Smart growth conference focuses on getting the job done

About 1,000 people — the most ever — attended the fourth annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference in Miami Beach, addressing topics such as implementation, social equity, transit-oriented development (TOD), and the importance of smart growth in protecting critical wetland areas. Key implementation issues covered included school siting, form-based codes, street design, and the effect of growth patterns on emergency response, according to Geoffrey Anderson, acting chief of staff of the Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation at the Environmental Protection Agency, a sponsor of the event. (For more on emergency response in cities versus suburbs, see the article on page 5.) Andres Duany gave a workshop on form-based codes, transportation specialist Dan Burden led a workshop on street design, and a joint Institute for Transportation Engineers and Congress for the New Urbanism project on arterial redesign was unveiled. Former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening, the key proponent of smart growth among elected officials when he was in office, “pointed out that social equity is not just affordable housing; it also has to do with quality of life and other factors that affect cost of living,” noted Judy Corbett, director of the Local Government Commission, an event organizer along with Penn State University. Glendening outlined four smart growth strategies that can be used to promote social equity. • Provide transportation choices by building walkable, transit-friendly communities. Low-income people spend up to 40 percent of their income on transportation, mostly in automobile expenses. • Make sure social services are located near the people who need those services. One dramatic example he offered involved a proposal in Easton, Maryland, to move social services from a building downtown to a location on a highway outside of town because the old building was inadequate. The proposal was killed after an analysis showed that all of the people served by the building lived downtown. • Refurbish old schools rather than build new ones. • Offer historic preservation tax credits. The use of this tool “has gone way up” in recent years, Glendening says. Glendening also recommended a policy that has had a successful track record in affordable housing. In Montgomery County, Maryland, developments of over 50 units must offer 12 to 15 percent of the units as affordable housing, he said. That has created nearly 12,000 affordable units in the last three decades. TOD poised for growth The US is poised for major growth in TOD, said Jenna Dorn, administrator of the Federal Transit Authority. She cited demographic statistics to make the case that an increasing number of Americans want to live near transit because of convenience and attraction to an urban lifestyle. There are 3,300 transit stations planned or built in the US, and housing around these stations will double in coming years, she says. “Over the next 20 years, one quarter of American households will seek housing near transit,” she says. (See article on page 9.) Ben Grumbles, assistant administrator of EPA and head of its Office of Water, noted that smart growth will play a key role in managing tremendous pressures on US coastal areas. Fifty-five percent of Americans live within 50 miles of a coast and 3,600 people are moving to coastal communities daily, he says. “Smart growth needs to focus on the coastal areas, because that is where the challenges are,” he says. Grumbles announced a new partnership between EPA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which runs the Sea Grant program, a cooperative extension program for coastal areas. EPA will train Sea Grant agents in smart growth principles and techniques. u