Report from the Seattle Smart Growth Conference

Awhile back I posted the announcement for the annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference.  I wasn't able to attend, but here's a report from Anthony Flint at the Lincoln Institute:

Members of President Obama’s “green cabinet” vowed to implement smart growth at the federal level by coordinating the agencies responsible for housing, transportation, and the environment, delighting nearly two-thousand planners and local government officials gathered for a sustainability conference here.

Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Ray LaHood, secretary of the Department of Transportation, and Lisa Jackson, director of the Environmental Protection Agency, detailed how they were working together to favor funding for initiatives for housing with better proximity to jobs, schools, and transit, for example, and give more priority to transportation projects that helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions, over traditional criteria such as relieving congestion. They also said the agencies have also stopped working at cross purposes in the array of programs they administer, unifying disparate initiatives under the mantra of sustainability.  “It’s time the federal government spoke with one voice,” said Donovan.

Read the entire article here.  See more in his Citiwire post here. I also posted the news release about this new initiative from the Obama administration here.  I'll try to keep up with developments about this program as they evolve.

Jamie Baker Roskie