8th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth

In a year marked by a volatile economy with rising fuel and energy costs, the housing and mortgage crisis and increasing food costs, consumers are thinking more directly about how their decisions affect their quality of life. Some are driving less, others are moving to smaller homes, and everyone has turned to living green. While this dynamic has brought an air of uncertainty and desperation to many consumers, it has also created an bright opportunity to demonstrate how changing one’s lifestyle to highlight more walkable, compact, transit-rich attributes contributes to a better one for the economy, the community, public health and the environment.

In a year marked by a volatile economy with rising fuel and energy costs, the housing and mortgage crisis and increasing food costs, consumers are thinking more directly about how their decisions affect their quality of life. Some are driving less, others are moving to smaller homes, and everyone has turned to living green. While this dynamic has brought an air of uncertainty and desperation to many consumers, it has also created an bright opportunity to demonstrate how changing one’s lifestyle to highlight more walkable, compact, transit-rich attributes contributes to a better one for the economy, the community, public health and the environment.

This session will explore the role of health professionals in influencing community design to help create health promoting live, learn, work, and play environments in local communities. The session will prepare participants with knowledge to contribute to policy and environmental changes, with a focus on policy issues that are currently under consideration. This is a unique opportunity to interact with health professionals, planners, local government officials, and other partners to uncover effective ways to collaborate around creating communities with increased physical activity opportunities and access to healthy food. An afternoon break is included with this workshop. Pre-registration and fee are required. See Special Features page for details.

California local governments are taking charge of their communities' energy use from generating electricity from renewable, non-polluting sources to reducing energy consumption in municipal facilities and those of residents and businesses. Marin County is looking to create a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program that they estimate will provide about 80% of the electricity consumed in the county from renewable resources such as solar, wind and biomass. Since it opened for business five years ago, the Ventura Regional Energy Alliance has saved its public agency members over $1.4 million in energy costs and more than 5,000 tons of carbon emissions per year by providing direct assistance to reduce energy use in their facilities. And ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability has developed new tools and protocols for local governments in its efforts to help local governments track the impacts of their actions.

Transportation is one of the most important determinants of a community’s form and character. Recognizing the intricate link between smart growth goals and transportation planning, State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are working to reform their missions. California and Pennsylvania are leaders in this effort. Pennsylvania’s Smart Transportation initiative has resulted in the publication of a Guidebook that sets the stage for changing the way the DOT does business. Pennsylvania is linking planning and NEPA, changing the Highway Occupancy Permit process, and reaching out to local governments to better understand land use issues. In California, Caltrans’ Smart Mobility Framework project, still in its early phases, proposes broadening the criteria by which the Department makes decisions to include location efficiency, public health impacts, and stewardship of the built environment.

Individuals instrumental in crafting the two state programs will share information and perspectives about this new approach. These presentations will set the stage for a 30-minute interactive discussion with the audience about motivating meaningful change in DOTs and other large transportation agencies.

There is rapidly growing demand for sustainable developments in the United States. Local governments are often at the forefront of this movement. However, with a flagging U.S. economy other countries like Abu Dhabi, India, and China need to also play a major role in driving trends in sustainable development and green building practices. Examples can be found in European cities like Copenhagen, Denmark and Mannheim, Germany, that have embraced sustainability with concrete actions to improve the energy productivity of entire communities, providing learning and insight for projects here in the U.S. And, while Abu Dhabi has some of the world’s largest oil reserves, its leaders are anticipating a world where fossil fuels will not dominate and thus has undertaken one of the most ambitious sustainability programs in the world that includes both green building standards and sustainable development regulations. From land development patterns to material choices and building science practices, from planning guidelines and standards to a holistic view of how energy is supplied and used within the community, these international innovations can set the stage for significant financial benefits for U.S. communities while providing provide valuable guidance regarding community scale energy productivity and green development standards. Come hear from leading planners from Abu Dhabi along with international building experts on ways that sustainability practices can be effective and affordable on a local level.

This session will highlight the successes and challenges encountered in health-related collaborative planning projects of two very different California communities. In one project the local health department partnered with a city government, businesses and residents in an urban area of Northern California to develop a Streetscape Improvement Plan for a commercial district that traverses two cities. The street is in a culturally diverse lower and middle-income neighborhood, a key north south route for both cities, and an important access route for inter-modal public transportation. The second project in a rural Southern California community engaged the community to develop a Vision Plan for future growth. The plan addresses local transportation, land-use planning, health, safety, and environmental issues for this community of low-income farm workers with a strong sense of community. Both projects will feature lessons learned and highlight the role and contribution of local health agencies in collaborating to create safe walking and bicycling environments and improve the economic and social vitality of neighborhoods.

This session will follow the format of last years Water and Land Use 101 session. How and where we grow has everything to do with water resources and the costs associated with protecting, managing and delivering them. Efficient land use patterns and compact community form are among the most effective means of sustaining water supplies, yet good land use planning is still rarely employed as water management strategy. This session will clarify linkages between land use and water, and explain the impacts of conventional growth patterns and development practices on water demand, water quality, infrastructure, flooding and runoff, and the health of watersheds and the resources they provide. Speakers will illuminate the water benefits of smart growth and provide examples of how land use and water policies can be aligned to meet community, environmental, and economic goals.

Small towns across the country remind us of important tenets of smart growth: the value of compact community with a vital town center and strong connection to nature and agriculture at the edge. Many of these places are struggling to revitalize their downtowns while preserving their shape and character in the face of new growth. This session will present successful cases in which leaders and residents crafted a common vision for the healthy evolution of their communities and the progress made toward implementation. Speakers will highlight the development of “form-based” planning and zoning tools in several small towns of California’s agricultural Central Valley and rural foothills of the Sierra Nevada. These are tools that small towns with few staff and part-time elected leaders can use to direct revitalization and new development to sustain town character. At least 30 minutes will be allocated to the Q&A discussion portion of the session to insure that participants have a chance to discuss their issues and get advice on projects they are working on.

Beginning in the 1970s, several states ventured into growth management, as political leaders and policymakers became concerned with unplanned and dispersed development patterns. Through the 1990s, the aim of containing development, coordinating land use and transportation policy, protecting open space and enabling multifamily and affordable housing turned into the now-recognizable campaign known as smart growth.

Many such policies continue today — with a new context of the financial crisis, soaring energy costs, and the mandate to reduce carbon emissions. Yet there has never been a comprehensive, empirical evaluation of statewide smart growth programs, and the impact that legislation and executive orders has had. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy set out to examine four states that launched varying forms of growth management or smart growth programs — Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, and Oregon – and also look at results in four states that had not formally set any such statewide programs: Colorado, Indiana, Texas, and Virginia. The measures are environmental protection and open space; transportation; affordable housing; fiscal impacts; and land use patterns. This session will summarize and explore the findings of this yearlong effort, which will be published in a book and a Lincoln Institute Policy Focus Report.

As housing and transportation costs escalate, the demand for housing near transit will continue to increase. While transit-oriented developments (TODs) are becoming more commons, all too frequently lower-income people are being “price out.”

This session discusses the scope of the problem and provides viable options for preserving existing housing affordability near transit. As federally assisted housing units disappear from areas served by transit, affordability issues are magnified, particularly for vulnerable populations -- research by the presenters shows the extent this housing is threatened. The session will also highlights work being done in the Twin Cities by the LISC’s Corridor Housing Initiative (CHI). The focus of CHI offers community development tools for higher density, affordable housing along major transit corridors to better link housing, jobs, transit and community.

This session will frame the dilemma of preserving affordable housing near transit and provide a case study that attempts to resolve that dilemma.

Every community is different. The “right shade of green” for one may be entirely wrong for another. This session will focus on the need for a careful examination of stakeholder goals and objectives for the use of their limited resources. Now more than ever sustainability planners must carefully screen the strategies available in search of those that will make a difference in specific areas that matter most to the community. Planning must include objective and transparent evaluation of a broad range of sustainable attributes that expand upon the triple bottom line (environmental, social, economic implications) to also address (1) Functionality, (2) Resilience, (3) GHG, (4) Green Jobs, and (5) Deliverability.

This panel will focus on practical guidance from two progressive communities, leading planners and professionals that employ risk/benefit and business case analysis to help communities examine, prioritize and rank planning elements with the goal of maximum Sustainable Return on Investment.

Safe Routes to School: Changing the Habits of an Entire Generation will provide workshop participants with an opportunity to learn about the successful implementation of Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs at local, school district-wide, and state-wide levels. Hear about the New Mexico Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program and how it is facilitating program planning in 15 communities. Learn how an MPO has led a pilot program and secured funds to develop a school-district wide SRTS program; and get ideas from a public health professional on how a Washington State community raised local funds and built non-traditional partnerships to complete safe routes infrastructure changes. Information will also be presented on the status of the federal SRTS program, and the campaign for increasing funding for SRTS in the next transportation bill. Time for questions, answers and discussion will follow the presentations.

In Las Cruces, numerous plans for trails, open space, parks, arroyo preservation, equestrian trails, riparian ecological corridors, wilderness, bikeways, desert preservation, and so forth have been developed over the years by the public, the city, local designers and developers, the Bureau of Land Management, the Las Cruces Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Elephant Butte Irrigation District, and others. In this session, the presenters will describe those plans and the collaborative work done to bring together all of these parties to construct plans, and accompanying GIS maps, for a coordinated and connected network that will become an important Smart Growth planning tool for our fast-growing city.

This session is geared towards first-time attendees to the conference or for participants who are new to the practice of implementing smart growth solutions. The session will cover general topics, such as the ten principles of smart growth, the process of how land development typically occurs, and the basics of planning and zoning for smart growth. The goal of the session is to provide a good working background on smart growth and prepare participants for more in-depth sessions during the main conference.

Over the past two decades many jurisdictions have adopted a variety of transportation policies they expect will complete their streets. But how well do these existing policies perform? Do they specifically address the needs of older adults, children, and people living with disabilities? Through case study examples, best practice models, and exercises, learn what key elements and implementation strategies make a policy result in routinely creating complete streets: public rights of way that are safe and inviting for users of all ages, abilities and modes to travel along and across. Speakers will emphasize how the needs of vulnerable populations; namely older adults, persons with disabilities, and children may be met. Presenters will discuss how federal design guidance for older driver safety may inadvertently conflict with the needs of other road users and will offer recommendations for balancing user needs.

Successful smart growth coalitions need to bring together constituencies with diverse interests in order to achieve their goals.  This panel will introduce several case studies of alliances that have done this effectively and managed to sustain them over time.  Panelists will discuss their original impetus for building a coalition, how they overcame the obstacles to collaboration, and their prospects for continuation.  Flexible organizational models and the value of network building will be examined.  Drawing on examples from the local, regional, metropolitan and state levels, case studies will highlight common challenges and illustrate some effective strategies for turning intractable situations into winning outcomes.

This panel session will highlight a national partnership program and two locally based programs each working through community development processes and drawing on the experience of public health professionals and community planners to create healthy communities. Each initiative focuses on policy and environmental change strategies to create healthier communities. A dynamic facilitated discussion format will be used to present varying philosophies and actions directed at impacting local decisions to support increased physical activity and healthy nutrition. Each panelist will describe successes, challenges and solutions used to elicit community support to sustain current collaborative efforts and will provide practical examples of how to build partnerships to activate policy or environmental change at multiple levels. Panelists will identify practical and sustainable tools to support healthy living and informed decision-making that can be replicated in other communities. Broad public policy priorities for all sectors of communities, states, and the nation will be described.

This session describes how a market-based approach is being used in Southwest Washington State to improve individual decisions that will collectively improve its economy and its environment. Two questions, fundamental to Smart Growth and Sustainability, will be explored:

• What are the decision-making processes that shape the balance between our natural and built environments?
• How can different groups of people make better decisions within the context of these complex decision-making processes?

As part of the presentation, we will demonstrate a powerful new web-based application that is being used to support a Mitigation Marketplace to inform decisions across multiple perspectives (i.e., buyers, sellers, regulators).

There is much talk about how to green an organization, and the interest spans public and private organizations alike. The purpose of this session is to review HDR’s journey toward sustainability, identify the benefits applicable to a broad range of organizations, and address the issue of culture change. A fundamental premise an organization should consider - If an organization asks its clients or stakeholders to practice sustainability, it must do no less. Using a “Lessons Learned” approach, the session focuses on three levels:

• Vision and commitment at the leadership level. It starts at the top. The leadership outlines the organization’s position and sets key initiatives.
• Culture change is managed. How to reform an organization’s culture requires a dedicated sustainability manager.
• Continuous improvement. Managing change is a continuous process. Setting and measuring goals for internal and external applications is essential for long-term success.

Waterfront and coastal communities have historically been, and will remain, desirable places to live. The unique amenities that draw people to the water - ocean, lake, or riverfront - also require special consideration when addressing growth and development. These issues range from understanding the dynamic ecology of the land and water interface to revitalizing waterfronts and protecting water dependent uses, providing public access, and planning for hazard resiliency and the impacts of climate change. Smart Growth at the water’s edge requires a tailored approach that recognizes the unique challenges and opportunities of waterfront and coastal development. A number of diverse organizations have recognized the need for Smart Growth approaches to help coastal communities address their unique waterfront characteristics. This session will explore waterfront principles and associated guidance documents that provide local communities with tools, techniques, and case studies for implementing waterfront and coastal Smart Growth.

Back by popular demand, this session will highlight the EPA smart growth technical assistance program, and feature information about other assistance programs. Local, regional and state leaders should attend to learn about successful projects making smart growth happen across the country, and about best practices to advance smart growth policies. Representatives from some of the assistance recipients will participate in the session to discuss their successes, challenges, and insights into making smart growth happen. State agencies and communities interested in applying for technical assistance, or regions interested in creating new technical assistance programs, are encouraged to attend.

Communities around the country are turning to Form-Based Codes to address their zoning and development needs. While various resources exist to inform local government of their use and application, it is always beneficial to have a comprehensive, yet crosscutting, review of Form-Based Codes basics and their use and application. This two-part exhaustive training session provides any overview of Form-Based Codes (Part I) and a series of hands-on exercises (Part II) that will enable participants to determine if using a Form-Based Code is most appropriate for them; and for communities already committed to using a Form-Based Code, this session provide the details and tools necessary for effective implementation.

This session will feature national experts affiliated with the Form-Based Codes Institute as well as several local practitioners representing Flagstaff, AZ, Leander, TX and Ventura, CA who can provide their on the ground experiences of assessing and implementing Form-Based Codes.

This session sets the foundation for the School Issues track by exploring local, regional, and national issues affecting both public education and local government, and identifying the opportunities to achieve more when working together. School district, city, and county perspectives will be included as the group discusses the reasons for collaboration, overcoming barriers to collaboration, and examples of varying levels of collaboration. The three core objectives of this training session include:

• Learning about exciting best practice examples of city-school collaboration from Albuquerque , New Mexico to Orange County, Florida
• Gaining tangible skills, strategies, and tools for effective collaboration
• Developing action plans for participants’ future work locally and regionally

Participants will learn not only from local practitioners as well as national leaders in research and practice from the Center for Cities & Schools at the University of California-Berkeley and the 21st Century School Fund in Washington, D.C.

An increasing number of cities are committing to sustainability. The question is what does sustainable mean for each city and how do they go about developing their sustainable plans? How can a whole community come to agreement on a sustainable growth strategy?

The session will present a collaborative community involvement system for creating comprehensive plan and implementation strategies that incorporate sustainable urbanism principles, and green technological, economic, and regulatory tools. The goals are to significantly reduce the community’s carbon footprint and reliance on non-renewables; improve the community’s ability to anticipate and adapt to economic, environmental, and social changes; and help the community forge a community-authored policy and regulatory framework to achieve the desired outcomes.

Participants will practice a hands-on public meeting exercise for creating shared community goals and metrics.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have long been used to help communities, professionals and elected officials understand the importance of location as a consideration for sustainable development. Whether it is viewing the relationships between origins, destinations and the trails that connect them, or analyzing the relationships among multiple environmental and economic factors, GIS is the tool of choice. In this technical training, participants will receive a hands-on orientation to GIS concepts by working through a series of exercises using ArcView 9.2, to help them understand how GIS can be used to easily combine data such as aerial photography, parcel, zoning and other layers of data to understand how geography is a key factor in planning for sustainable communities. With these types of data becoming increasingly available through low cost commercial sources, GIS will become and increasingly important tool for sustainable growth advocates to use in their daily work. With its focus on understanding GIS concepts and technology, this workshop is designed for planning directors, senior managers, community advocates, elected officials and anyone interested in learning about GIS as a tool for performing and communicating about sustainable land use practices.
Prerequisites: Basic Windows skills. Class size is limited to 40 participants.

It's been almost a year since publication by ULI and Smart Growth America of “Growing Cooler - The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change”.  In that time, the book has been widely distributed throughout the US and abroad, and the authors have been invited to speak before a full range of federal, state and regional agencies, environmental and planning organizations, community interest groups, and chapters of the Urban Land Institute.  This session will offer a first-year progress report on interest, concerns and actions related to the recognized relationships between sustainable development forms and global warming.  The speakers will identify prominent examples of how the new awareness and reported information about urban development and climate change have influenced policies, guidelines, project approval criteria, such as changes to NEPA, CEQA and SEPA.

Making new developments walkable, compact and transit friendly is not easy in today's New Mexico, despite hundreds of years of great examples. When zoning codes and neighbor's reactions are both outdated, obstacles are plenty.  Learn what visionary developers and officials are doing to change mindsets and code with a back-to-the future approach to putting smart growth on the ground in New Mexico. Case studies include Mesa del Sol, one of the largest developments in the nation, lofts projects in Santa Fe, Los Lunas' transit oriented development, a redevelopment near the U. of New Mexico, and a courthouse square rezoning in Portales.

What is a complete street? What is a complete streets policy and why should we adopt one? How can cities and counties transform their transportation investments so they are creating complete streets? How do they get buy-in from residents for a road diet or roundabout? (What is a road diet or roundabout?) How do we accommodate cars, bicyclists, transit vehicles, and pedestrians on suburban streets? How many lanes of traffic do we need to move 18,000 cars a day? How do we create “great streets”?

These are only some of the questions you’ll be able to get answers to during this interactive session with experts in planning, designing, funding and building complete streets. Speakers will give brief presentations on a range of topics related to Complete Streets followed by an “ask the experts” session. Get answers to your burning questions on streets once and for all.

2009 has the potential to be a landmark year on Capitol Hill for smart growth advocates. How can we mobilize to play a role in forming this legislation? This implementation session will feature Washington policy experts discussing the latest information on national transportation authorization and climate change legislation. During this session we will introduce smart growth advocates to the Transportation for America Campaign, its leading role in a bold, new vision for transportation reform, and the importance of joining this coalition (www.t4america.org). Workshop participants will break out into four regional groups to brainstorm a strategic plan for smart growth engagement on these national legislative agendas.

From Henry Ford to MoveOn.org innovative, cost-effective marketing has become a crucial factor for attracting attention, getting your message heard, and engaging support. Today’s powerful communication technologies offer the potential to take the vision of smart growth to the America public within local communities and across the country and rapidly spread the idea of a sustainable world nationwide. This session will discuss surprisingly affordable state-of-the-art marketing and communication strategies, tools, and techniques that have the power to reach and engage large numbers of people to bring about change in their communities. Particular emphasis will be placed on innovative direct marketing approaches employing a variety of media as well as effective models for community gatherings and events. Case examples will be used and participants will be given the opportunity to practice what they have learned by creating a strategic communication campaign for a smart growth topic of their choosing.

Smart growth practitioners and advocates have a powerful new tool at their disposal in the LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System, which integrates the principles of smart growth, new urbanism, and green building into the first standard for sustainable neighborhood design.  Session participants will be in the unique position to participate in discussion with both the authors of the rating system and practitioners who have put it to use. Project teams directly involved in LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot projects will share their experiences on a variety of topics, including motivation for joining the pilot program, working to gain entitlements and community support, challenges to achieving certification in a shifting real estate market, and how project process and design changed as a result of involvement in the program. Session leaders will also look beyond the pilot program to preview upcoming changes to the rating system as it is readied for public launch.

This interactive session will build on smart growth principles by introducing participants to a framework called SafeGrowth, developed by Alternation, Inc. and supported by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. The session will explore how the worlds of community development, planning and policing can be purposefully integrated to improve health and safety in troubled neighborhoods. Speakers will share current perspectives on how the principles of defensible space and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) can be expanded to address the social and economic conditions in neighborhoods that impact motivations for crime, as well as the elements of the physical environment that shape opportunities for crime. Gregory Saville, internationally known CPTED expert, will introduce 1st and 2nd generation CPTED principles that can greatly influence crime patterns by incorporating comprehensive social planning into a revitalization approach. Participants will be exposed to proven methods and tools for collaborating with law enforcement and community groups to address criminal activity.

Green jobs are an issue that is drawing national attention. It is clear that we ought to be moving towards a more sustainable future, but what does that mean in terms of job creation, availability, job quality, etc.? This session will draw a panel of national experts on the topic of green jobs to explore best practices for defining green jobs, identifying green jobs locally, customizing job training programs to reflect a greener economy, and ensuring that there is broad access to green jobs and their benefits. It will aim to clarify not only what constitutes a job, but also how to build a constituency of advocates for local green jobs, and tackle the issue of ensuring there are adequate jobs to employ graduates of training programs. In particular, the session will move the conversation from the 30,000 ft. policy debate and explore on-the-ground solutions for getting people into employment in the green economy.

The American debate over sprawl and smart growth has sharpened with rising oil prices and climate change. But we are just beginning to grasp the titanic change that globalization is forcing on us. It represents the classic duality of "crisis" written in Chinese: danger/opportunity.

This talk highlights rapid changes occurring in China and the Mideast, focusing on the overlapping and inexorable rise of global trade, finance, oil prices, food prices, energy usage, temperature, car ownership and pollution.

By "connecting the dots" between how we live here with the rapid urbanization of the rest of the planet, the talk underscores the global stakes of our land use and transportation policies. Zeroing in on zoning, it brings the global issues home and lays out what local communities can - and must do - to create a new global model for sustainable, livable and prosperous communities.

This session will cover the issue of how we got to the place where approximately 54% percent of our students are bused to schools. It will explore how the rising price of fuel has led to school bus cuts in numerous states and local school districts, and the challenges communities are facing with safety concerns for students who are turned out onto streets inadequately prepared for walking and bicycling. We will also discuss how safe routes to school can be used to improve long-term conditions, and will hear from a local school district that is making strides in improving the situation, and is looking forward to hopefully improving their budget through the reduction of transportation costs.

Why are community assessments, context-sensitive solutions, visualization, and scenario planning important to integrating transportation and land use decision-making? Today as we plan for transit-oriented developments or transit-supportive land uses, that impact land use, tools such as Community Assessments, Scenario Planning, Peer Exchanges, Visualization and Context Sensitive Solutions are vital to the success and sustainability of programs and projects. We encourage transportation planners to look at transportation and land use in a holistic manner - using all tools at their disposal. It is not that one is better than the other; it is that they complement each other. We also encourage using the concepts of complete streets and with transit, "thinking beyond the station". Just as it is important to know the basics about TOD, it is important to consider how to use these tools within the public participation process through implementation to meet a community's transportation and development needs, enhance their quality of life, and lead to a more sustainable future.

Community concerns with air and water quality are necessitating not only environmentally responsible buildings, but high performance streets and public spaces as well. To date, smart growth strategies for streetscapes have successfully focused on improved design from the standpoint of good urbanism, aesthetics, economic development, and pedestrian and vehicular safety. Recent focus on green and sustainable design has lead to widespread interest in developing streetscapes that also benefit the environment. Through the use of case studies, this session will focus on specific strategies architects, planners and municipal officials are using to incorporate green infrastructure into streetscape designs while still achieving the movement and community goals of smart growth.

With the growing awareness of the impact of urban & regional planning policy on food security and environmental sustainability, food policy councils (FPC) have become important vehicles for policy change at the state and local levels. While FPCs do not have the direct authority to affect land use, they typically work through a network of stakeholders (policymakers, food/nutrition professionals, growers, food businesses, etc.) and are beginning to see the importance and value of expanding this network to include urban and regional land use planners and others involved in land use policy change. Based on the experiences of Baltimore Food Policy Task Force, Dane County Food Council and the Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council, this session will inform participants about the role of FPCs in developing and implementing local and regional level land use policies that aim to improve food security and support environmentally sustainable food policy.

Since vital communities are critical to sustainable growth, a number of older industrial cities are developing innovative planning strategies that downsize communities as the route to long-term economic sustainability and better quality of life. This panel will discuss downsizing as a land use tool, implementation options, and best practices that are occurring in cities across the country. Panelists will include both experts who have been formative in developing downsizing initiatives and practitioners who are currently involved in active downsizing of their communities.

Capacity building, advocacy, and visioning are a few of the tools that have been successful in empowering distressed communities to reclaim vacant properties. In this session, researchers and community development experts will introduce programs/initiatives that have enabled incumbent residents to foster safe, attainable, and livable neighborhoods by returning once derelict property to productive reuse. The panelists will explain how incumbent residents have positioned themselves as community change agents as their neighborhoods rebound. The audience will learn how neighborhoods in Kansas City and Spartanburg are applying strategies to bridge the connections between smart growth and equitable development.

Project Greenspace is an ambitious initiative by the City of Atlanta to create an integrated green infrastructure system that connects people to parks, recreational facilities, greenways, and other “green” urban fabric elements such as streetscapes, plazas, stormwater management, and green roofs. Municipal responsibilities for the elements that compose green infrastructure have traditionally been vested in different departments and managed as independent functions of government. However, there is growing awareness of the synergistic opportunities that occur when green infrastructure is viewed as an integrated system. Project Greenspace was conceived to identify these opportunities by creating a framework for growing, managing, and building capacity for green infrastructure. Although Atlanta has received national recognition for the proposed BeltLine, a systematic citywide approach is needed. This session will explore the vision, framework, and implementation strategy established by Project Greenspace for creating a comprehensive, citywide green infrastructure system.

The Smart Growth movement recognizes the importance of engaging a diverse group of residents in community planning programs and projects. But these sectors of our population are often difficult to reach and engage. This session will explore how several organizations have worked with Latino, African-American, Asian American and Native-American communities on community planning and projects. The session will discuss how to get folks to participate, how to build consensus in diverse communities and how to work on implementation. Speakers will talk about actual projects and lessons learned. At least 30 minutes will be allocated to the Q&A discussion portion of the session to insure that participants have a chance to discuss their issues and get advice on projects they are working on.

In the urban context, achieving density, smart growth and green design requires a seamless interface for the user between the public and private realms. Yet the design of such complex projects, securing public financing and meshing it with private funding and getting projects built is often messy, requiring designers, financing specialists, developers and multiple public agencies to be creative, adaptable often requiring them to forge new ways of doing business, and to take on expanded roles. This session explores the finely tuned interaction and complex alignment of public financing, smart green design and governmental policies is achieved to further smart growth principles and build projects. Does design lead? Does financing dictate? Do the public or private sectors command? When and how? Financing smart growth projects in urban areas requires deliberate integration of financing and design considerations from project concept to post-construction issues - design and maintenance. Key issues covered in this session are costs and benefits to governmental entities, public access, the interface of public and private structures which are often vertically layered, shared use with distinct ownership, ownership and long term lease considerations, sustainable maintenance and operations of public spaces, multiple public agency constituencies and ownership. How smart green design can be coupled municipal and state financing costs and benefits, the creation of local jobs, and generation of governmental tax revenues.

We hear it in the news every day * mounting foreclosures and an accelerating housing crisis with dire consequences for homeowners and their families. But community impacts also are much in evidence: Revitalization stalls as boarded homes drag down values, increase blight, drive up crime rates, and shrink tax bases. And economists expect that many metropolitan housing markets will continue to soften. What will all this portend for communities over the remainder of the decade? Join this interactive session to hear national experts and local practitioners discuss the latest data and research on the scope of the crisis, its impact on urban, suburban, and rural communities, and some promising avenues of state and local policy response.

The Houston-Galveston region is home to eight distinct ecological zones, and also has a rich agricultural heritage. Some of the region’s best habitat and prime agricultural lands are threatened by intense growth pressure. While many agencies and organizations are engaged in habitat protection and farmland conservation, there is no overarching strategy for the region.

This session will describe a unique partnership between the government, academic, and non-profit sectors to address this problem. You’ll learn about ecological services and techniques for evaluating the quality of natural areas to build consensus on conserving the “best of the best.” Approaches to organizing this data into a GIS-based decision support tool will be demonstrated, along with applications for integrating this data into transportation and other regional planning processes.

See how a regional conservation strategy can also be the basis for a new vision of regional growth that balances conservation, mobility and quality of life considerations.

Local governments are focusing on ways to reduce their community footprints while improving the local economy. Some are using tools that have traditionally been applied to other local issues, such as special street lighting zones or graffiti abatement areas. Representatives from two communities will share their programs and the benefits they expect to achieve from them. Dubuque, Iowa is developing the Dubuque Warehouse District Energy Efficiency Zone, which will make assistance available to an industrial area to adaptively reuse existing buildings, improve their energy efficiency, and reduce pressures to develop greenfield sites outside of the city. Berkeley, California has developed the Financing Initiative for Renewable and Solar Technology (FIRST), which will allow property owners (residential and commercial) to install solar systems and make energy efficiency improvements to their buildings and pay for the cost as a 20-year assessment on their property tax bills.

A “perfect storm” is brewing - - ingredients include likely passage of national climate change legislation, reauthorization of a new transportation bill, and a new Administration with climate-friendly policies. The aftermath of the storm could result in targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by sector, goals to slow growth in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) or reduce per capita VMT, and more focused efforts on the development of transportation alternatives and choices. All of these efforts will require a substantial rethinking of how Federal, state and local governments approach transportation investment decisions. The adoption of transportation and land use policies that support climate goals will be needed to make these necessary changes, which will require a greater degree of collaboration among agencies and their planning processes. This session will explore existing and new opportunities for collaboration and provide examples of successful efforts at the local level.

A variety of forces such as global warming, rising energy prices, exploding obesity rates, and a lack of healthy foods in neighborhood stores are converging to create new bountiful landscapes, more fully-realized local food sheds, and sustainable and equitable food systems. Local food production is cropping up from backyards to rooftops, from vacant lots to high-density, master-planned communities—and high-rise vertical farms might soon be on their way. Likewise, communities are promoting new solutions to the grocery store gap in many low-income communities of color—from farmers' markets and CSA boxes to community-owned grocery stores. This food revolution has the potential to connect individuals to their food system, improve people's health, transform blighted neighborhoods, and generate new economic opportunities. This session will explore practical solutions and tools to integrate healthy, sustainable food systems into all corners of the built environment—from new and planned communities to existing inner city neighborhoods.

The Louisiana Land Use Toolkit is a comprehensive set of legal ordinances specific to growth management decisions, including model zoning and subdivision ordinances. The Toolkit will provide local governments with the necessary legal framework to implement best practices with regard to density, sensitive environments, street standards and subdivision regulations. Broad enough to serve as a statewide resource for communities, the Toolkit will establish compatible development regulations across towns, cities and parishes (counties). The Toolkit provides one common and user-friendly framework from which local governments can draw down a development code or individual ordinances to meet their needs. It will be both easy and affordable to administer in jurisdictions with limited local capacity.

While regional "blueprints" emphasize the importance of infill development, methods for dramatically increasing densities in historic downtowns have received little attention. Yet, redirecting growth to urban centers is imperative as per capita vehicle-miles traveled and greenhouse gas generation in urban centers are one-quarter of suburban locations, and half that of typical urban neighborhoods.

This session will describe interdisciplinary methods for encouraging densities exceeding 100 dwelling units per acre within historic downtowns, while simultaneously improving livability. It will examine unique challenges for historic districts with multiple property owners, historic assets, and economic decline. Tools discussed include zoning reforms, reduced/shared parking, streetscape/open space improvements, and two-way community engagement that combines clear analysis with venues input.

The session will also describe the essential features and economic performance of building typologies that deliver high densities and enhance the community -- through street-oriented architecture, by promoting transit, and by leveraging improvements to streets and open spaces. Relationships between building codes/construction systems, parking, and project feasibility will be explained.

Americans are suffering today more than ever. With the ever-changing economic trends, communities are no longer able to provide a home and a high quality of life to its residents. What many think of the American Dream is now unattainable and unsustainable: There is a tremendous urgency to transform the way we plan and develop our cities and regions.

Being able to attract and retain communities according to a changing demographic composed of immigrants (first, second, and even third generations), Millenials, and Baby Boomers will be key in the transformation. Of high significance is the growing immigrant population and second generations (the highest contributor to population growth). The challenge for decision-makers is to address the demands of the new demographic and reshape the American Dream sustainably and equitably. This workshop brings together leaders in the public and private sectors to discuss their vision, challenges, and opportunities.

It goes without saying that land acquisition, management, and disbursement of vacant properties are crucial to the revitalization of cities and sustainable places. Whether it's to preserve open space or encourage redevelopment in blighted communities, land banking is unlocking the value of underutilized land and making development possible for thousands of "forgotten" properties across the country. Join this panel to explore how land banks are evolving as a tool of sustainable revitalization. National experts and local practitioners will examine the legal, financial, and policy implications of effective land banking and present best case studies for a spectrum of land bank examples in both weak and strong market economies.

Inclusionary zoning is an established option in the smart growth policy toolbox for creating mixed-income neighborhoods. The policy requires or provides incentives for developers of new projects to set aside a portion of units in new developments that will be affordable to households with incomes below the area average. New reports reveal that inclusionary zoning is a complex planning mechanism that may generate some unexpected consequences. Panelists will discuss the recent research and findings and answer the following questions: To what degree does inclusionary zoning act as a tax on developers and new homes? How effective is it in adding to the stock of affordable housing? What shifts in production among different housing sectors are likely to result? What are the policy implications of this research? How do these findings reflect and/or impact Washington DC’s own efforts to adopt and implement an effective inclusionary zoning policy?

Innovative projects that are helping three vastly different communities foster sustainable growth, support local farms and reduce their carbon imprint illuminate the possibilities, challenges and needed improvements for more sustainable food and farming systems. The greater Philadelphia region developed a Regional Food System Plan to address issues such as agricultural production, processing and distribution trends, and the impact of transporting food from farm to plate. Across the country, American Farmland Trust studied the potential for the City of San Francisco to feed itself well with a minimal impact on the local, regional and global environment from food grown within 100 miles of the Golden Gate Bridge. Finally Burlington County, NJ - home of one of the country's most successful farmland protection programs - is utilizing local ordinances and a Community Agriculture Center to integrate an equitable local food system, land use policies and a “bucks and acres” approach to farmland preservation.

Emergence of the "hot" climate change issue, expanding citizen interest in smart growth, accelerated redevelopment of communities, and the shifting economic environment pose both questions and opportunities for smart growth philanthropy. Join this panel for our annual discussion of newest trends and priorities of foundations and funders. Panelists will participate in an interactive conversation about the direction of sustainable communities, and the roles that are significant to funders and important to practitioners.

Smart growth begins with bicycling and walking. These compatible forces leverage and feed off each other, with transit as a powerful multiplier. Closer destinations reduce trip distances and encourage bicyclists and pedestrians. Good bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure provides safe and convenient access to preferred local destinations. Small, local businesses thrive and attract other customers and more businesses to the vibrant local scene. Learn how this synergy is working at the neighborhood, regional and national scales, and learn more about the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program, Trail Oriented Development (TROD) and Active Transportation.

The panel describes strategies used to craft and implement a community engagement/education campaign of smart growth principles in greater Phoenix, and how community organizations and public officials in other cities can tailor these strategies to develop similar campaigns. The panelists use several examples to describe 4 components in making a community campaign successful. Through an interactive Q&A discussion, audience members can begin to craft similar strategies for their communities. The 4 strategies include:

• Find effective, creative ways to locate, research, and document local examples, even when such examples may be few
• Use integrated media approaches that maximize adaptability and flexibility
• Build broad sponsorship and ownership by assembling diverse advisory panel, funding sponsors, and speakers bureau
• Develop effective visual communication to crystallize the issues, ideas and visions and convey these in a compelling, informative manner. The graphic design is not to “sell” but to “engage.”

The White Flint section of North Bethesda is a unique asset to Montgomery County. White Flint holds major growth potential in the local economy. However, it currently suffers from significant mobility problems. Missing sidewalks, lack of a street network, and limited travel routes restrict growth and hurt quality of life. These problems detract from existing transportation infrastructure investments.

The development community is ready to redevelop yet the problems facing White Flint are greater than any one agency or developer could solve alone. Five independent development teams and landholders realized that through Stakeholder collaboration the whole would be greater than the parts. The development community will discuss the process between the local residents, Montgomery County Planning Commission staff, and the development community used to explore walkability opportunities for the sector. This frank discussion will highlight the developer’s perspective in the implementing Smart Growth.

Come learn about three case studies - an Active Living resolution by a county Board of Commissioners, a Health Impact Assessment on a state infrastructure project, and the update of a local Comprehensive Plan. Find out how local and state actors used these individual events as opportunities to create long-term partnerships between public health and planning departments. What kind of political alliances, organizational structures, and financial commitments were necessary? How do we move from individual projects and personal relationships to institutional relationships and public commitments?

The implementation of smart growth requires a solid zoning code that encourages compact, walkable, sustainable communities. Success depends on removing barriers that impede smart growth. This session will be part informational and part training - a workshop addressing the concerns of localities in implementing a smart growth zoning code.

The first part of this session will focus on identifying the Top 10 urban and rural quick fixes that communities can make to enhance their development regulations. Next, we will explore the topics - energy, food security, water - that will be the crux of future zoning codes. The final component will be a feedback loop.

The second part will start with attendees conducting a self assessment of their own zoning codes. The panel will address questions raised in the assessment. Then the workshop will return to a summary of what the group had learned and provide an overview of the project next steps.

This session will address how school districts and municipalities can work together and with their communities to utilize smart growth principles when responding to child population growth or decline, and how they can align public school inventories with demographic, regional, and neighborhood change to meet the needs of families. In districts with declining enrollment, closing schools can be a necessary but difficult process to undertake, while in districts with growing enrollments, opening new schools can create significant financial burdens as well as environmental stress and sprawl. By working together, school districts and municipalities can better anticipate future enrollment and school facilities needs and manage these changes responsibly.

2009 has the potential to be a landmark year on Capitol Hill for smart growth advocates. How can we mobilize to play a role in forming this legislation? This implementation session will feature Washington policy experts discussing the latest information on national transportation authorization and climate change legislation. During this session we will introduce smart growth advocates to the Transportation for America Campaign, its leading role in a bold, new vision for transportation reform, and the importance of joining this coalition (www.t4america.org). Workshop participants will break out into four regional groups to brainstorm a strategic plan for smart growth engagement on these national legislative agendas.

The Tampa Bay and Central Florida region is home to 8 million residents, covers 18,000 square miles and is expected grow to over 11 million, adding 3 million jobs by 2030. These regions, increasingly tied together, are working to synchronize long-term visioning efforts, workforce and talent, and infrastructure issues. Panelists will speak to comprehensive visioning efforts as well as the challenges and collaborations achieved while pioneering work in a “megapolitan” region.

Similar dramatic population growth is expected in the Cascade region of Washington State inspiring a community dialogue among thousands of stakeholders, which resulted in a common 100-year vision called The Cascade Agenda. The panelist will share The Cascade Agenda’s wide-ranging efforts to demonstrate new connections between wilderness and parkland preservation, housing affordability, low impact development, transportation and infrastructure investments, the arts and conservation-minded financing.

Land use reform at the state policy level is increasingly recognized as a key component of livable places and sustainable communities. Whether as the implementer of federal regulation, the enabler of local government, or the leader of programs and regulation, state policymakers are critical to smart communities. Similarly ,advocates for smart land use policies are central to effective state land use leadership. This panel will focus on two states that have tackled land use reform. We will explore their strategies, successes, issues, and best practices that can be applied across the country. Participants will include state policymakers and community leaders who are in the "thick" of current state work.

The development industry is shifting from the conventional suburban model towards the New Urban model.  Light Imprint  (LI) development techniques give added consideration to environmental and preservation factors without comprising new urban design priorities such as connectivity and the public realm. LI respects terrain, geographical conditions, and topography while prioritizing public space. Additionally, LI is a transect-based stormwater management system that introduces a tool set for runoff that uses natural drainage, conventional engineering infrastructure, and infiltration practices.

Participants will be introduced to the concept of Light Imprint Urbanism; differentiate methods used for Light Imprint urbanist development from other methodologies (such as Low Impact practices); will understand how over 60 LI tools are organized along a transect; use the Light Imprint to find appropriate stormwater management tools for their projects; and, analyze savings realized from the use of LI techniques with a sixty-tool matrix, searchable database, and case studies.

At least four states have amended some aspect of their economic development incentive codes to promote smart growth. California’s Infrastructure Bank favors transit-oriented, higher density projects. Maryland denies the state’s entire menu of economic development incentives (and infrastructure aid) to projects beyond existing water and sewer lines. Illinois gives extra tax credits to projects that are transit-accessible and/or close to affordable housing. New Jersey recently enacted an incentive to promote TOD around transit hubs.

In other states, an incentive originally intended to help revitalize urban cores—Tax Increment Financing, or TIF—has been altered in ways that may instead make it pro-sprawl, some land-use advocates believe. For example, New Mexico greatly expanded its dormant TIF program in 2006 in ways that has prompted major developers to seek it for greenfield and/or New Urbanist projects.

Groups at the cutting edge of Smart Growth policy are finding ways to bring an increasingly broad group of people together to work toward a future of vastly reduced auto dependence and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

In California, the health community has joined with environmentalists, local government officials, open space advocates, and many other constituencies in a joint effort to get the state to embrace transportation and land use as a key element in the implementation of the state's greenhouse gas reduction law.

Oregon and Washington have similar experiences to share, resulting in state legislation that requires that VMT be reduced. Youth throughout the country are being trained to join the chorus, as the one constituency that will be the most severely impacted by the auto-dependent land use decisions that continue even today. Finally, a campaign is about to kick off nationally, to bring the campaign to reduce auto dependence to a national scale.

With the growing popularity of the phrase "Too Big To Fail," it is more important than ever to provide Small Town America with the planning and design tools needed for their survival.  This session will focus on a series of practical and effective tools that can be used in small towns and cities everywhere.  Emphasis will range from the use of regional mapping to support future land use decisions, to the importance of the community, neighborhood, and street in making these land use decisions more sustainable.

This session focuses on the question faced by native peoples centuries ago in the West: Can population growth be reasonably connected to available and expected future water supplies? The disconnects between growth, water and land use have fueled profligate use of water and land in the West and elsewhere with grave implications. The disconnects have resulted in over-appropriated water supplies, lack of planning necessary to more equitably address the challenges of climate change, outdated infrastructure, extended drought, dwindling groundwater resources, and the cumulative impacts of poor management on the landscapes, ecosystems and rural communities of the West.

This session will define current problems related to land use, water, and growth in the West, provide examples of needed policy reforms to move toward improved management practices that slow sprawl and promote smart growth, and highlight communities that are leading the charge.

This session will provide attendees with an opportunity to see live demonstrations of web-based and desktop-based applications of GIS to sustainable development issues. Among the application areas presented will be solar PV siting, balancing growth with natural area conservation, land use planning to reduce VMT and urban forest management and reforestation. Attendees will gain a better understand of the many geographic analysis based tools available to help them with developing, implementing and monitoring sustainable development practices.

This plenary addresses the needs and opportunities of a range of community members that depend on the choice that smart growth provides. Focusing on the aging community, working families, immigrant populations and communities of color, this discussion will highlight how these groups have made an impact on the smart growth movement and how their interests will shape the way America grows, consumes and interacts in the future.

Increasingly, planners, smart growth advocates, public health officials, and school leaders are asking questions about the roles public school buildings and sites can play in both supporting student achievement AND meeting broader community needs. One answer many have turned to is the joint-use of public school facilities, whereby school assets - from classrooms to play fields - are shared by school districts and local partners to enable wider community uses. While a promising strategy for maximizing local resources and increasing community services and amenities, joint-use partnerships can be a complex endeavor - legally, politically, and logistically. This session aims to demystify joint-use school partnerships by:

• Illuminating opportunities and challenges of joint-use partnerships
• Discussing the legal frameworks for joint-use projects
• Featuring local case studies

Smart growth proponents and new urbanists want narrower streets for the myriad public safety benefits they provide – traffic calming, safer, more pedestrian-friendly and environmentally sustainable spaces. But emergency responders need to reach their destinations as quickly as possible and have sufficient room to fight the fire. These don’t have to be diametrically opposed goals. Streets can be designed to accommodate everyone’s needs. How? Come explore the myths and realities of narrower streets and fire codes. Hear facts, case studies and practical advice from fire marshals, developers, and smart growth designers.

Plus, six participants will have the opportunity to discuss their plans with, and have them reviewed by the fire chiefs and fire marshals on our panel. This is a first-come, first-served offer. Please contact Steve Tracy at the Local Government Commission for more information (stracy 'AT' lgc 'DOT' org).

Rising gas prices and a deepening housing crisis have heightened awareness of the connections between transportation policy, affordability and community vitality. In the absence of Federal leadership, the locality, region and state are the playing field for robust debates about transportation priorities and the links between transportation, housing, land use, and community design. Join some of the nation 's top non-profit experts and practitioners to discuss best regional, local, and neighborhood transportation strategies for building sustainable communities, expanding transportation mode choices, and involving the public in decision-making. Lessons will be drawn from work on state and regional reform, and in implementation efforts in city neighborhoods, suburban jurisdictions, and rural towns. This interactive session will consider the issues, actors, opportunities, challenges, and options that work in the places we all call home.

Infill and redevelopment projects face a variety of challenges from site size, infrastructure deficits, unsuitable codes, and attaining sustainability, to community resistance. This session will present findings, strategies and recommendations highlighting factors that lead to success in overcoming those challenges.

We’ll explore a new EPA Brownfields program offering technical assistance to pilot projects helping those revitalization projects become more sustainable. Projects include gas stations into community centers, mills into affordable housing and factories into parks. We’ll present an analysis of twelve infill case studies determining if feared negative consequences voiced by neighbors were substantiated and identifying barriers, real and perceived, to infill developments and offering insight into policies, ordinances and processes to make infill more successful. Finally we’ll offer specific approaches to changing the market and regulatory climate for redevelopment to create opportunities for the reuse of challenging infill sites, including vacant properties, abandoned gas stations and petroleum-contaminated sites.

Unless development and zoning codes change dramatically to address sustainability issues such as climate change/greenhouse gas emissions, alternative energy, food production, and water conservation, they will become increasingly irrelevant. While modern zoning codes have begun to address issues such as habitat protection and community health, they still fall far short. This session will discuss how a three-pronged approach to revamping zoning and development codes—removing obstacles, creating incentives, and enacting standards—can go a long way to making codes part of an overall community sustainability strategy. It will also discuss in detail the ground-breaking model Sustainable Community Development Code (SCDC) being developed at the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute and specific regulatory amendments to address topics such as solar and wind energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and food security.

Using the Renewable Energy - Wind Power chapter from the SCDC, the session will provide an in-depth example of how to use this framework. As interest in alternative energy increases, many communities are faced with permit requests for small-scale wind turbines but lack standards to guide permitting. This example will demonstrate how to use the information, alternatives, and resources of the SCDC to create locally appropriate standards.

Climate change and energy concerns are consuming our nation's attention. Community planners and government leaders are facing new challenges to address these increasing concerns. This workshop will focus on highlighting tools and strategies that local governments can use to address climate change.

Participants will learn about available tools and models for local governments to inventory emissions and assess the effectiveness of various strategies to reduce GHG emissions. Speakers will use case studies to focus on how tools can be integrated into the planning process and how local governments can determine the cost-benefits of various implementation strategies.

Additionally participants will be guided through the process of creating and implementing a local energy plan and greenhouse gas reduction strategy and will hear from a progressive city using the highlighted tools to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Part one of this session will delve into how Louisiana Speaks articulates visions and strategies for post-Hurricane Katrina and Rita recovery and growth in South Louisiana. This plan, the result of 18 months of work by top Louisiana and US planners, outlines communities' desire to preserve and enhance Louisiana's distinctive culture and way of life.

Part two of this session will explore how the Louisiana Speaks vision from the Regional and Parish scale (Fema ESF-14) to the City scale(Andres Duany - DPZ) has been utilized to leverage approximately $163 million to craft a citizen-run organization to define an Strategy/Business Plan for Implementation. Real projects, policies and programs have evolved and have driven the community to use to a 'Decision-Making matrix' to combine private and public resources.

Equity deserves equal attention and action as the environment and economy in order to obtain true sustainable communities. Community organizers are leveling the field of opportunities by combining these community engagement tools - Regional Equity Atlas, Photovoice and GIS Mapping. The Regional Equity Atlas will demonstrate how to create visual baseline data through GIS Mapping to measure environment and policy changes. Photovoice methodology empowers community members of all ages, cultures and languages to visually speak up for a healthy place to live and thrive. GIS Mapping highlights all community components that must work in harmony to create a strong sense of place. Come hear how communities have made a difference with these community-engaging tools. Project examples will include securing funding for Safe Routes to School, integrating healthy community elements into city comprehensive plans, advocating for abandoned school property policy, and renovating parks to include a walking and biking trail.

It is increasingly apparent from major natural disasters that communities that fail to incorporate hazard mitigation standards into their comprehensive plans and development codes are less resilient than those that take this need seriously. Federal law now requires local hazard mitigation plans as a condition of eligibility for FEMA hazard mitigation grants, but many of these plans are still prepared primarily or entirely by emergency managers with minimal input from community planners or others involved with land uses. Both the planning profession and the public need to understand why integrating hazard mitigation into routine planning and capital budgeting activities is an essential step in creating safer communities, and why no “smart growth” is truly smart if it ignores public safety. This workshop will explain both the rationale and statutory framework for hazard mitigation planning, and then focus on the nuts and bolts of how communities can achieve the objective of  using such planning to achieve greater resilience in the face of natural disasters. Specific attention will be given to integrating hazard mitigation with local comprehensive plans for long-term community sustainability and resilience.

Few planning projects get off the ground these days without a community visioning plan. Yet the connection between engaging citizens and getting a workable plan is anything but assured. While too many projects flop for lack of community buy-in, just as many fail after laborious visioning that fails to produce meaningful results. How do you make citizen engagement count? How do you shape a process that’s inclusive, responsive, and results-focused? With representatives from projects spanning three years in three states, the panel provides a warts-and-all exploration of processes that have employed both high-tech and high-touch citizen engagement techniques to produce consensus-driven planning. The exploration begins in 2005 in post-Katrina Mississippi, continues through a unique form-based coding challenge in historic Taos, NM, and wraps with a seven-county regional “Toolbox” project in the North Carolina mountains. Presenters share lessons learned from efforts to combine citizen outreach, public charrettes, Web communications, media relations, and post-charrette implementation strategies.

From the icon of sprawl to a model of polycentric transit planning, who would’ve thought Houston would evolve this way? Houston’s first light rail line has the highest ridership per mile in America. Now Houston is pursuing an innovative transit strategy based on activity intensity, which is significantly different from previous light rail systems. In 2012, another 31 miles will open with 67 stations, and ridership will rise to about 150,000 boardings per day.

In Broward County Florida the SR7/US 441 Collaborative is guiding the transition of "Suburban Space" to establish "Urban Place" through collaborative multi-jurisdictional planning. This work has produced nine corridor segment plans covering a 26-mile section of a regional corridor in the center of a vast suburban landscape west of Fort Lauderdale and Miami. This body of work serves as a potential model to guide sustainability and redevelopment for aged commercial corridors.

Despite efforts to mitigate climate change, climate experts predict that some level of warming is inevitable. This means that communities will need to adapt to the effects of climate change, such as sea level rise or droughts. This session will focus on adaptation strategies and increasing community resilience to climate change. Come hear about current projects, techniques, and initiatives underway to help communities adapt to and become more resilient to climate change. Learn about applied resilience inquiry, utilizing the urban forest as a tool to meet climate goals and create resilient communities, and key issues around resilient resource management in the face of an uncertain climate future. This session will also include a discussion on the urban leaders adaptation initiative, a framework for informed decision making on climate adaptation, as well as a case study of adaptation planning efforts.

A diverse panel will describe a process for planning, designing, siting, and delivering “green” school buildings that enhance learning while conserving energy and natural resources, provide a healthy and safe environment, and engage and strengthen the surrounding community. Recognizing that existing schools in their present locations are valuable assets that can continue to serve the community, several case studies of “green renovations” will also be discussed. The school itself is designed as an instructional tool that demonstrates important principles of architecture and energy/natural resource conservation to students and members of the greater community. Case studies from existing green schools will be cited to illustrate principles and process. Healthy, high performance schools provide effective learning environments that reflect the community’s unique assets and values as well as its needs, serve as a resource of educational, health and human services to students and neighborhood members alike, and strengthen community life.

Arterial streets and state highways are often a tough fit in a downtown setting - “congested traffic,” “not pedestrian-friendly,” and “like a commercial strip” are typical complaints. Not one but two state highways, SR-522 and SR-527, divide downtown Bothell, Washington. As part of a major downtown plan and revitalization effort, SR-527 will be transformed from a strip-like arterial into a multiway boulevard with tree-lined slow speed side lanes, curbside parking, and broad sidewalks to host ground floor shops and sidewalk cafes. SR-522’s traffic flow will be streamlined and a well-buffered sidewalk environment provided; numerous new crosswalks will be created to connect downtown to its riverfront at signalized intersections. Coordinated street furnishings, rerouted transit, rain gardens, and other state-of-the-art sustainability features will exemplify best practices in action. The session panel will feature representatives of the City, project urban designers, and engineers to provide multidisciplinary perspectives on this landmark project.

Many urban and rural communities have significant unmet demand for food retail. Learn how innovative new financing and business attraction strategies are influencing economic development trends in low-income communities and returning basic services like grocery stores to urban neighborhoods. Communities across the country are finding ways to creatively bridge barriers to grocery store development, resulting in new chain grocery stores, independent retailers, and cooperatives in previously underserved communities. Panelists will discuss how planners, developers, and advocates can leverage grocery store development to create healthy, equitable local economies and neighborhoods.

Starting from an urban population of just 3 percent in 1800 to 14 percent in 1900 and over 50% today, the rate of change of our global urban population is impressive and telling. The milestones underscore a significant challenge to smart growth in a resource-constrained world. This session examines one successful response: integrated systems planning.

Interconnected distributed systems are often more resilient to catastrophic events such as earthquakes, terrorist attacks, droughts, and hurricanes. They are also less subject to economic risks from fuel volatility, carbon tariffs, and cultural creative losses. Drawing on their experiences, panelists will detail how integrated systems planning brings team members with diverse skills together early and focuses them on collaborative discussions across their traditional disciplines. By cross-connecting strategies for Energy, Water, Waste, Transportation, Land & Ecology, Economy, and Food, the panel will identify why synergy is often more important than efficiency.

The past decade has seen the growth of a robust and diverse movement for regional equity, a framework for change that is inseparable from the quest for economic and social justice. This session will examine the current state of the regional equity movement through the experiences of local and national leaders. The regional equity concept emerged in the late 1990s as social justice advocates extended their attention well beyond their neighborhoods, because metropolitan development patterns played a critical role in maintaining and exacerbating racial and economic disparities in income, wealth, health and opportunity. The challenges include disinvestment, the displacement fueled by gentrification, and the barriers to sustainability and economic opportunity created by sprawl. Community organizers, elected officials, labor unions, faith-based organizing groups and researchers have been responding with powerful ideas and campaigns that move beyond protest to the creation of new policies for equitable development in housing, transportation, land use and other areas.

Regional agencies can facilitate smart growth planning not just through their regional transportation plans, but also by providing resources to assist local jurisdictions with smart growth planning and implementation. Four California Metropolitan Planning Organizations will describe their experience instituting smart growth funding and technical assistance programs. Grant programs administered by MTC, SACOG, and SANDAG provide local jurisdictions with funding for a variety of planning and capital improvement activities, such as station-area land use planning, streetscape enhancements, and improving pedestrian/bicycle connections to transit. SCAG’s program provides planning services to local jurisdictions on a competitive basis. Speakers will describe how goals such as VMT reduction, sustainability, and universal design have been incorporated into their programs, and how the programs support other regional goals such as housing. Speakers will also describe how each program is financed and administered, successes, challenges and lessons learned, and future directions. Examples of funded projects and outcomes will also be provided.

Driven by urgent concerns about global warming and social and economic disparities, youth are more willing than ever to work for just and sustainable communities. Youth nationwide are participating in research, planning, and policymaking processes. Adults recognize the importance of sharing power and promoting youth-adult partnerships. This session is for government officials, community organizations and others seeking to initiate or expand their work in youth engagement. We will introduce rationale for youth engagement, the support needed for success, as well as common challenges. Experienced youth activists will discuss their local work connected to national and international projects including the Young Planners Network, the Kellogg Foundation’s Food and Fitness Initiative, and the North American Youth Leadership Project for a Sustainable Future. We will conclude with information about the Young Planner’s Network national training for youth leaders in the movement to create more sustainable communities, taking place in the summer of 2009.

State leadership is critical in providing the framework within which local governments make decisions on growth and development. But the governmental structure and political context of every state is different. This session will focus on the ways three different state administrations in Arizona, Virginia and Wyoming are creating a framework for action at the state, local, and regional levels.

Because session speakers have worked at the state level to implement cross-agency collaboration and/or broad outreach campaigns, they will offer first-hand experience of the hurdles and opportunities involved. They will explore which approaches may be most appropriate under different circumstances, what different outcomes might be expected from each approach, and what some of the obstacles in implementing these approaches have been. This session will provide participants with key insights into the best path forward for their particular states.

Water is the lifeblood of the farm, and drinking water is a resource farmers can cost-effectively help protect for communities. Farmers with strong conservation programs on their farms are playing an increasingly large role as part of the environmental services infrastructure in coordination with local municipal waste and water systems; and establishing new models for rural economies. Economically vital agriculture and forest industries are also needed to sustain landscapes for the long-term survival of fish, plants, and wildlife whose populations may be in decline. Find out how farmers and communities can preserve wildlife habitat, how working with farmers to adopt best management Practices (BMPs) is a cost-effective way for farmers to help protect drinking water, and hear examples of how farms and rural communities can be part of the solution to environmental challenges facing us in the 21st century.

The West houses the largest number of national parks, forests, and wilderness areas. People are attracted to its spectacular beauty and wildness. Population is expected to double in the next 40 to 50 years, but these ecosystems depend on fire to renew themselves and stay healthy. Fire and development don’t have to be incompatible. Implementing Smart Growth Principles can help communities and landscape become more resilient.

Participants will learn about the characteristics of western fire ecology; current and projected land use trends; costs of fire suppression; incentives and disincentives for regional land use planning; and who’s implementing the best ideas today. Participants will learn about the impact of dispersed development versus compact, resilient development patterns; how to use land use data, analysis and simulation tools to advocate for smarter growth and techniques to monitor land use decisions.

This session will address how to make the viable “connections” between Universal Design Principles and Smart Growth Principles in order to promote affordability and accessibility for all people regardless of their age &/or ability. UD will be discuss in its more traditional context of home design through models developed by EasyLivingHomes and HousingWorks then the application of UD will be expand to discuss its potential application to public spaces and community facilities.

The session will illustrate how our homes and how our communities are design not only have direct relationship to environmental concerns but also to the fundamental concerns of accessibility and social equity.

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have teamed up to produce a report on model practices and policies promoting a healthy built environment. This session will review and analyze various approaches states, cities and counties have undertaken to promote health communities and healthy living, and how they might be applicable in your state.

Model practices that will be explored include: tax policies that support a healthy built environment; partnerships between public and private sectors that benefit smart growth goals; educating decision-makers and evaluating proposed policies using health impact assessments; amending food procurement systems to ensure community access to locally-grown healthy foods; and altering transportation policies.

Experts will discuss the challenges and opportunities that led to the development of these innovative smart growth practices, and the successful outcomes that have been achieved as a result of their adoption.

Livable communities should be inclusive of families with children for environmental, health, and pragmatic reasons, and childcare is a critical service for many families. This session offers a range of policy and program strategies to link childcare and community development including integrating facilities in transit-oriented development. Experts in planning, financing and designing childcare programs for children of different ethnic, racial and socio-economic backgrounds in conjunction with community development and redevelopment will discuss:

• Results from an American Planning Association survey on family friendly cities
• An overview of child care's fundamental role in community development with a focus on Smart Growth
• Highlights from two recent publications on parent travel behavior and developer and planner benefits from transit-linked child care centers
• Financing strategies, partnerships and the facilities development process, and
• Sustainable planning and design principles

Join us to share experiences, challenges, and solutions.

Smart growth provides the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve public health and enhance community quality of life. This session looks at emerging practices and policy mechanisms at the local, regional, and state levels -- and at the potential for increased coordination across these levels. Specifically, the session will examine the roles, tools and techniques that each level of government offers to combat climate change and the unique opportunities and limitations associated with each level.

Expectations for quick answers, intuitive usability, and gee wiz imagery have increased dramatically as a result of technologies ranging from Google Earth to the iPhone to gaming systems like the Wii. This session provides live demonstrations of several motion/touch sensitive and location aware tools that can be used to enhance public participation in community planning. Learn more about applications including: building asset maps with GPS enabled smart phones; using wiki-style sites and voice recognition technology to collect ideas and collaboratively author documents; using drag-and-drop functionality to rapidly prioritize next steps and allow people to vote using their phones; using enterprise technology to submit photos and media to a common project site, and; using motion aware devices like the iPhone to intuitively fly through a 3D landscape to discuss design features in a future development. Panelists will also explore the challenges of integrating these tools with professional planning.

Social and environmental factors have been shown to significantly impact health outcomes. This is especially true for America’s aging population---and across all age groups. This session will discuss why both EPA and AARP have awards programs to encourage the development of Livable Communities design to promote Active Aging. Communities built for healthy aging throughout our lives are characterized by development patterns that emphasis good design both within the home and in the community.

This session will discuss the awards processes developed by EPA for Active Aging & Smart Growth and AARP’s Livable Communities Award with NAHB and “Freedom House” Award with AIA Students.

You will also learn directly from award winners about their developments and how their designs are achieving the goals of Active Aging, Livable Communities and Smart Growth.

Is your community eligible for a similar award? Come learn how these awards work and how your community could become eligible!

The simple, ubiquitous grid of streets common to pre-World War II places across North America is the Rodney Dangerfield of planning – it gets no respect. Whether it’s in small courthouse square towns across the US, or larger cities such as San Francisco or Chicago, we pay far too little professional attention to this prototype of American urbanism. Even with the rise of Smart Growth and the New Urbanism, designers have shied away from typical precedents for American urbanism, often in favor of European examples.

This session will explore typical historical American town patterns, including the wide variety of plazas, squares and town green designs. We will review advantages of working with simple street grids in the realm of urban design, traffic engineering, utility infrastructure and in the programming of uses. Importantly, we will show how working with grids and American town patterns does not limit creativity in design or development.

Although public transportation’s mission is to provide mobility, it can also be the catalyst to community building and an effective partner with other stakeholders. But transit agencies and communities often lack effective ways to communicate expectations and visions for transportation and land use, creating a major barrier to Smart Growth implementation.

To help address these issues, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), has started an Urban Design Working Group under the federally recognized Standards Program to develop guidelines and recommended practices that articulate transit’s value and role in helping build sustainable communities.

The standards, guidelines, and best practices have multiple audiences, including transit agencies, local jurisdictions, developers, policymakers, and practitioners. The session will outline the Working Group’s progress on issues of transit-supportive land use, access, design, and partnerships. The panel will also engage in a discussion of ways to incorporate the results into other ongoing efforts, such as LEED ND

The American Society of Landscape Architects has partnered with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the U.S. Botanic Garden to create voluntary guidelines and standards for sustainable landscape design. The U.S. Green Building Council is lending its support to this project and anticipate, los adopting the metrics into future versions of LEED.

By developing performance targets and a ratings system, the Sustainable Sites Initiative will create incentives for project leaders to optimize opportunities to achieve maximum site performance in water management, biodiversity protection, pollution and carbon footprint reduction, and resource stewardship. It will also set the framework for those who influence land development and management practices to address global concerns such as climate changess of biodiversity, and resource depletion. This session will provide an overview of the Standards & Guidelines Draft Report and highlight several case studies that illustrate the application of regional best practices for integrated site planning and landscape systems.

Recent research shows water quality benefits of higher density can go well beyond land savings. In many cases, pollutant loadings per capita are much less for denser development, for a given population, than loadings from more diffuse suburban-density development, even though per-acre loadings are much higher for the former. Given the many other benefits of compact development in terms of quality of life, density should rank as the first and best possible stormwater practice for growing communities, but it is barely emerging as an secondary alternative, in part because permitting density as a management practice is less straightforward traditional techniques. We review the evolution of the stormwater policy landscape, and then present the scientific evidence for the water quality benefits of high versus suburban densities. Finally, we examine the implications of density as a stormwater practice and prospects for widespread adoption of smart growth in the stormwater community.

Panelists will provide creative approaches to engaging citizens in effective planning and advocacy for regional and local growth and development decisions. Communication professionals will report on recent research into voter attitudes and effective language for advocating regional cooperation in major metropolitan areas, and research on news coverage and stakeholder attitudes about land use planning in rapidly growing rural communities throughout the West. This research has been tested in the field, and participants will hear recommendations they can immediately apply to re-framing the policy debates in their communities. The session will provide stories and examples in various media of successful efforts in suburban Virginia and Washington DC to build consensus for better housing policies, transit-oriented development, and reforms in local planning processes. The field will also be described from the perspective of local, regional, and national foundations, finding new ways to collaborate with each other, and to support collaboration among their grantees across issue categories.

Implementation is the cornerstone of any movement, especially for smart growth. In the past few years, issues and themes supporting smart growth principles have shifted from talking points and white papers to key aspects of monumental legislation at the state and federal level. During this plenary, we will hear about recent efforts that have created the mechanism for making this change. In particular, we reflect on an encouraging array of legislation with smart growth implications that have been approved and those to be discussed this year. For instance, the State of California is leading the nation by following up on its 2006 global warming law with equally robust legislation by linking transportation and climate change. Other states are sure to follow. On the federal side, a roster of legislation focused on complete streets, energy, brownfields, transportation and housing together will show how far we have come in connecting smart growth principles with public policy.