The source for New Urbanism, smart growth, and walkable communities
Smart growth achievement recognized by EPA
The US Environmental Protection Agency announced the winners of the 2009 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement in December, recognizing programs and projects in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; and Tempe, Arizona. This award recognizes outstanding achievement in smart growth by tribal, state, local, or regional governments in four categories: Overall Excellence, Policies and Regulations, Built Projects, and Smart Growth & Green Building.
Overall Excellence
Envision Lancaster County
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Lancaster County, in south-central Pennsylvania, is proud of its rich cultural heritage, its historic towns and villages, and its fertile farmland. To maintain the character of the County, as well as its diverse economy and natural resources for future generations, the Lancaster County Planning Commission established a regional, countywide comprehensive growth management plan, which protects its valuable farmland and historic landscapes by strategically directing development to established towns and cities in the county. Like many rural areas, Lancaster County is facing pressure to develop its extensive farmland and open space. In response, the Lancaster County Planning Commission and its member municipalities created Envision Lancaster County, a comprehensive, multi-staged countywide plan to manage growth and maintain the county’s distinctive sense of place over the next 25 years. Envision Lancaster County directs new development to existing towns to protect the farmland, rural areas, and natural landscapes that define the county’s character. The plan considers the entire region by promoting reinvestment in existing communities and encouraging more compact, interconnected neighborhoods. By doing so, the plan preserves open space, protects water resources, and provides for greater housing and transportation choices.
Policies and Regulations
Urban Street Design Guidelines,
City of Charlotte, North Carolina
As the central city in a rapidly growing metropolitan area, Charlotte is under intense development pressures. Rather than continue the automobile-dominated development patterns of the last 50 years, Charlotte adopted Urban Street Design Guidelines to make walking, bicycling, and transit more appealing, and make the city more attractive and sustainable.With the Urban Street Design Guidelines, the city of Charlotte is using street design to shape its development patterns and provide residents and visitors with viable choices with how they move about the city. The Guidelines include innovative policies, implementation processes, and a variety of street types. Also included is a six-step planning and design process that matches each street to the existing and emerging land use context. The process helps planners design streets that are appropriately sized for their neighborhood context and select streetscape elements that create an appealing environment and keep pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and motorists safe.
Built Projects
Parkside of Old Town,
Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago, Illinois
Parkside of Old Town sits on eight city blocks that were once home to a public housing complex notorious for criminal activity. The redevelopment has transformed the neighborhood by reconnecting it to downtown Chicago and creating mixed-income housing, parks, and new shops and restaurants. Parkside of Old Town, a HUD Hope VI development, has brought life back to an area once riddled with crime and socially disconnected from the rest of Chicago. The eight-block area was once part of a larger public housing complex that consisted of a park and several mid- and high-rise towers. The towers and park eventually fell into disrepair, in part due to a lack of community involvement and sense of ownership. To create a sense of community and responsibility, the Parkside designers created smaller, more intimate spaces that would meet the practical needs of residents. They strategically placed larger, “family unit” townhomes near the playgrounds so that children would be closer to adults – providing additional “built-in” security.
Smart Growth and Green Building
Tempe Transportation Center
City of Tempe
Tempe, Arizona
The Tempe Transportation Center is a model for sustainable design, a vibrant, mixed-use regional transportation hub that also incorporates innovative and beautiful green building elements tailored to the Southwest desert environment. The city of Tempe designed the Tempe Transportation Center as a multi-use green facility that is not only a transportation hub, but also a gathering spot for the community. A multimodal, mixed-use facility, the center integrates the downtown light-rail stop, the main city bus station, and the state’s first “bike station,” which offers secure on-site storage and repairs. The center, which replaced a 2.7-acre surface parking lot, provides much-needed public amenities, including a community room and a shaded public plaza. Additional uses include a transit store, a café, shops, and offices, including the city of Tempe’s Transportation Division. Also notable, the center does not provide any automobile parking beyond spaces reserved for persons with disabilities.
The downtown of Lancaster, PA
All photos courtesy of US EPA
A multiuse, traffic calmed street in Charlotte.
Parkside of Old Town, at right and below.
A light rail train at the Tempe Transportation Center