Introducing the Smart Growth Implementation Toolkit
www.smartgrowthtoolkit.net
The Smart Growth Leadership Institute, through a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, introduces the Smart Growth Implementation Toolkit. The toolkit will help you untangle the thicket of policies and procedures that get in the way of implementing smart growth strategies and sustainable urban development in your community. The tools will help you to gauge whether your community's current policy and regulatory frameworks encourage and support smart growth.
The tools were developed through a four-year technical assistance program to help communities that have made a commitment to smart growth but were struggling with implementation, building support, identifying the most problematic policies, and other issues that typically accompany a major change in development practice.
You can read about and download the tools from www.smartgrowthtoolkit.net.
You can also learn more about the tools from an online discussion of the tools as well as lessons learned in Smart Growth Implementation from the technical assistance program via a Knowledgplex Experts (Online) Chat (registration required) that introduced the Smart Growth Implementation Toolkit.
Or, you can listen Carol Colleta's interview Bill Fulton and Benjamin de la Peña about the tools on Smart City radio.
Email info at sgli.org for more information about the tools.
SGLI Starts New Program
Helping states align land use policies and water protection programs
The Smart Growth Leadership Institute (SGLI), working with The Trust for Public Land (in partnership with the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators and the River Network) launched a new program to help state governments develop innovative ways to protect drinking water sources by improving the coordination between state land use management and water protection programs.
The three-year program, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will help states to align land use and water protection programs. The initiative will identify disconnects in policies and programs between these two areas, harmonize those that work at cross-purposes, and propose ways to strengthen programs that could deliver multiple results.
The program will also encourage more effective collaboration between various state agencies and stakeholder groups. The intent is to maximize the effectiveness of initiatives taken by land use planners, water utilities, watershed associations, government officials, conservationists, farmers and foresters.
Three partner states will be selected this year. Selected states will benefit from:
- Consultations with experts on best practices from around the country
- Exposure to other state examples and strategies
- Recommendations for policy alignment and program adjustments based on state-specific reviews
- Strategies for improving funding for water protection
- A support network, both within and outside government, for implementation
- A modest amount of financial support to initiate implementation activities
States interested in the program must submit an Expression of Interest Form available for download at www.landuseandwater.org. The website also contains more information about the program, the program partners, the state selection criteria, details about the application process (including who can apply to the program, as well as critical application deadlines) and key contacts.
The Smart Growth Leadership Institute
The Smart Growth Leadership Institute, a project of Smart Growth America, is dedicated to helping state and local elected, civic and business leaders design and implement effective land use strategies to successfully leverage the coming growth.
The Smart Growth Leadership Institute is developing strategies and tools to help communities gain greater control over the pace and pattern of development. Our communities can have the benefits of growth - more jobs, a broader tax base, reasonably priced housing and a healthy economy - with fewer of the costs associated with poorly planned development. We can rebuild our existing communities and design new ones so that our children can grow up in healthy environments where they can safely walk to school or to the corner store to get a popsicle.
Communities across the country are facing tremendous challenges. Many of our towns and cities are growing faster than we can manage while others are looking for ways to jumpstart or restart stalled growth. Shortsighted planning often sacrifices the long-term fiscal health of our communities --starving our established downtown businesses, overlooking existing investments in our older communities, eating up our farms and open spaces and damaging our environment while driving up the cost of housing and transportation.
Many community leaders are overwhelmed by the tasks of changing the existing development patterns, overhauling outdated plans and rewriting laws and regulations.
The Smart Growth Leadership Institute can help you and your community to create pathways to change, implement smart growth strategies and create a better future for everybody. The Smart Growth Leadership Institute was created by former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening in 2003.
Are you new to smart growth? Want to find out more about smart growth or read about what it means for you and your community?
- Visit the Smart Growth America website.
- Or, read about the Ten Principles of Smart Growth.