hundreds of their small suppliers.

''When you go through an election cycle like we just went through, it confirms the strategy we put together,'' said Siemens Transportation Systems Inc. vice president of business development Robin Stimson. ''It's related to the outlook that the rail renaissance will continue to grow.''

For a complete list of the November Transportation ballots visit the Center for Transportation Excellence website at www.cfte.org. -- Wall Street Journal   12/12/2008

Resource(s): http://online.wsj.com/ ; www.apta.com/

Development Trend Swinging Back to Community-Oriented Living

Recognizing the 1980s and 1990s as the era of the great residential ''dispersal,'' during which many millions of people each year kept moving outward, ''from inner-ring suburbs to far-flung exurbs on the metro fringe,'' New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks, a conservative and hardly a smart-growth enthusiast, admits that ''the culture has changed'' and those who had often wanted a golf course ''overshot the mark,'' found no social bonds, and now are more likely to want ''coffee shops, hiking trail and community centers.''

The new trend is filling once lifeless areas with ''restaurant and entertainment zones, mixed-use streetscape malls, suburban theater districts, farmers' markets and concert halls,'' while reviving many downtown districts as ''people move back into the city in search of human contact,'' he observes, noting that The New Geography author Joel Kotkin ''calls this clustering phenomenon the New Localism.''

In step with the change, the columnist says of President-elect Barack Obama's envisioned ''once-in-a-half-century infrastructure investment'' that ''it would be great if the program would build on today's emerging trends,'' really ''encourage the clustering and leave a legacy that would be visible and beloved 50 years from now.''

To make it happen, he continues, the president-elect ''would have to create new transportation patterns,'' with ''a complex web of roads and rail systems'' as better for ''an age of multiple downtown nodes and complicated travel routes'' than the old ''hub-and-spoke'' system of highways converging on an urban core.

He also would have to ''help communities create suburban town squares'' and fund construction of charter schools, pre-K and national service centers, and similar facilities near new civic hubs.

''This kind of stimulus would be consistent with Obama's campaign, which was all about bringing Americans together in new ways,'' he writes. ''It would help maintain the social capital that's about to be decimated by the economic downturn.''

However, the columnist sees ''no evidence so far that the Obama infrastructure plan is attached to any larger social vision'' and feels ''a real danger that the plan will retard innovation and entrench the past.''

Afraid that the stimulus money will get diverted ''to refurbish old companies,'' with the auto bailout likely to cost $125 billion and other sectors in the waiting line, he warns that once the nation spends $1 trillion ''on existing structures and fading industries, there will be less or nothing in 2010 and 2011 for innovative transport systems, innovative social programs or anything else.''

And adding that social change ''has a natural rhythm'' and that economic swings are cyclical, he stresses, ''A stimulus package may be necessary, but unless designed with care, its main effect will be to prop up the drying husks of the fall.'' -- New York Times   12/9/2008

Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/

Editorial: Mass Transit Investments Are Farsighted Way to Jolt Economy

With July-September transit ridership 6.5 percent higher than in the same quarter last year, and with November 4 electoral approval of over 70 percent of major transportation-funding measures despite hard economic times, Congress should heed this clear national call ''to action for mass transit'' and make ''infrastructure improvements a key component of any economic stimulus bill,'' says a Washington Post editorial, urging priority for projects ''that are environmentally friendly and that encourage smart growth.''

In September, the House included about $18 million for transportation in a stimulus bill that later died in the Senate as poorly crafted, the editorial observes, noting that the money would simply ''jump-start ready-to-go transit projects,'' shelved by states because they lacked funds, but it wouldn't reward the best ones, and lawmakers didn't know specifically what they would fund, ''meaning taxpayers could have ended up footing the bill for boondoggles.''

Concerned about ''scant details'' about some 5,000 ready-to-go projects, whose cost the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials estimates at $64 billion, the editorial quotes President-elect Barack Obama on strict conditions for economic-revitalization outlays.

''We are not going to simply write a bunch of checks and let them be spent without some very clear criteria as to how this money is going to benefit the overall economy and put people back to work,'' the President-elect said a day after he reiterated his electoral pledge to ''create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s.''

In transportation, the editorial concludes, ''The new administration and Congress should work to strike a balance between ready-to-go projects that can jolt the economy and long-term investment in public transit.'' -- Washington Post   12/9/2008

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/?nav=globaltop

Economic Woes Put Smaller School Class Sizes at Risk

Increasingly aware that ''kids learn best in smaller classes,'' federal and state school officials have spent billions since the early 1990s to cut class sizes, with the average number of students in elementary classes dropping from 29 in 1961 to 24 in 1996 and 20 in 2004, but now the economic downturn and grim budget prospects jeopardize ''this smaller-is-better trend,'' reports Washington Post writer Maria Glod, citing the latest American Association of School Administrators survey of more than 800 districts, 36 percent of which felt forced to make classes larger, and often to skimp on textbooks, delay maintenance and lower thermostats.

Since about 80 percent of a system's budget goes for salaries and benefits, the writer explains, schools can net the biggest savings by trimming personnel, recruitment or pay raises, but with fewer teachers, instructors or assistants, some classes must be eliminated and their students distributed throughout the school, which also affects staff workload and ability to focus on individual student needs.

In Virginia, the Loudoun County and Fairfax County school systems can save $7.3 million and $22 million a year, respectively, by increasing their average class sizes by just one student, the writer observes, quoting Fairfax Superintendent Jack D. Dale and elementary school principal Roger Vanderhye.

''You go to it as the last resort,'' said the former. ''Class size matters. As a teacher, you end up using the same amount of time with more kids, and kids lose.''

The latter thinks his school may lose four or five of its 59 teachers and one of two assistant principals next year, starting the year with at least 30 students in most classes.

''Thirty is the absolute tipping point because then, instead of facilitating learning, you are managing learning,'' he pointed out. ''We just know that it is going to be very difficult to deliver the same level of services that our parents demand and our kids deserve.''

Last month, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said educators' fears ''that budget cutbacks will increase class sizes to unmanageable levels, put the brakes on initiatives that are improving their schools.'' -- Washington Post   12/5/2008

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/

Streetsblog Network, ClimageChangeEconomic Websites Debut

As the multilayered public discourse on national challenges, choices and prospects expands through the blogosphere, its newly announced sustainability sites include Streetsblog Network and ClimateChangeEconomic.net -- the first, bringing together more than 100 blogs from 31 states so far, all focused on smart growth, livable streets and transportation investments, especially under the incoming 2009 federal Transportation Equity Act (TEA); the other, addressing the nation's carbon intensive economy and related policies nationwide, conceived as a prime research center for lawmakers, regulators and analysts on economic opportunities in the fight against climate change.

Comprehensive and inherently complementary, both websites seek scientific objectivity, grassroots involvement and legislative results.

''Federal transportation policy has long been a Beltway insider's game, one where the highway lobby held most of the cards,'' stresses online Livable Streets Network writer Sarah Goodyear, introducing the Streetsblog Network on December 2. ''This time, a coalition of organizations called Transportation for America has come together with the aim of taking the next TEA bill in a different direction.''

The ClimateChangeEconomic website creator, former head of the Environmental Finance Center at University of Louisville (Kentucky), now E.P. Systems Group President and Chief Economist Dr. Peter B. Meyer, signaled similar reformative efforts in his e-mail invitation to the launch of the site in the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. on December 11.

''We are particularly striving to make the best research and policy models accessible to citizen legislators across the country while also providing them with a private forum for exchanging ideas with their peers,'' he wrote. ''Apart from legislators, we also hope our colleagues throughout the environmental community will find the site's public Web Resources and Library valuable for their own efforts.'' -- Streetsblog Network, ClimateChangeEconomic.net   12/2/2008

Resource(s): http://streetsblog.net ; www.climatechangeecon.net

Time for Change: U.S. Transportation Policy Needs to Compliment -- Not Contradict -- Energy Policy, Infrastructure Needs

When oil prices topped $140 a barrel and gas prices ''shot over $4 a gallon this summer, Americans didn't wait for Washington to respond with an energy policy,'' but began to drive less and use more fuel-efficient cars, a ''dramatic'' yet ''problematic'' shift that cost the federal highway trust fund $3 billion in lost gas tax revenue in the 2008 fiscal year and further tightened money for roads, bridges and transit, writes Wall Street Journal senior editor Joe White in his regular Eyes on the Road column, quoting both President-elect Barack Obama and U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters on American mobility policies and habits, her statement remarkably similar to his comments.

''We go from shock to trance,'' the president-elect said in a ''60 Minutes'' interview. ''You know, oil prices go up, gas prices at the pump go up, everybody goes into a flurry of activity. And then the prices go back down and suddenly we act like it's not important. And, as a consequence, we never make any progress. It's part of the addiction, all right. That has to be broken. Now is the time to break it.''

Secretary Peters would like nothing better.

''Our current approach has us encouraging Americans to change their driving habits and burn less fuel while secretly hoping they drive more so we can finance new bridges, repair interstates and expand transit system,'' she said. ''We need a new approach that compliments, instead of contradicts, our energy policies and infrastructure needs.''

One new approach would let Washington increase the 18.4-cent federal gas tax, the editor observes, noting that the United Kingdom's tax rate equals about $2.85 a gallon.

''Higher gas taxes could finance improvements to roads and mass transit, encourage further conservation or offset the cost of the various federal bailouts,'' he writes, but he also calls the collapse of gas prices in the past few months ''an economic stimulus worth more than $200 billion a year.''

Although big car companies have reiterated their new focus on advanced hybrid or electric vehicles, the latter also promised by small specialized ventures, he notes, low gas prices could stem demand for vehicles ''that use sophisticated technology'' to burn less fuel per mile but that might cost more.

''A lot depends,'' he concludes, ''on whether Americans keep doing what they're doing, regardless of what the numbers are on the gas station signs.'' -- Wall Street Journal   11/24/2008

Resource(s): http://online.wsj.com/

Report: Fed Should Look to State and Local Reforms to Improve Economic Development Programs

''When it comes to investing in job creation, federal agencies are well behind the curve in embracing safeguards to ensure good jobs, curb global warming and encourage civic engagement in revitalizing America's economy,'' write Good Jobs First advocacy group leaders Greg LeRoy and Philip Mattera in their Uncle Sam's Rusty Toolkit: How Proven State and Local Reforms Can Make Federal Economic Development Programs Better for Taxpayers, Workers and the Environment,'' confident that with ''the Obama administration and a new Congress soon to take office, 2009 will present a fresh opportunity for the overhaul of federal economic development programs.''

Released jointly with the AFL-CIO, Change to Win, Green for All, the National Employment Law Project, and the Partnership for Working Families, the study examines five large and popular programs -- the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant program; the Department of Labor's Workforce Investment Act; the Department of Commerce's Public Works and Economic Development Program; the Internal Revenue Code's Industrial Revenue Bonds; and the Department of Agriculture's Business and Industry Guaranteed Loans Program.

Having evaluated these programs in the context of the six best state and local practices that help revitalize communities, create good jobs, safeguard taxpayer investments against fraud and abuse, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and save money by giving more commuters the choice of public transit and by reducing energy use at work places, the authors conclude that ''the federal government can ill afford to continue spending billions of dollars a year in job subsidies guided by program rules that often date back decades.''

Urging Uncle Sam ''to pull out his rusty toolkit and take some lessons from states and cities,'' they point out that the government should require economic development subsidy recipients to address climate change issues, make the private sector implement green building standards for facilities receiving public funds, and encourage developers to locate those facilities near transit routes.

See the study at www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/toolkit.pdf. -- Good Jobs First   11/20/2008

Resource(s): www.goodjobsfirst.org/

EPA Honors Excellence in Smart Growth at 2008 Awards Ceremony

Having created its National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement in 2002, the U.S. EPA presented them to 32 winners from among 523 applicants so far, the 2008 honors for overall excellence, policies and regulations, built projects, and equitable development, respectively, going to Silver Spring Regional Center (Maryland) for the Downtown Silver Spring Redevelopment Project, the Atlanta Regional Commission (Georgia) for the Livable Centers Initiative, Urban Edge Housing Corporation (Massachusetts) for the Egleston Crossing affordable-housing project, and Mercy Housing California and the San Francisco Housing Authority for the Mission Creek Senior Community complex.

''By adopting smart growth approaches, these communities are helping improve residents' quality of life and the quality of the environment,'' said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson in a message to all applicants. ''Thanks to forward-thinking community leaders, historic buildings have been preserved, open spaces have been protected, transportation choices have been provided, and green building practices have been incorporated in municipal buildings and town parks alike. This year's award winners are responsibly building toward a greener, cleaner future, and I encourage other communities to follow their fine example. Smart growth is smart for our environment and smart for our economy.''

More about the EPA program and the 2008 award winners at www.epa.gov/smartgrowth. -- U.S. EPA   11/19/2008

Resource(s): www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/

Opinion: Investing in Sustainable Economy Is Key to Solving Current Economic Crisis

The nation may be in ''the most profound economic crisis since Franklin Roosevelt took office'' in 1933 and requires investment in a sustainable economy instead of ''a 'stimulus' response to boost spending,'' writes Ventura, California City Manager Rick Cole on the NewGeography web page, stressing that Japan also couldn't successfully bail out and stimulate its broken economy after the real estate and financial meltdown in 1989, and that President-elect Barack Obama needs ''an approach as bold and flexible as the New Deal'' was seven decades ago to put America on the right track.

''The inescapable mathematics of our situation is that America runs on $2 billion a day of money borrowed from abroad,'' he points out. ''That long-running profligacy has made us into the world's largest debtor nation so far. For the first time in our history, we are in a position where we cannot reflate our way to prosperity.''

Appreciative of the President-elect's ''straight talk,'' which ''must also acknowledge that we can't work our way out of unprecedented levels of consumer and public debt by borrowing money,'' he wants everyone to realize that ''(b)uilding a sustainable economy is such a huge, complicated, politically challenging endeavor, that it will take every bit of Obama's personal charisma, and leadership abilities, and the backing of an unprecedented movement of support.''

In this, he especially counts on ideas and practitioners outside of political Washington.

Accordingly, he urges a focus on green business, smart growth, regionalism, transportation, human capital, innovation, and the New Orleans region as a lost opportunity so far and ''a model for a rebuilt, muscular economy that puts people back to work in high-wage, high-value jobs.''

Green business, he writes, must go beyond ''green jobs'' generated by alternative energy and mean that within a decade, ''every single job in the American economy will be 'green', as we ruthlessly pursue less wasteful, more sustainable and more productive business practices'' -- primarily a private sector domain, but with the federal government tweaking taxes, regulations, research, acquisition and grant-making policies to ''promote green practices, rather than inadvertently hinder them.''

As to smart growth, he hopes for common understanding that the ''suburban, auto-dominated landscape'' of the past 50 years is neither sustainable on a world-scale nor it will ''work for a post-peak oil, post-carbon America.''

With alternate fuels not being enough and mass transit inefficient in sprawling suburbs, he expects Washington to stop marginalizing the ''largely apolitical'' movement of architects, planners, developers and activists in the Congress for the New Urbanism and help them promote ''a revival of traditional town and city building that emphasizes mixed-use, transit-oriented design at every scale of development from neighborhood to metropolis.'' -- NewGeography   11/15/2008

Resource(s): www.newgeography.com/

Sprawl Puts Americans In ''Double Bind'' of Long Commutes, Home Value Losses

The current global financial crisis stems in no small measure from the American phenomenon ''of sending people ever farther into the countryside to find houses that they (barely) qualified to purchase,'' with such buyers now finding themselves ''in a double bind'' of punishingly long and costly commutes and home value losses, writes Smart Growth America and Transportation for America Communication Director David Goldberg on the Seattle-based WorldChanging international media network's web page, quoting Australia's Curtin University Professor Peter Newman, who told The Sydney Morning Herald that ''(t)he old economy of car dependence is over; with rising oil prices and climate change, people cannot afford to live in outer suburbs and drive to work.''

Professor Newman commented on the Australian government's apparent unwillingness to curb prospective development away from cities, but Director Goldberg notes that governments everywhere would do well to heed the professor's research and words of caution when they consider huge infrastructure outlays and their economic potential.

''The epicenter of the U.S. foreclosure crisis,'' he stresses, ''can be found on the metro fringes.'' -- The Sydney Morning Herald   11/14/2008

Resource(s): www.worldchanging.com/

New Guide to Help Local Governments Create Equitable Impact Fees

''In most jurisdictions, impact fees for multifamily housing are higher than they should be,'' said University of Utah College of Architecture + Planning Presidential Professor Arthur C. Nelson, commenting on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's report Impact Fees & Housing Affordability: A Guide for Practitioners, in which he advises local governments how to make the fees equitable and tells apartment developers how to promote dense-housing sustainability or contest overcharges.

''We need to be more refined in how we assess impacts on residential development,'' he stressed, pointing out that instead of charging impact fees per unit, communities should vary them according to dwelling size and project density.

To illustrate the bias of per-unit fees, he cited an example from Volusia County (Florida) where a 500-square-foot studio apartment is charged the same school impact fee as a 5,000-square-foot house.

In another example, where the net impact costs of a large home on a big lot and of an apartment or condo are assessed at $13,470 and $6,405, the per-unit fee let one of the respective developers underpay the cost by $3,120 while making the other overpay it by $3,945.

Irvine, California-based Developers Research President Barry Gross cited similar examples.

In Riverside County, impact fees for multifamily housing range from $25,000 to $40,000 per unit, which can equal a quarter of the total construction cost.

''These impact fees provide a serious disincentive for multifamily housing builders in the future,'' he said. ''In most jurisdictions in Riverside County, the fees for a sewer or water connection are the same for single-family detached homes and multifamily homes, creating a disproportionate burden on small units. In the case of water connection fees, a single-family unit may use more than twice as much water as an apartment unit, yet the connection fee is the same, thereby increasing the cost per gallon.'' -- National Multi Housing Council   11/7/2008

Resource(s): www.nmhc.org/

Plan for Green Jobs Could Be Best Chance for U.S. Renewable Energy

President-elect Barack Obama's vision of five million ''green jobs,'' created through a $150-billion federal investment in energy efficiency over the next decade, was politically ''potent'' though the numbers were ''squishy'' -- extrapolated from several studies which made different assumptions, excluded potential job loss in displaced sectors, and ''are debated by the Obama advisers themselves,'' reports Wall Street Journal writer Jeffrey Ball, admitting however that ''a big government push, focused on jobs, may represent the best chance in years for renewable energy and energy efficiency to take root in the U.S., a voracious energy consumer.''

The key green-jobs argument ''that big capital investment in new-energy technology today will be more than offset by savings in reduced fossil-fuel cost,'' he writes, was just boosted by an International Energy Agency (IEA) prediction of another oil price climb, once the economy improves, perhaps above $200 a barrel by 2030.

The IEA called the current energy system ''patently unsustainable'' and urged ''radical action by governments.''

The writer also notes the added economic appeal of a prospective stimulus-package's investment in the relatively young and fast-growing green industry, which ''is just starting to build its basic infrastructure -- wind turbines, solar panels and a more-sophisticated electric-transmission grid.''

As to varied estimates of the related gains and costs, the writer quotes San Francisco-based Apollo Alliance Co-director Kate Gordon, whose coalition of environmental groups estimated in a September report that creation of five million green jobs would require a $500-billion investment.

She considers such numerical discrepancies less important that the need-for-change message.

The goal is, she told the writer, ''just to inspire people.'' -- Wall Street Journal   11/7/2008

Resource(s): http://online.wsj.com/

Commentary: Nation's Cities Stand to Gain from Election Results

With more than 80 percent of Americans living in cities and nearby suburbs, the election of Senator Barack Obama to the White House ''offers a momentous opportunity to reclaim the American narrative that we most admire,'' international, economic and egalitarian, while ending ''the urban narrative of negativity'' and restoring cities ''as places of industrial, educational and artistic excellence,'' writes Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker in a Huffington Post blog, emphasizing the President-elect's readiness to strengthen ''the federal commitment to our cities through several key initiatives,'' including creation of a White House Office of Urban Policy.

A son of prominent civil-rights leaders, Stanford University graduate, Rhodes Scholar, holder of an Oxford University degree in Modern History and a Yale University law degree, and a former community organizer himself, Mayor Booker writes he became one of New Jersey's first elected officials to endorse Senator Obama for president 18 months ago, when their first meeting showed the candidate's ''deep and unique understanding of the central role that our cities play in America's revival.''

The prospective White House Office of Urban Policy, the mayor continues, will lay out ''a strategy for metropolitan America'' and ''ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs.''

The new president will move to stimulate urban economic prosperity ''by supporting job creation, enhancing workforce training, and increasing access to capital for underserved businesses.''

He will push to expand affordable housing and ensure ''that middle-class Americans get the financial assistance they need to purchase or keep their own home.''

He will work to strengthen the transportation system, including roads and bridges, ''which will also create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs per year and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity.''

Equally important in his agenda will be ''(r)einforcing and refocusing on education programs that support teachers in urban schools, expand early childhood education and reduce the high school dropout rate;'' and ''(c)reating a new green economy, which will not only lower carbon output, increase energy efficiency, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil but also create new businesses and tens of thousands of new jobs.''

He will also ''(s)upport local law enforcement through full-funded programs that place more police officers on the street and help address police brutality and accountability issues in local communities.''

Calling the President-elect's commitment ''to changing the narrative of American cities'' crucial to national success, and looking forward to working with him and his administration, Mayor Booker ends with both a cautionary note and an optimistic one.

''Our success, however, is fully dependent upon how we as a nation unite in pursuit of our common ideals and values,'' he writes, referring to challenges ahead. ''I believe we have the right leader, with the right message, to inspire us to act in concert and claim what I believe is America's great destiny.'' -- Huffington Post   11/4/2008

Resource(s): www.huffingtonpost.com/

Experts Outline Changing Landscape, Emerging Trends for U.S. Housing

''I don't believe for a minute we're going to be able to meet the demand for smart-growth housing,'' said University of Utah Department of City and Metropolitan Planning Professor Arthur ''Chris'' Nelson during a Society of Environmental Journalists conference's land-use panel, arranged by Seattle Post-Intelligencer environmental reporter Robert McClure, who had long thought sprawl unwise but inevitable until new factors undercut the popular belief ''that we will forever transform forests and fields into houses and highways.''

Recapitulated by Professor Nelson and former Maryland Governor now Smart Growth Leadership Institute President Parris N. Glendening, the crucial new factors are unprecedented demographic shifts, increased longevity and preferences for city living, and acute awareness of the causes and effects of dependence on foreign oil.

The number of households with children will decline from 50 percent in the 1950s to 25 percent by 2040, and the others will account for 86 percent of residential market demand in 2005-2040, needing some 47 million units.

In addition, medical advances may extend the average American lifespan to 120 years, noted Professor Nelson, which would further increase the percentage of childless households and reinforce the urban living trend, making an adequate response to demand for smart-growth housing -- in pedestrian-friendly and transit-served neighborhoods -- even more unlikely without proactive planning and land-use remedies now.

And some of such remedies are relatively easy.

Pointing to thousands of severely underused suburban shopping malls, on utility-rich land well suited for redevelopment, he calculated that conversion of just a quarter of them into smart-growth urban centers, even at modest densities possible with about three-story buildings, could accommodate two-thirds of the population growth through 2040.

It would also help reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and the consumption of oil, 22 percent of which comes from unstable Middle East countries, observed Governor Glendening, noting that American presence in Iraq has spurred broad public re-examination, including many related issues.

''Our foreign policy is dictated by our energy policy, which is dictated by our transportation and land-use policies,'' he stressed. ''People are beginning to connect the dots.''

Citing a recent National Association of Realtors Preference Survey that found many homebuyers in search of walkable locations and easy access to stores, schools and transit, Governor Glendening agreed with Brookings scholar and developer Christopher Leinberger that a lot of pristine but distant suburbs -- hit by the subprime mortgage crisis, marred by foreclosures, vandalism and for-sale signs or stopped before completion -- are at risk of becoming tomorrow's slums.

With starter-homes uninhabitable or claimed by the homeless, 3,000-square-foot McMansions abandoned, and long-depressed city neighborhoods gentrifying, many priced-out city residents will ''start living two or three families to a McMansion,'' the reporter writes, referring readers to Christopher Leinberger's essay in the March issue of the Atlantic magazine.

Still, many of the poor ''moving to the Land of the Cul De Sac'' and facing unaffordable gas prices, will have get to work elsewhere, he adds, quoting the Brookings scholar's prediction that the suburbs most likely to thrive will be those with good transit access to jobs.

Click here to see his Atlantic article. -- Post-Intelligencer   10/21/2008

Resource(s): http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/

Americans Ready to Shift Public Funds to Support Transit

Even before gas prices spiked high above $4 per gallon this spring and summer, a Harris Interactive poll found last December that 81 percent of Americans would radically change federal outlays of the 1998 Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) from 79 percent for roads, 20 percent for mass transit, and 1 percent for biking and walking, to 37, 41, and 22 percent, respectively, in its 2009 replacement bill -- a crucial public opinion readjustment, with the potential benefits of a new funding formula quantified by the national Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) nonprofit in its Active Transportation for America: The Case for Increased Federal Investment in Bicycling and Walking report, just presented to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Democratic Chairman James Oberstar.

Confident that many short, up to three-mile car trips, now accounting for about half of the total, can be made on foot or by bike, RTC researchers calculated benefits of biking and walking as a mobility mode for its current 9.6 percent of all transportation (Status Quo), and for its growth to 13 and 25 percent (Modest Scenario and Substantial Scenario).

The status quo benefits would greatly increase under the two scenarios: from 23 to 69 and 199 in billions of avoided miles of driving a year; from 1.4 to 3.8 and 10.3 in billions of saved gallons of fuel; from 12 to 33 and 91 in millions of tons of reduced CO2 emissions, and from 3 to 5 and 9 in average minutes of daily physical activity per person.

The monetary value of all these benefits would rise from 4.1 to 10.4 and 65.9 in billions of dollars a year.

''The report illustrates the groundswell of public demand for investment in varied transportation choices,'' stressed RTC President Keith Laughlin, expecting Congress to study the data in its work on the new transportation bill.

''Americans want compelling opportunities to improve their communities with bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. Having transportation choices will save people billions of dollars in fuel costs and millions of hours wasted in gridlock.''

RTC Vice President of Policy Kevin Mills said, ''By making active transportation a viable option for everyday travel, we will cost-effectively reduce oil dependence, climate pollution and obesity rates while providing more and better choices for getting around town.''

And RTC Research Director Thomas Gotschi added, ''The report shows that modest increases in individuals bicycling and walking could lead to an annual reduction of 70 billion miles of driving, and more substantial increases could avoid 200 billion miles each year. This could cut oil dependence and climate pollution from passenger vehicles by 3 to 8 percent, out-performing the historic contribution of other prominent solutions such as gas-electric hybrid vehicles.

Click here to download the report (48 pages/5.2mb). -- Rails to Trails   10/20/2008

Resource(s): www.railstotrails.org/

Study: Watershed, Not Political, Boundaries Best for Managing Stormwater Runoff

Although urban areas take just three percent of U.S. land, their loss of water-retaining soil and vegetation -- and their polluted runoff from impervious surfaces, lawns, vehicles, industries, and construction sites -- have harmed all urban streams, and, on a larger scale, caused most impairment of 13 percent of rivers, 18 percent of lakes, and 32 percent of estuaries, concludes the National Research Council's Committee on Reducing Stormwater Discharge Contribution to Water Pollution in its consensus report for the U.S. EPA, confident that action ''most likely to stop and reverse degradation of the nations waterways would be to base all stormwater and other wastewater discharge permits on watershed boundaries instead of political boundaries,'' while conserving natural land, reducing hard surface cover, and retrofitting urban areas.

At the same time, promoting growth in urban areas ''is a good thing because it can take pressure off the suburban fringe, thereby preventing sprawl, and because it minimizes the creation of new impervious surfaces,'' the report says. ''However, it can be more expensive because there is existing infrastructure and limited availability and affordability of land. Both innovative zoning and development incentives, along with careful selection of stormwater control measures, are needed to achieve fair and effective stormwater management in these areas.''

Finding the current stormwater discharge management in urban areas faulty on many points, including jurisdictional fragmentarization, EPA ''benign'' monitoring requirements, lack of measurable discharger goals, and lax enforceability, the report makes the case for watershed permitting, an approach attempted only by a few communities so far.

''The proposed watershed permitting structure would put both the authority and accountability for stormwater discharges at the municipal level,'' the report explains. ''A municipal lead permitee, such as a city, would work in partnership with other municipalities in the watershed as co-permitees. Permitting authorities (designated states or, otherwise, EPA) would adopt a minimum goal for every watershed to avoid any further loss or degradation of designated beneficial uses in the watershed's component waterbodies and additional goals in some cases aimed at recovering lost beneficial uses. Permitees, with support by the states or EPA, would then conduct comprehensive impact source analyses as a foundation for targeting solutions.''

The report proposes a monitoring program to assess progress or diagnose reasons for its lack and to determine discharger compliance.

It also proposes ''market-based trading of credits among discharges to achieve overall compliance in the most efficient manners, and adaptive management to determine additional actions if monitoring demonstrates failure to achieve objectives.''

For more info, visit the National Academy of Sciences site at http://dels.nas.edu/wstb/   10/16/2008

Resource(s): http://dels.nas.edu/wstb/ ; www.epa.gov/

Transportation for America Coalition Seeking More Funds for Mass Transit, Infrastructure Repair

''Now is not the time to squander money on projects or plans that do not help save Americans money, free us from oil dependence and create long-term jobs,'' warns a diverse Transportation for America coalition of environmental, urban design, housing and other groups, launching a campaign to make sure the 2009 federal transportation bill allocates a fair share for mass transit and infrastructure repair instead of funding mostly new roads, reports Associated Press writer Sarah Karush, the effort joined by Pennsylvania and Virginia Democratic Governors Ed Rendell and Timothy M. Kaine, and former Maryland Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening, now the Smart Growth Leadership Institute president.

''That's always difficult politically,'' said Governor Rendell about his state's fix-it-first approach, but recalling the deadly August 2007 collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis, he asked, ''How many more Minnesotas do we have to have as a country?''

Governor Kaine cited a decline in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and an increase in transit demand, telling the writer, ''The key is to provide choices, so you invest in everything.''

And Governor Glendening said, ''Make sure that infrastructure really builds for the future. That's about transit, that's about walkability, that's about 'fix it first.'''

Including groups as diverse as the American Institute of Architects, the American Public Health Association and the National Association of Realtors, the writer observes, the Transportation for America coalition estimates that $240 billion of ready-to-go rail and rapid bus projects in 78 metropolitan areas would create 6.7 million jobs, with 14.8 million more jobs secured by $512 billion investment in repair of deteriorating bridges, roadways and transit systems.

''After bailing out Wall Street, Congress and the next President must invest in Main Street,'' the coalition states on its web site. ''The Build for America five-point plan is about choosing the right investments -- those that save consumers money, create jobs, improve our energy security, and revitalize our communities.''

See the plan at www.t4america.org/buildforamerica/index.html. -- Associated Press/HomeTownAnnapolis.com   10/15/2008

Resource(s): www.hometownannapolis.com/

Outlining Solutions for Suburbs Could Be Key to Winning Presidential Contest

For both presidential candidates to gain a clear and stable advantage over each other in the suburbs, ''where the largest bloc of swing voters reside'' and most ''home foreclosures are,'' wrote Hofstra University National Center for Suburban Studies Executive Director Lawrence C. Levy in a New York Times blog just before they met a the Hofstra campus in Nassau County (Long Island) for the final electoral debate, Senator John McCain needs to persuade their inhabitants ''that he understands how much of their future is tied up in the falling values of their homes and their retirement accounts,'' and Senator Barack Obama needs to outline ''a more inclusive and productive 'metro policy,' one that recognizes the need for cities and suburbs to work together on regional problems, like transportation and pollution.''

For still better individual results November 4, Senator McCain should show a sympathetic focus on ''mass transit, housing and education -- issues that appeal to voters in cities and their surrounding areas,'' and Senator Obama should make an authoritative statement on ''the economic and social challenges of the changing suburbs,'' with both committing themselves to making solution of all these problems ''a high priority'' once in the White House.

''For inspiration and ideas, the candidates should read the Brookings Institution's Blueprint for American Prosperity,'' Director Levy wrote. ''Brookings has found that the 100 largest metropolitan areas account for 65 percent of the total population of the United States, but generate 74 percent of the country's college graduates, 76 percent of its relatively high-paying jobs, 78 percent of its patents, 79 percent of its air cargo and 94 percent of its venture capital financing.''

Nevertheless, they receive ''far less than a per capita share of money from Washington for a variety of services,'' with urban and suburban officials additionally ''stymied by inefficient federal bureaucracies and by arbitrary political traditions -- from the earmarking of pork to the failure to recognize regional cost differences.''

Calling suburban votes largely dependent on each candidate's support for remaking metropolitan areas ''into more efficient clusters'' -- backed by federal investment in roads, transit and other infrastructure -- and for the current work on a Congressional measure to review ''federal regulations and revenue streams to see if the suburbs are getting their fair share,'' Director Levy illustrated the next president's metropolitan policy task through Nassau County challenges.

Like many other suburban counties, Nassau County faces ''dynamic demographic changes'' that are leaving it ''older and poorer'' as many of its ''inner-ring'' or ''first'' suburbs, like late 1940s-era Levittown, ''are aging physically, with more and more deteriorating downtowns.''

Despite its concentration of medical specialists, one of the highest nationwide, 33 of the county's communities are ''medically underserved,'' and gang and drug dealer activity is up.

Elsewhere on Long Island, which has ''some of the nation's wealthiest and highest performing public school districts, minority children are stuck in highly segregated, failing schools,'' he added, convinced that voters will put in the White House the candidate who responds to these concerns with a better action plan. -- New York Times   10/14/2008

Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/

Start Planning Now for Transit-Based Town Centers, Says Brooking Scholar

Although the current ''economic meltdown is generally blamed on lax regulation of the financial sector's real-estate dealings,'' reports MinnPost.com Citiscape column writer Steve Berg, University of Michigan and Brookings scholar Christopher Leinberger, a developer himself, also blames the whole real-estate industry, especially his fellow developers, for ignoring an increasingly evident residential-market shift throughout the 1990s, from single-family homes on the suburban fringe toward smaller and denser units near metropolitan cores.

''We built too much of the wrong product in the wrong place,'' he told the writer before addressing an overflow crowd of developers and local officials at an Urban Land Institute (ULI) Minnesota Chapter forum in Minneapolis, describing the market's structural change as ''sprawl's last gasp.''

To position themselves for long-term success when the economy finally recovers, Christopher Leinberger said metro regions and local communities should build rail and other transit systems, change zoning to benefit from compact, walkable, mixed-use development, and reinvigorate downtowns and town centers by creating business improvement districts (BIDs).

All this will greatly depend on the new federal transportation bill, which must be ''mode neutral'' and ensure equal funds for transit and other alternatives to driving, he observed, glad that the bill's primary author will be Minnesota Democratic Representative James Oberstar, chairman of the House transportation committee.

During his presentation at the ULI forum, the writer reports, Christopher Leinberger advised Minneapolis and St. Paul to follow Denver, Colorado.

Along with construction of its extensive light-rail system, he noted, Denver rezoned transit corridors and promoted 53 stations for town-center development, especially favored by young knowledge workers -- a generation choosing urban lifestyles over suburban auto-dependency.

Calling the abrupt 1950s-era American departure from civilizations' practices of building cities on a walkable scale, and the simultaneous national subsidies for wasteful, inefficient and socially unfair sprawl, ''the biggest social engineering project in history,'' he predicted that now town centers built around rail stations will increasingly become the best real-estate investments.

''There are two kinds of metro areas,'' he said, ''those that offer walkable alternatives and those that don't -- and those that don't will be left behind.'' -- MinnPost.com   10/13/2008

Resource(s): www.minnpost.com/

PolicyLink President Rebuts Criticism of Community Reinvestment Act

In one of the most insidious attempts to confuse issues during this political season, ''a scathing video'' inserted by the Drudge Report into the conservative blogosphere blames the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) for the current housing crisis, ''the basic argument being that the CRA forced banks to loan to all people and, therefore, precipitated the sub-prime crisis and irresponsible people getting loans they couldn't afford,'' writes Oakland, California-based PolicyLink President Judith Bell in her national research-and-action institute's Equity Blog, calling the claim both morally repugnant and factually off-base.

Passed by Congress ''to counter proven and pervasive racial discrimination by banks and savings and loans,'' she explains, the CRA ''was a remarkable success, sending home ownership rates among people of color to unparalleled heights and helping usher in a black and Latino middle class that is essential to America's economic future.''

Unfortunately, the CRA was significantly weakened by 1999 legislation that ''allowed investment and securities firm to enter the mortgage world,'' without necessary regulation to control their reach for ''accelerated profits and revenue streams,'' with more than 20 types of such firms eventually purchasing, repackaging and securitizing home loans.

''Brokers became free agents to recruit these loans for players that made money on high-fee, high-interest transactions,'' she points out. ''This massive web of financial entities offering, bundling, and trading mortgages was not covered by the CRA.''

Eventually, watchdog group Media Matters found that non-CRA-governed institutions made 84.3 percent of high-cost loans throughout the 15 most populous metropolitan areas in 2006, and Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President and CEO Janet Yellen said last March that ''studies have shown that the CRA has increased the volume of responsible lending to low- and moderate-income households.''

With lawmakers abdicating their responsibility to regulate new players and letting ''the market run roughshod over millions of low-income Americans simply yearning for the American dream of home ownership,'' the PolicyLink president resents the attempt to blame them for ''an economic crisis than began in smoky Wall Street backrooms,'' concluding, ''The CRA is an indispensable tool in our continuing push toward an America that offers equal, just and fair opportunity for all people.'' -- EquityBlog   10/10/2008

Resource(s): www.equityblog.org/

Wall Street Rescue Plan Includes Tax Credit for Bike Commuters

In an unexpected bonus for bike commuters, the controversial $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed on September 20 and Congress reworked and eventually approved October 3 as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 -- part of $849 billion legislation (H.R. 1424) passed 74-25 in the Senate and 263-171 in the House -- carried along a $20-a-month tax-free reimbursement for biking to work, an employer expense deductible from federal tax beginning next year, reports New York Times writer William Yardley, calling it ''a bittersweet victory'' for the measure's longtime sponsor, Oregon Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer.

Founder of the Congressional Bike Caucus, Representative Blumenauer has for several years advocated such a bike-commute bonus as only fair when other commuters enjoy free or below-rate parking or transit cards.

Still, he voted against the huge bill, because thousands of his constituents contacted his office with objections to the $700 billion corporate financial bailout, said his spokeswoman Lucia Graves, and because of frustration over its lack of stronger provisions to help afflicted homeowners.

''He was looking at the big picture, the state of the economy,'' she told the writer, commenting on the bike-commute tax break. ''It's great that it was on there, but it was not the point.''

Many bike advocates nationwide are happy such a break has finally passed, though some regret it accompanies the $700 billion rescue bill, the writer notes, quoting a Portland resident, bicycling blog editor Jonathan Maus.

''It's a totally weird, ironic political situation,'' he observed. ''It's a pretty small victory. But this gives a lot of people around the country the ability to walk into their human resources office or their manager's office and ask for the credit. It helps move the conversation forward.''

The League of American Bicyclists, reports San Francisco Chronicle writer Rachel Gordon, estimates the federal cost of the $20-a-month employer tax write-off at about $1 million a year.

San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, a sponsor of a law to require all city businesses with at least 20 employees to offer them transit passes, vanpool reimbursement, door-to-door shuttle service or access to a federal tax break for transit use, wants to include the new benefit for bikers as an alternative.

''It's another opportunity to encourage good commuting habits,'' he said about the law, which will take effect next summer, after six month of public education.

For details see http://banking.senate.gov and http://financialservices.house.gov. -- San Francisco Chronicle   10/9/2008

Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/ ; www.npr.org/

Editorial: California Continues Environmental Leadership With Land-Use Bill

Having passed a farsighted 2002 law (AB 1493) to enact the toughest tailpipe emission standards in the country, and 2006 laws (SB 107, SB 32) to generate 20 percent of the state's energy from renewable sources by 2010 and to cut carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, all this and more ''while Washington slept,'' says a New York Times editorial, California has just reasserted its environmental leadership with the enactment of another U.S. first -- Democratic Senator Darrel Steinberg's bill (SB 375) ''to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by curbing urban sprawl and cutting back the time people have to spend in their automobiles.''

With passenger vehicles emitting nearly one-third of California's carbon dioxide, and its number of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) surging 50 percent faster than the population growth rate, ''largely because people have to drive greater distances in their daily lives,'' the editorial calls ''the basic sequence'' of the law straightforward.

''The state's Air Resources Board will determine the level of emissions produced by cars and light trucks, including S.U.Vs, in each of California's 17 metropolitan areas. Emissions-reduction goals for 2020 and 2035 would be assigned to each area. Local governments would then devise strategies for housing development, road-building and other land uses to shorten travel distances, reduce driving and meet new targets.''

Two obvious solutions, the editorial observes, would be to change zoning laws and to improve mass transit, so developers ''can build new housing closer to where people work'' and commuters ''don't have to rely so much on cars.''

As main incentives, the bill promises substantial federal and state money to regions that plan well and relaxation of some environmental rules for higher-density urban ''infill'' projects.

Senator Steinberg worked closely with builders and environmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council on the bill, and given California's size, its environmental initiatives ''will help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions,'' the editorial points out, hopeful that others will follow and ensure more progress.

''New York and 15 other states have already said they will adopt California's automobile emission standards when the federal government gives them the green light -- which the Bush administration has stubbornly refused to do,'' the editorial stresses. ''There is, of course, no substitute for federal action or for American global leadership on climate change, both of which the next president will have to deliver.'' -- State of California, New York Times   10/6/2008

Resource(s): http://gov.ca.gov/index.php ; www.nytimes.com/