Smart Growth America Technical Assistance Webinar Optional - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Smart Growth America 
 Technical Assistance Webinar
 


Optional dial-in: (855) 426-1528 Conference ID: 78109639

September 14, 2016

John Robert Smith
 Senior Policy Advisor and Director

• f EPA Technical Assistance

Overview Of Smart Growth America Technical Assistance

Smart Growth America’s Free Technical Assistance

• All of our free technical assistance workshops are comprised of
• ne full working day as well as half a day of pre-workshop prep

including a tour given by local officials and a overview presentation by Smart Growth America.

• Facilitates solutions to local development issues so that

participating communities are able to grow in ways that benefit residents and businesses while protecting the environment and preserving a sense of place.

• Helps local leaders in urban, suburban and rural communities

create local smart growth strategies that make sense for their local context.

• This year, we have set aside three workshops for rural communities

with 20,000 or fewer residents.

As a national leader in the field, Smart Growth America possesses extensive experience working with communities. We have already worked with 70+ communities through this program alone.

Where we’ve been

A Sense of Place Matters

Communities across the country are in competition with each

• ther,

whether they know it or not, over place.

This technical assistance program is funded under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Sustainable Communities through their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program.

www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/ buildingblocks.htm

Support from EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities

Nine Standard Technical Assistance Tools

¨ Implementing Smart Growth

101

¨ Cool planning: local strategies

to slow climate change

¨ Parking Audit ¨ Planning for Economic and

Fiscal Health

¨ Sustainable Land Use Code

Audit

¨ Fiscal Impact Analysis ¨ (Re)Building Downtown ¨ Complete Streets ¨ Using LEED-ND to Accelerate

the Development of Sustainable Communities

• This year, we will also offer our new Complete Streets

Consortium Series in addition to the above nine standard tools.

• John Robert Smith, Smart Growth America
• Christopher Zimmerman,

Christopher Zimmerman, Smart Growth America

• Emiko Atherton

Emiko Atherton, National Complete Streets Coalition

• Jim Charlier, Charlier Associates, Inc
• Chris Duerksen, Clarion Associates
• Eliot Allen, Criterion Planners
• Mandi Roberts, Otak, Inc

Our Technical Experts

Technical Assistance Team: Smart Growth America

Implementing Smart Growth 101

Implementing Smart Growth 101

This workshop draws

• n SGA’s national

expertise to provide actionable steps that your community can use to overcome the barriers to smart growth and build stronger economies now and for generations to come. The workshop provides:

• Best practices to local leaders

in urban, suburban and rural communities working to create housing and transportation choices near jobs, shops and schools

• Resources to refine and

implement local priorities with smart growth strategies that make sense for your community

Implementing Smart Growth 101

• Set smart growth goals
• Develop an action plan for implementation using a

foundational community planning document

• Shift funding allocations and economic development

plans

• Craft new policy
• Amend core planning documents

Participants will learn how to:

Technical Assistance Team: Smart Growth America and Charlier Associates, Inc

Parking Audit

Parking Audit

This workshop provides an impartial evaluation of local policies and practices through a detailed Parking Count Audit in the community and offers advice based

• n the state of the

practice. Participants will dig into the five elements of parking as they relate to their community:

• Demand
• Supply
• Economics
• Enforcement
• Administration

Parking Audit

• Fee-in-lieu

payments

• On-street parking
• Shared parking or

paid parking

• Petroleum

dependency and sustainability

• The state of local parking practice

nationally

• How tools like ordinances, parking

districts and zoning overlays might work in their community

• How to conduct a detailed

Parking Count Audit

• Answers to specific technical

questions and problems Explore topics like: Participants will learn:

Technical Assistance Team: Smart Growth America and Clarion Associates

Sustainable Land Use Code Audit

Sustainable Land Use Code Audit

This workshop provides an assessment of barriers and regulatory gaps in development codes that impede long- term sustainable growth patterns, as well as possible code incentives. It also discusses the benefits and costs of sustainable code provisions.

The workshop provides:

• An overview of the three paths to a

sustainable code: removing barriers, creating incentives and filling regulatory gaps

• Assessment of the costs and

benefits of sustainable code provisions

• Examples of best practices from

around the nation

• Working session to conduct an

initial sustainable code assessment

Sustainable Land Use Code Audit

• Renewable energy
• Energy conservation
• Climate change
• Recycling
• Community health
• Water conservation
• Housing diversity
• Urban agriculture
• Green infrastructure and

water quality

• Natural resource protection
• What a preliminary

sustainability audit indicates about local zoning and subdivision ordinances

• Why aspects of local code

might be inhibiting sustainable development patterns and growth

• How to conduct a detailed

code assessment

• Tips and advice on

implementation

Explore topics like: Participants will learn:

Technical Assistance Team: Smart Growth America and Criterion Planners

Using LEED-ND to Accelerate the Development of Sustainable Communities

Using LEED-ND to Accelerate the Development

• f Sustainable Communities

Compared to conventional development, research indicates that green neighborhoods produce more business

• pportunities, jobs, household

savings, and fiscal benefits. This workshop reviews the LEED-ND rating system, highlights elements that interface with local regulations, and presents how cities and counties can leverage LEED-ND.

This workshop teaches participants a three-step leveraging process:

1.

Identifying ND-eligible lands

2.

Catalyzing projects on those lands

3.

Amending land use and transportation plans to expand eligible land supply and improve vicinity conditions so as to increase achievable ND points

Using LEED-ND to Accelerate the Development

• f Sustainable Communities

Participants will learn realistic goal setting for:

• The percent of the jurisdiction that will

eventually achieve ND location eligibility

• Creating infrastructure and transportation

systems that equate to ND Silver, Gold or Platinum criteria

• The jobs, economic activity and fiscal
• utcomes that are possible with ND

leveraging

Technical Assistance Team: Smart Growth America and Otak, Inc.

Cool Planning: Local Strategies To Slow Climate Change

Cool Planning: Local Strategies To Slow Climate Change

This workshop seeks to actively involve communities in the process of finding solutions that can be implemented at the local level to slow climate change.

• Grow cooler
• Grow more compact
• Get centered
• Mix up your land uses
• Recycle urban land and

buildings

• Make streets complete
• Make way for

pedestrians

• Make your community

bicycle-friendly

• Get well-connected
• Put parking in its place
• Make way for transit

and transit-oriented development

• Change travel habits
• Find better models for

big trip generators

• Green your buildings
• Plant trees in your town
• r neighborhood

This workshop is tailored to focus on a few of the following themes that fit your community’s goals:

Cool Planning: Local Strategies To Slow Climate Change

• Insulation against future

gas price hikes

• Energy independence
• Retention of local dollars
• Lower transportation

costs

• More active and healthier

communities

• How a global problem

can be addressed at the local level

• How community design

affects greenhouse gas emissions

Benefits of “cool planning”:

Participants will learn:

Technical Assistance Team: Smart Growth America

(Re)Building Downtown

(Re)Building Downtown

This workshop assists communities in creating livable, walkable downtowns by helping public

• fficials understand

local challenges and by identifying strategies and best practices to meet local needs. The workshop will bring together a large cross section of the community to ensure a diversity of opinion. SGA generally works with the following stakeholders to ensure a productive dialogue:

• Elected officials (executive and

legislative) and their senior staff

• Community leaders
• Downtown business owners
• Developers
• Agency officials
• Planners
• Engineers,
• Legal experts

(Re)Building Downtown

• Local land use

regulations

• Public investment

practices

• Administrative

processes

• Public projects

Topics Covered

Participants will learn

• The benefits of a

thriving downtown

• Development and

Redevelopment strategies

• A target mix of land

uses

• How to leverage public

projects

Technical Assistance Team: Smart Growth America

Planning for Economic and Fiscal Health

Planning for Economic and Fiscal Health

Smart growth policy can help communities save money now, reduce their liabilities for the future and use targeted investment to spur economic development. This workshop helps local leaders foster communities that cost their taxpayers less to build, run and maintain. The first half of the workshop focuses on the various ways smart growth helps communities save money. The second half of the workshop is an applied planning session to:

• Analyze local economic

development plans

• Evaluate how current situation

compares to smart growth principles

• Create specific changes to

strategy

• Identify next steps

Planning for Economic and Fiscal Health

• How to overcome a lack of understanding of the

relationship between development and municipal costs and revenues

• The importance of growing small and mid-size

businesses

• The role of adjacency to value creation

Participants will learn:

Technical Assistance Team: Smart Growth America

Fiscal Impact Analysis

Fiscal Impact Analysis

The Fiscal Impact Analysis is a comparison of the costs of different development

• patterns. Using the

community’s own data, our model can compare the cost savings over time of new growth in a community.

¨ This workshop is tied to the

Planning for Economic and Fiscal Health workshop

• Communities that have received

the Planning for Economic and Fiscal health workshop can apply solely for the Fiscal Impact Analysis

• Communities that have not

received the Planning for Economic and Fiscal Health workshop should apply for both in a singular application

Fiscal Impact Analysis

¨ Our model uses the

community’s data on:

¤ Parcels ¤ Streets ¤ Water and Sewer ¤ Stormwater

Management

¤ Fire and EMS ¤ Solid Waste Removal ¤ Schools and School

Buses

Fiscal Impact Analysis

• Impacts of land use

decisions on a communities bottom line

• Construction and

maintenance costs directly tied to different development patterns

Topics Covered

Participants will learn

¨ The impact to the local

government’s budget according to choices in the built environment

¨ How to assess long-

term returns depending

• n land use decisions

Technical Assistance Team: Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition

Complete Streets After After

Complete Streets

Choose from three workshops:

1.

Laying the Foundation for Complete Streets introduces the Complete Streets concept and its benefits and lets participants try out some Complete Streets planning tools

2.

Policy Development helps participants start to develop a policy customized to their community

3.

Policy Implementation helps participants identify ways to more effectively implement their policies

Complete Streets

Each workshop builds local capacity to implement Complete Streets and smart growth approaches. Two expert instructors, one with policy experience and one with design experience, are selected from a pool of nationally recognized practitioners trained to provide these workshops.

• Set new priorities for

transportation investments

• Craft a Complete

Streets policy

• Tackle policy

implementation challenges

Participants will learn to:

Technical Assistance Team: Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition

Complete Streets Consortium Series

Complete Streets Consortium Series

The Complete Streets Consortium Series brings together three municipalities within the same state to create a consortium of communities working on implementation of Complete Streets policies.

¨ The series brings a single-day

workshop to each of the consortium members

• This totals three workshops

¨ Each workshop focuses on issues

with Complete Streets implementation set in the local context

¨ A core team of eight to ten people

from each consortium member will attend all three workshops to learn from other communities in their state

Complete Streets Consortium Series

• Barriers to Complete

Streets Implementation

• Working with state

agencies

• Creating walkable

neighborhoods

• Development patterns

Topics Covered

Participants will learn

• How to implement

Complete Streets Policies

• How to build capacity for

future Complete Streets implementation

• How to work with other

jurisdictions and agencies in your state

• Local opportunities for

Complete Streets policies

Will Reckley, 
 Smart Growth America’s 
 Technical Assistance Intern

Application Process and Timeline

Eligibility for Assistance

q For our nine standard tools, we welcome applications

from any unit or subdivision of:

• Local government
• Regional government
• Indian tribe

¨ The Complete Streets Consortium may be applied for

by three municipalities within the same state

• They do not need to be geographically adjacent

Writing a Competitive Application

• Interest in smart growth

solutions

• Need for technical

assistance

• Involvement of key

community leaders

• Readiness to implement
• Public involvement
• Geographic diversity
• Equity
• Past receipt of

assistance

Primary selection criteria: Secondary criteria:

Submitting Your Application

• Go to:
• This page contains a pdf of all application materials,

as well as the application portal itself.

• SGA also requires all applicants to upload a letter of

commitment as part of the application.

http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/technical- assistance/free-annual-workshops/apply

Deadlines

• SGA will not review applications received after this

deadline.

• SGA will not review incomplete applications.
• SGA reserves the right to reject any or all applications as

not meeting its requirements.

• SGA will only consider applications submitted through the
• nline portal or emailed to

assistance@smartgrowthamerica.org.

Applications are due by October 6, 2016 at 5:00 PM EDT.

Notification of Selection for Technical Assistance

• SGA will select up to 6 communities to receive this technical

assistance.

• 3 of these 6 will be rural (20,000 or fewer residents) if sufficient

applications are received

• Recipients of technical assistance agree to submit three, brief

progress report to SGA to describe progress on any local solutions that result from the assistance. Communities submit these reports one month, six months, and twelve months after the assistance.

Successful proposers will be notified on November 9, 2016.

Pre-Application Assistance

• Any communication regarding this program or the

application process should be in writing to assistance@smartgrowthamerica.org.

• The SGA project team will contact you promptly. SGA

requests that applicants not contact other SGA staff.

• Contact assistance@smartgrowthamerica.org.
• Webinar materials will be posted at

www.smartgrowthamerica.org by the end of the week.

• Remember to apply by October 6, 2016 at

5:00 PM (EDT). Apply at

http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/technical- assistance/free-annual-workshops/apply

Questions?