Optional morning and afternoon tours of local model projects (details in the "Special Conference Features" section)

Livable Communities Rocky Mountain Style
Come learn about what livable communities can and do look like in the Wild West. The frontier mentality and fast growing urban and exurban areas in many parts of the inter-mountain west create both challenges and opportunities for different approaches to smart growth. Learn from experts with decades of experience working to rein in unchecked sprawl using a variety of approaches.

Facilitator: Rich McClintock, Senior Consultant, M+R Strategic Services

William R. Travis, University of Colorado, Department of Geography

Caitlin O'Brady, Project Staff, State of the Rockies Project, Colorado College

Bryan Hurlbutt, Project Staff, State of the Rockies Project, Colorado College

John Parr, Executive Director, Alliance for Regional Stewardship; Civic Results

Tom Gougeon, Principal/Chief Development Officer, Continuum Partners, LLC

Susan Barnes-Gelt, former City of Denver Councilmember, Colorado

Promoting Healthy Eating and Active Living through Improvements in the Built Environment: What Health Professionals Need to Know and What They Can Do
This day-long session will look at the environmental causes of the growing obesity crisis and the supporting research. Participants will learn how they can influence the building of communities where healthy food is easily accessible and everyone can incorporate more physical activity in their daily lives. The seminar represents a unique coming together of physicians, researchers, architects and planners, and local government officials in an effort to address root causes of the serious problem of obesity.

Eric K. France MD MSPH, Chief, Preventive Medicine, Kaiser Permanente Colorado

Alex Kelter, MD, Chief, EPIC Branch, California Dept. of Health Services

M. Katherine Kraft, PhD, Healthy Communities Consultant, Princeton, NJ

Leslie Mikkelsen, RD, MPH, Managing Director, Prevention Institute; Chair, Strategic Alliance Promoting Healthy Food and Activity Environments

Judy Corbett, Executive Director, Local Government Commission

Tyler Norris, President, Community Initiatives

Sandra H. Stenmark, MD, Pediatrician; Director of Pediatric Weight Management Programs, Kaiser Permanente Colorado

Dan Burden, Senior Urban Designer, Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin Lopez Rinehart

Laurel Prevetti, Senior Planner, City of San Jose, CA

Rick Cole, City Manager, City of Ventura, CA

Mayor Steve Burkholder, City of Lakewood, CO

Loel Solomon, PhD, National Director, Community Health Initiatives and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente

Walk This Way, Talk This Way: Communicating Active Living to Educate and Change Policy
Want to feel more confident presenting the case for active living communities to your board of health, planning department, traffic engineer or elected officials? This workshop will teach health and planning professionals the basic tools of each others' trade in the area of active living environments. You'll take away an Active Community Environments CD with an array of references and the annotated PowerPoint presentation for use in your jurisdiction. During an interactive exercise, you'll work with health and planning practitioners to transform a good master planned project into a great neighborhood that naturally encourages physical activity and a healthier environment.

Karen Roof, KRoof EnviroHealth Consulting

James Van Hermert, AICP, Director, Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute

Carol Maclennan, Environmental Health Policy Coordinator, Tri County Health Department

So How Do You Get From Here to There? Mapping Your Smart Growth Implementation Strategy: Leading Change in the Built Environment
How do you lead change? How do you get your community started on the road to smart growth? Is it enough to convince your local elected Councilmembers? How do you begin to tackle the thicket of policies, codes and regulations that prevent smart growth? This two-part session led by the Smart Growth Leadership Institute will discuss real world tools for Leading Change in the Built Environment. It includes valuable lessons learned from Smart Growth Implementation programs from several communities from across the country as well as actual tools you can use to align your community’s policies, ordinances and regulations to the principles of smart growth.

Water, Water Everywhere: Integrating the Land Use and Water Quality Connection
Growth and development expand communities’ opportunities by bringing in new residents, businesses, and investments. Growth can give a community the resources to revitalize a downtown, refurbish a main street, build new schools, and develop vibrant places to live, work, shop, and play. However, with the benefits come challenges. The environmental impacts of development can make it more difficult for communities to protect their natural resources. Where and how communities accommodate growth has a profound impact on the quality of their streams, rivers, lakes, and beaches. Development that uses land efficiently and protects undisturbed natural lands allows a community to grow and still protect its water resources. The primary focus of today’s workshop is to discuss how local governments are incorporating water concerns into land use planning, and how smart growth land use tools can be incorporated into water resource planning for quality and quantity protection, with a focus on both regulatory and "green infrastructure" tools.

G. Patrick Stoner, Director, Resource Conservation Programs, Local Government Commission

Geoffrey Anderson, Director, Development Community Environment Division, U.S. EPA

John S. Jacob, Environmental Quality and Coastal Community Development Specialist, Texas Sea Grant and Texas Cooperative Extension

Michael Klepinger, Extension Specialist, Michigan Sea Grant

Stan Ketchum, Principal Planner, City of San Jose

Gayle Killiam, Director, Clean Water Act Program, River Network

Cynthia Peterson, Program Director, AWARE Colorado

Tom Liptan, Environmental Specialist, Bureau of Environmental Services, City Portland, OR

Jane Fowler, Training and Research, Southeast Watershed Forum

Lisa Nisenson, Senior Policy Analyst, U.S. EPA

Kathy Blaha, Senior Vice President, National Programs, Trust for public Land

Smart Growth 101
This pre-conference session is geared towards first-time attendees to the conference or for participants who are new to the practice of implementing smart growth solutions. The session will cover general topics, such as the ten principles of smart growth, the process of how land development typically occurs, and the basics of planning and zoning for smart growth. The goal of the workshop is to provide a good working background on smart growth and prepare participants for more in-depth sessions during the main conference.

Paul Zykofsky, AICP, Director, Land Use and Transportation Programs, Local Government Commission

John Frece, Associate Director, National Center for Smart Growth

Code Reform: A to Z
In recent years, local governments have been focusing more attention on how to reform the regulations and codes and ultimately, what types of communities get built.

Building Child-Friendly Neighborhoods: Safe Routes to School and Home Zones
This pre-conference session provides practical tips for local application of the Safe Routes to School program and Home Zone community design technique. Participants will learn: strategies for their own communities, how to get involved in the planning process, curriculum to educate planners and community leaders, and how to work with state Departments of Transportation to collaborate on the new Safe Routes to School grant program enacted by Congress in 2005. The session will include a demonstration from the Safe Routes to School curriculum, and an interactive brainstorming session about legislation and ordinances needed to apply Home Zones locally. Healthy design that creates safe and active communities for children is a key part of addressing the childhood obesity epidemic. Communities friendly to children are communities friendly to all.

Susan Kirinich, Pedestrian Safety Program Manager, NHTSA

Paul Zykofsky, AICP, Director, Land Use and Transportation Programs, Local Government Commission

Barb Alberson, M.P.H., Chief, State and Local Injury Control Section, California Department of Health Services

Lindsey Cox, Project Coordinator, California Center for Physical Activity, California Department of Health Services

Taming Your Modeling Monster
This workshop will "look under the hood" of the technical systems that transportation planners and engineers use to guide transportation investments and operations. Do traffic models work? For what purpose and under what assumptions? What is the role of traffic forecasting in community planning? Why has traffic alleviation been a more important objective than community character, livable neighborhoods, public health – or for that matter, great streets? Is it possible to guide an integrated transportation and land use program with something other than congestion alleviation as a goal? What tools might be more suitable to planning sustainable communities where mobility and quality of life, rather than traffic alleviation, are the objectives? Join us as a team of experts addresses these issues and involves the audience in sharing experiences from around the country.

Jim Charlier, AICP, President, Charlier Associates, Inc.

Ellen Greenberg, Principal, Freedman, Tung and Bottomley

Smart Growth for Local Elected Officials
Local elected officials have a critical role to play in assuring better planning in their communities--without their leadership, there will be no progress! This session will outline the basic principles and benefits of smart growth. Then, city and county elected officials will offer examples of tangible actions that they have undertaken to implement Smart Growth principles, making their communities better places to live.

Supervisor Kathy Long, Ventura County, California; Local Government Commission Board Member

Councilmember Acquannetta Warren, City of Fontana, California

Commissioner Chris Zimmerman, Arlington County, Virginia

Mayor Karen Stuart, City and County of Broomfield, CO

Councilmember Elaine Clegg, City of Boise, ID

Conference Welcome and Acknowledgments

Mayor Jake Mackenzie, City of Rohnert Park, California; Local Government Commission Boardmember

Supervisor Kathy Long, Ventura County, California; Chair, Local Government Commission Board

Don Leslie, Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies, Penn State University

Kickoff Keynote--Smart Growth: For Communities That Are Wealthy, Healthy, and Wise
Tax base, job creation, economic opportunity, and the potential for businesses, landowners and developers to make money--these are often the driving forces behind development decisions. Can smart growth successfully compete in this environment? The panelists will discuss how smart growth delivers on economic development, job creation, tax base and the other traditional measures of development success, how to articulate these arguments, and how some localities are using smart growth explicitly as an economic development strategy. Further, the panel will show how to expand the discussion beyond the "traditional" economic development concerns to encompass a broader notion of economic viability and growth--one that includes transportation considerations, access to natural and cultural amenities, and other "soft" factors. For instance, can smart growth add healthy lifestyles and the potential to reduce employee health care costs as a competitive edge for localities competing for a new businesses?

Facilitator: Tyler Norris, President, Community Initiatives

Howard Frumkin, M.D., Dr.P.H., FACP, FACOEM, Director, National Center of Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Rick Cole, City Manager, City of Ventura, California

Dena Belzer, Principal, Strategic Economics

Peter Park, Planning Director, City of Denver, Colorado

Networking Reception

The State of Smart Growth in the Real Estate Industry
What are the trends in development? How is smart growth competing against other products? Are cities rebounding or stagnant? Noted Urban Land Strategist and Developer Christopher Leinberger will discuss the state of the real estate industry, smart growth's performance, current trends, and implications for smart growth's future as a real estate product and a social/political phenomenon.

Christopher Leinberger, Visiting Fellow, The Brookings Institution; Founding Partner, Arcadia Land Company

Recognizing a Smart Investment: Private Sector's Acceptance of Smart Growth
Achieving a paradigm shift in land use development means that smart growth is the norm, not the exception. While victory cannot be claimed yet, one of the most significant recent progressions toward this goal is that private developers not only understanding the value of smart growth, but also embracing it as viable option to meet their fiscal objectives. Developers are now incorporating a mixture of uses into their projects with increasing regularity. Furthermore, the private sector is taking an enhanced role in placemaking to create holistic livable communities. While this evolution is encouraging, many challenges still remain. This plenary brings together national leaders in the development world to discuss their acceptance of smart growth and the challenges the industry still face. With an ever-growing list of successful smart growth projects, panelists will discuss why smart growth works for them. Then they will reveal how to increase smart growth's appeal by addressing hurdles of underwriting criteria, infrastructure, eminent domain, codes and zoning, marketing smart growth to industry members and the development approval process.

Facilitator: Christopher Leinberger, Visiting Fellow, The Brookings Institution; Founding Partner, Arcadia Land Company

Debra Bassert, Assistant Staff Vice President, Land Use Policy, National Association of Home Builders

Rachel Zagrabelny, Director, State Government Relations, International Council of Shopping Centers

Larry Gottlieb, Vice President, Government and Public Affairs and Associate Corporate Counsel, KB Home

Jonathan Miller, Senior Vice President, GMAC Institutional Advisors; Author of Emerging Trends

Real Estate Organizations: Great Change Agents, Great Partners
Real estate organizations can be valuable partners in helping your community reach its community goals. This program will discuss efforts undertaken by local Realtors associations that support neighborhood revitalization as well as minority and low-income homeownership programs.

Moderator: Joseph Molinaro, Manager, Smart Growth Programs, National Association of REALTORS®

Jody Landers, Executive Officer, Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors

Brenda Ellsworth, United Country Suburban Broker

Mary W. Sharp, RE/MAX Elite Of Memphis

Betsy Buckingham, Homeownership Coordinator, REALTORS® Association of York and Adams County

Smart Growth Solutions to Freight Management Challenges
Many cities, particularly older, urban areas with established metropolitan core areas and infrastructure that is costly to modify, are challenged with accommodating increasing freight volumes while implementing smart growth strategies and developing context sensitive solutions. This dynamic international panel will discuss programs and provide examples of projects in which truck and rail carriers have collaborated with communities to overcome these challenges through minimizing vehicle miles traveled, take advantage of new developments in carrier technologies to improve air quality, develop location efficient warehousing solutions, and maximize intermodal opportunities with an appreciation of shared use infrastructure by people, trains, autos, buses and trucks.

Paula Reeves, Local Programs, Washington Department of Transportation

Basse Clement, P.Eng., M.A.Sc., Senior Transportation Engineer, Strategic Planning & Policy, Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (TransLink)

Jim Labelle, Deputy Director, Chicago Metropolis 2020

Anne Kee, SmartWay Transport Partnership, U.S. EPA

Emergency Response & Street Design
Developers and jurisdictions that try to build safe, narrow, slow streets often run into opposition from fire departments and other emergency responders. What are their concerns and are there ways to work things out so that we can still build streets that are slow and safe but also allow emergency responders to operate? Listen to a former fire chief and a street design expert describe examples and approaches that work.

Moderator: Steve Tracy, Staff Research Analyst, Local Government Commission

Dan Burden, Senior Urban Designer, Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin Lopez Rinehart

Paul Davis, Street Smart Fire Consulting; Former Assistant Fire Chief, City of Columbus, OH

Regional Equity in Practice: Making All Neighborhoods in the Region Strong, Stable, and Healthy
Neighborhoods where all residents can live, work, and play are the bedrock of inclusive and prosperous regions: such neighborhoods improve the health, well-being, and life opportunities of residents and contribute to the strength and competitiveness of local economies. Too often, struggling neighborhoods in older core cities and first tier suburbs lack the essentials that residents need to participate in the economic and social life of a community. Transforming isolated neighborhoods into communities of opportunity is one of the most fundamental areas of regional equity practice. This session will feature community developers that are advancing regionally informed neighborhood initiatives that are rebuilding commercial centers, building mixed-income housing, and related neighborhood services and amenities.

Sarah Treuhaft, Program Associate, PolicyLink

Anika Goss-Foster, Program Director, Detroit LISC

Rob Stephany, Director, Commercial Development at East Liberty Development Inc.

State Leadership on TOD
This "how to get there" session will start with a short introduction of current legislation, programs, policies and incentives that States have put into place to enable Transit Oriented Development (TOD) that promotes smart growth. With thirteen states having some type of law or program and many others looking at the possibilities, the panelists will present the processes undertaken in forging collaborative working relationships, developing a set of goals, providing financial incentives, removing regulatory barriers, promoting public/private partnerships, providing technical assistance to help their local governments implement strategies, and establishing pilot programs to test and show-by-example how new modes of thinking can work.  And, although comprehensive transit policy that incorporates land use is new territory for states, by taking a more proactive role in addressing TOD as a policy, funding and/or legislative initiative states can play a major role in laying the groundwork for transit-supportive land uses.

Moderator: Brigid Hynes-Cherin, Associate Administrator, Office of Planning & Environment, Federal Transit Administration

Lynn Colosi, Senior Vice President, Clear View Strategies, LLC

Dennis Keck, Assistant Commissioner for Planning & Development, New Jersey State DOT

Paul Morris, FASLA, Managing Principal, PB PlaceMaking

Introduction to Code Reform
Communities that are trying to implement Smart Growth concepts quickly realize that it is essential to revise and reform existing codes that get in the way of mixed use, compact, transit-oriented and walkable development. This session will introduce the topic by discussing why a new approach is needed and how different jurisdictions are pursuing code reform.

Marya Morris, Senior Research Associate, American Planning Association

Rick Cole, City Manager, City of Ventura, California

Christopher Duerksen, Principal, Clarion Associates

Healthy Eating in the City:Neighborhood Strategies for Improving Access to Healthy Foods
Many of our neighborhoods, especially those with a large share of poor resident and people of color, are “food deserts” – places where there are no grocery stores or other places for people to buy fresh, affordable produce. Over the past years, several promising approaches to bringing healthy food into our communities have emerged – strategies that promote not only healthy eating, but the viability of local farms, conservation of open space and prevention of sprawl. In this session, participants will learn about a number of these strategies including farmers market efforts, mobile vending, liquor store conversions, use of redevelopment funds to bring grocery stores to low-resource communities and other novel approaches to bring local, farm-fresh food to people who need it.

Moderator: Leslie Mikkelsen, RD, M.P.H., Managing Director, Prevention Institute; Chair, Strategic Alliance Promoting Healthy Food and Activity Environments

Supervisor John Woolley, Humboldt County, CA; Local Government Commission Boardmember

Rebecca Flournoy, Senior Associate, PolicyLink

Frances Spencer, Assistant Commissioner, Department of Planning & Development, City of Chicago, IL

Lisa Feldstein, Senior Policy Director, Public Health Institute

Organized Labor: More Keen than Ever About Smart Growth
With their growing focus on new-member organizing, today’s union leaders are increasingly aware that smart growth policies go hand in hand with efforts to revitalize the labor movement. Even the Building Trades are beginning to acknowledge: urban density is good for union density. Hear from three speakers whose organizations are in the forefront of bringing unions into the smart growth debate, building upon the path-breaking national AFL-CIO resolution against sprawl.

Greg LeRoy, author of The Great American Jobs Scam; Executive Director, Good Jobs First

Leslie Moody, President, Denver Area Labor Federation

Chereesse Thymes, Executive Director, Partnership for Working Families

Smart Growth: How Is It Performing in the Marketplace
A healthy number of projects applying smart growth principles and design techniques are now over ten years old, many more are over five years old. Hundreds more are under construction or are in some stage of the planning and approval stages. Clearly this is no fad. But what is the long term market outlook for smart growth as a real estate play? Who is investing in these projects, who is building them and who is buying into them? This session provides an industry outlook on the growth and market trends of smart growth as a real estate product. Session attendees will hear a summary of construction totals and capital investment in a number of projects; who the consumers are and what they look for in these projects; the make up of the business employers and retail tenants; and the developer's perspective on what they are building and why.

Moderator: Tom Gleason, Vice President of Public Relations, Forest City Stapleton

Lee Sobel, Real Estate Development & Finance Analyst, U.S. EPA

Dena Belzer, Principal, Strategic Economics

Mark Falcone, Managing Director and Founder, Continuum Partners LLC

Charles Perry, Principal, Perry Rose, LLC

Gene Myers, CEO, New Town Builders

On the Fast Track: Regulatory Fixes for the Production and Preservation of Affordable Housing
In recent years, elected officials at the state and local levels have become increasingly concerned over affordable housing issues and sprawl. Some of what is fueling development to a region's edge is the lack of affordable housing opportunities in existing communities, and it is proving costly and unsustainable. States including Massachusetts, New Jersey and Florida have implemented efforts to increase the supply of affordable housing, and have coordinated many processes to expedite the development process. Cities such as New York are actively exploring regulatory fixes to reduce the cost of housing, while protecting neighborhoods and environmental quality. The National Association of Counties (NACo) recently surveyed its membership and found that housing and smart growth issues were among the concerns frequently cited by county officials (from all geographies). Counties such as Honolulu County (and the City of Honolulu), HI, and Arlington County, VA are taking steps to streamline their review and administrative processes for new construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing. Come hear from experts and local leaders about emerging and innovative practices that use administrative fixes to promote housing and smart growth.

Moderator: Martin Harris, Director, Center for Sustainable Communities, NACO

Vicki Been, Elihu Root Professor of Law, NYU School of Law; Director, Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy

Anthony Flint, Smart Growth Education Director, Office of Commonwealth Development, State of Massachusetts

Councilmember Robert Weiner, New Castle County, Delaware

Ashok Goswami, CEO, Institute for Building Technology and Safety

Networking Luncheon

Keynote – Natural Disasters: Smart Growth Opportunities Left in Their Wake
The year 2005 will be remembered for the most extensive and devastating hurricane season on record. While groups around the country mobilize to provide expertise and assistance to help those affected, this experience has underscored the fact that natural disasters--whether hurricanes, forest fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, and the like--all provide opportunities for the development of livable communities. When these disasters occur, communities have a real chance to challenge their development guidelines, codes, ordinances and planning practices to determine what needs to be changed in order to mitigate their impacts from disasters but also to put the pieces in place that will create safer, healthier and more livable places. This plenary will explore how communities have dealt with natural disasters in the past and how smart growth is part of the solution in the present and future.

Paul Farmer, AICP, Executive Director and CEO, American Planning Association

John K. McIlwain, Senior Resident Fellow, Chair for Housing, the Urban Land Institute

Concurrent Breakout Sessions

Getting Smarter About Funding Smart Growth: Creating Diverse Funding Partnerships
This session would focus on trends regarding funding of smart growth, including funding from foundations, government and the private sector. The session will also highlight partners from diverse issue areas that have not traditionally been seen as smart growth funders, including health, community development and energy.

Moderator: Ben Starrett, Executive Director, Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities

Geoff Anderson, Director, Development Community Environment Division, U.S. EPA

Terry Bazzarre, Senior Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Noreen Beatley, Director of State and Local Policy, Enterprise

Linda Jo Doctor, Health Program Director, W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Moving Beyond the Dreaded D Word: How Vancouver Uses Density As A Winning Strategy
Vancouver--the prototype for creative, cutting-edge, sustainable dense urban planning and development! This is your chance to get a first hand look at the Vancouver renaissance as seen by local multi-sector players. Panelists will explore density strategies, successes, opportunities and challenges both for the City and British Columbia. Discussion will include the issues faced by the region and core planning and funding decision-making that will impact the future of the province. An interactive conversation with participants will conclude the session.

Moderator: Mauro Vescera, Program Officer, Vancouver Foundation

Larry Beasley, Co-Director of Planning, City of Vancouver, British Columbia

Gordon Price, Director of the City Program, Simon Fraser University

Scenario Planning
Scenario Planning provides transportation and land use planning professionals better analytical tools to support the engagement of our policy makers and citizens as they work together to shape the long-term future of their communities. The analysis and visualization of the interaction among forces in each alternative scenario can provide the public and decision makers with better information about the potential consequences of actions.

Moderator: Jody McCullough, Transportation Planner, Federal Highway Administration

Marlie Sanderson, Director of Transportation Planning, North Central Florida Regional Planning Council

Hubert Morgan, Northern Illinois Planning Organization

Ben Bakkenta, Principal Planner, Puget Sound Regional Council

Linking Landscapes, Linking Missions
Learn about how the Department of Defense (DoD) is entering into new partnerships with conservation organizations and others to pursue innovative regional growth and land-use strategies near DoD's training and testing ranges. Particular emphasis will be placed on the award-winning partnerships between Fort Carson in Colorado and major conservation groups such as  The Nature Conservancy and The Conservation Fund. In Colorado and around the country, DoD has been increasingly working outside the fence to help preserve buffer land and promote conservation. In providing an overview of compatible land use efforts, the session will explore the ways DoD and outside organizations are linking their missions -- and the opportunities that now exist to work with the military and others to literally link landscapes.

Moderator: Bruce Beard, Assistant Director for Environmental Readiness, U.S. Department of Defense

Gary Belew, Chief, Natural and Cultural Resources Division, Directorate of Environmental Compliance and Management (DECAM) HQ

Mark A. Benedict, Ph.D., Senior Associate, Strategic Conservation, The Conservation Fund

Brian McPeek, Deputy State Director, Nature Conservancy, Colorado Office

Smart Growth on a Shoestring: Sustainability in Cities with Weak Markets
We all look for more money to do smart growth, but building a sustainable metropolitan area in places with declining income and population demands smart growth on a shoe string. Come here teams from two older industrial cities discuss how they are creating vibrant communities in weak economies. Toledo, a smaller city, will discuss its strategies for turning the city toward prosperity. Milwaukee, a larger city, will discuss how its government has turned the corner on the economy and is no longer considered a "weak market." Discussion will focus on strategies, success factors, forward movement and continuing challenges. One third of the session is scheduled as interactive conversation.

Moderator: Julia Seward, Director of State Policy, Local Initiatives Support Corporation

Hugh Grefe, Senior Program Director, Local Initiatives Support Corporation

Ford Weber, Director, Housing and Neighborhood Services, City of Roanoke, Virginia

David Misky, Land Development Coordinator, Department of Economic Development, City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Greg Patin, Zoning and Development Coordinator, Department of Economic Development, City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Rural Smart Growth: Building the Capacity of Rural Communities to Implement Sound Planning
In many rural areas, communities are struggling to accommodate rapid growth while still preserving “small town character.” These communities often lack the resources to formulate and implement effective growth management policies. How can these rural communities ensure that community values and character are the guiding principles behind new growth? This session will examine local and national attempts to empower rural communities to proactively direct future development.

Moderator: Eric Bergman, Director, Office of Smart Growth, Colorado Department of Local Affairs

Bob Steimle, AICP, Senior Planner, Tetra Tech RMC, Inc.

Matt Dalbey, Ph.D., AICP, Policy Analyst, U.S. EPA

Commissioner Arn Menconi, Eagle County, Colorado

SmartSchools
"Smart Schools: The Community-Centered Small Schools Movement" peels back layers of erroneous assumptions and myths that have propped up the wasteful, sprawling, and unsustainable school design and site planning for the last fifty years, to expose the facts: The suburban school campus frequently isolates students from their community, neighborhood, and family, often reduces academic performance, may increase the overall economic cost to the community, increases the likelihood of childhood obesity, and teaches, by daily example, that the importance of environmental sustainability and traditional civic values do not apply to our schools. The Smart School approach yields community and neighborhood-integrated schools, configured for the 21st century, that help forge the personal and social bonds of civic and family life, while improving both student and teacher performance. Three professionals - a school architect, master planner, and educator/school trustee - will describe how land can be preserved, school costs reduced, learning resources expanded, students provided more individual attention, and communities made stronger, by making compact, walkable, diverse, and livable learning environments.

Stephen Coyle, Director, HDR/LCA+Sargent

Victoria Bergsagel, President, Architects of Achievement

Catherine Sepulveda, Esq., Santa Paula Union High School Trustee, California

Removing the Code Obstacles to Smart Growth
In most communities, sprawl is much easier to build than Smart Growth, with innumerable code obstacles that often make Smart Growth type development difficult or even illegal. In this session, speakers will address some of the most common obstacles Smart Growth planners and developers encounter in their work, along with some of the innovative approaches urban and rural communities around the country have come up with to address these challenges.

Jeffrey Tumlin, Partner, Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates

Conan Smith, Executive Director, Michigan Suburbs Alliance

Steve Tracy, Staff Research Analyst, Local Government Commission

Weaving the Fabric of Smart Growth: Linkages between Crime Prevention, Pedestrian Safety, Public Health, and Economic Vitality
In one session, this high energy, 3-screen presentation will concurrently tie together the multi-disciplinary fabric of smart growth for professionals of all backgrounds and experience levels. For the first time, conference participants will be provided with an understanding of how key smart growth principles contribute, simultaneously, to important quality of life issues. Wherever possible, the presenters - an economist, a public health practitioner, and an urban designer - will include both empirical and anecdotal support for each smart growth principle. This session is a must-attend!

Al Zelinka, AICP, Principal, RBF Consulting’s Urban Design Studio

Tina Zenzola, Director, Safe and Healthy Communities Consulting

Marie Jones, Principal, Maria Jones Consulting

Creating Mixed-Income Communities Around Transit
This session will address the policies, strategies and tools a community needs to create strong, stable mixed-income communities as part of transit oriented development. It will examine what types of financial and regulatory tools may be employed, how land acquisition and banking strategies can help build and maintain mixed-income communities, and how development of live/work spaces strategically located near transit can set the stage for mixed income. The session will highlight both success stories and examples of unintended consequences of not prioritizing policies that promote and maintain mixed-income communities during the early TOD planning.

Moderator: Karen Lado, Local Office Director, Enterprise Denver

Daniel Hernandez, Principal, Topology, LLC

Doug Shoemaker, Deputy Director, Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California

Tim Van Meter, Architect/Urban Designer, Van Meter Williams Pollack

Concurrent Implementation Sessions

Tales from the Front: Rebuilding the Gulf Coast
Recovering from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita takes time, a good plan and a vision for creating a livable community that responds to the needs of its residents. Over the past few months, Gulf Coast communities have hosted various charrettes, planning meetings and workshops to map out a rebuilding strategy. This session explores how disciplines as diverse as planning, environmental protection, housing, urban design, land use development, transportation and public health interrelate and connect when devising a comprehensive strategy for creating healthy, vibrant cities and communities after a natural disaster. National experts who participated in these meetings will provide their insight and reflections of this unique rebuilding process.

Facilitator: Geoffrey Anderson, Director, Development Community Environment Division, U.S. EPA

Steve Villavaso, FAICP, JD, President, Villavaso Adjunct Professor in Land Use and Zoning Law, College of Urban and Public Affairs, University of New Orleans; President, Louisiana Chapter of the American Planning Association

Laura Hall, Principal, Fisher & Hall Urban Design

Joseph E. Brown, FASLA, President & CEO, EDAW, Inc.

Tom Farley MD, Professor and Chair, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, LA

Victor Rubin, Director of Research, Policylink

Street Design: Creating Walkability, Bikeability & Livability
This session explores the principles and practices shared in common by North America's most walkable, bikeable and livable streets, neighborhoods and communities. Examples of bicycling and walking principles, practices and science will be provided. Guidelines and a framework for pedestrian and bicycle facilities, trails and related issues will be covered. All three speakers will build upon a basis that all great streets in a livable community celebrate walking, bicycling and quality of life.

Bruce Appleyard, MCP, AICP, Senior Transportation Planner/Urban Designer, SERA

Dan Burden, Senior Urban Designer, Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin Lopez Rinehart

James Charlier, AICP, President, Charlier Associates, Inc.

Keys to Success with High Performance TOD
"So you want a TOD. This session is will give you the edge in planning, designing and implementing a high performance TOD. Case studies of built TODs will give you a chance to probe why some TODs succeed and why some have not. From TCRP Report 102 you'll learn the state-of-the-practice of TOD in America. Finally you will you will have the chance to walk through the anatomy of an award winning TOD plan in detail – involving the community, redesigning transit facilities, reconfiguring streets, open space to add value, land use mix and phasing, sizing the parking right, creating a mixed-use center, developing a form-based TOD code and an implementation strategy."

GB Arrington, Principal Practice Leader, PB PlaceMaking

Shelley Poticha, Executive Director, Center for Transit-Oriented Development, Reconnecting America

Smart Growth Tools I: Data and Decision-Making Tools for Local Officials
Local officials have many important and often tough decisions to make regarding transportation, housing, retail, commercial, school siting, and other key land uses. These decisions have far-reaching effects and long-term impacts on the communities they serve. This session will highlight three new tools that can assist local officials in addressing making these difficult choices, giving them access to the critical demographic and geographic data they need, and what the possible impacts are of the decisions they have to make.

Incorporating housing costs with the transportation costs associated with different urban locations, the Housing and Transportation Affordability Index is a new tool that enables housing developers, transportation planners, and individuals to uncover the hidden cost of transportation that dramatically shapes the household budgets of all Americans. DataPlace aims to be your one-stop source for housing and demographic data about your community, your region, and the nation. The site not only assembles a variety of data sets from multiple sources, but it also provides tools and guides to assist you in analyzing, interpreting, and applying the data so you can make more informed decisions. LA LOTS LOTS is a comprehensive information portal for land/development analysis, specializing on the City of Los Angeles, but also serving all other communities throughout the County of Los Angeles. The interactive portal provides a GIS research platform for users to query as well as spatially map areas that might be appropriate for infill housing development.

Moderator: Milton Ospina, Urban and Regional Planning Solutions Manager, ESRI

Mariia V. Zimmerman, Vice President for Policy, Reconnecting America

Laura Lucs, Manager, Information Services, Fannie Mae Foundation

Joe Carreras, Lead Regional Planner, Planning and Policy, Southern California Association of Governments

Water I - Resource-Efficient Land Use: Smart Growth Gets Water-Wise
This workshop will look at how smart growth techniques bring together water professionals and urban planners in a common goal of environmentally friendly development. The session will introduce tools for educating local elected officials about the critical link between smart growth and water resources, and the critical role that the local elected official can play. It will also delve into the importance of development context, developing a common vocabulary among all parties, and the details embedded in regulations, codes and development standards at the federal, state and local levels as they relate to smarter growth.

Specific topics include parking standards, redevelopment codes, street design, and site level improvements. The session will also look at emerging development and conservation trends, and how to spot and correct unanticipated consequences before they occur.

Judy Corbett, Executive Director, Local Government Commission

Lisa Nisenson, Senior Policy Analyst, U.S. EPA

Ken Kay, Principal, KenKay Associates

Stan Ketchum, Principal Planner, City of San Jose

Managing Green Infrastructure for Smart Growth
This workshop will explore the ways to manage and sustain the green infrastructure needed to mitigate the denser smart growth from the inner city to the region. Attendees will: 1) Learn how NYC created OASIS: http://www.oasisnyc.net/, its first web-based community GIS collective dedicated to inventorying and valuing the city’s open space resources (now accessed over 1.5 million times per year). Learn how to make online maps with OASIS, and how the process and tools can be applied in your own community, 2) Learn about how Kansas City Region and the Mid-America Regional Council have responded to growth pressures and used green infrastructure planning and design techniques to spur quality growth and development in watersheds throughout the metro area. Learn how to use these tools for Designing with Nature in your community, and 3) Learn about a suite of software tools that help calculates the condition and extent or our green infrastructure. Receive a basic understanding of what these models analyze and how their results link practical green space management to environmental planning/advocacy.

Moderator: Susan Mockenhaupt, National Program Manager, Urban and Community Forestry Program, USDA Forest Service

Greg Ina, Manager GIS/IT Systems, Davey Resource Group

Matt Arnn, Area Landscape Architect, U.S. Forest Service

Tom Jacobs, Director Environmental Programs, Mid-America Regional Council

Parks for People: Leveraging Neighborhood Greenspace for Smarter Growth
This workshop focuses on the quality of life benefits and value of neighborhood parks and greenspace with case studies on how underserved communities are using parks as part of their redevelopment strategies, particularly to mitigate for higher density in urban neighborhoods.

Moderator: Kim Bailey, Manager, Denver Parks and Recreation, Colorado

Gene Bressler, Professor and Chair, College of Architecture and Planning Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Colorado at Denver

Douglas Barrett, Vice President, Harris Miller Miller & Hanson

Marsha Murrington, Vice President of Programs, The Unity Council

BRT, LRT and Streetcars--Reaching the Desirable City: Can Transit Take Us There?
After half a century of the private car dominance in the shaping of American cities, in recent years public transit has been increasingly sought as a tool to promote and guide meaningful and sustainable urban development. Although the specific character of each mode offers a wide range of opportunities to create unique urban environments, the interplay of different modes and their relationship on land use patterns may not yet be completely understood. This 2-hour workshop seeks to cast a clear vision of the identity, commonalities and differences that each mode--LRT, BRT and Streetcar--have to offer to the Smart Growth agenda. The session will discuss evolving issues, interests, opportunities, roles and relationships of the three modes, including a timely debate on the process to make it happen through FTA’s New Start/Small Starts procedures.

Maria Rosario, AIA, Practice Leader, Sustainable Community Development, PB PlaceMaking

Charlie Hales, HDR, Vice President/Transit Planning Principal

Jeff Boothe, Attorney-at-law, Holland & Knight, Executive Director, Community Streetcar Coalition

Jack Wierzenski, AICP, Director, Economic Development and Planning, Dallas Area Rapid Transit

Making the Land Use and Transportation Connection: Regional Entities Break New Ground
Coordinating transportation and land use certainly makes sense, but we don't always do a very good job of it. Fortunately, a handful of regional planning agencies and MPOs throughout the country are forging the way toward developing a better coordinated system in their regions. Speakers on this panel will share their successful strategies for assuring a more economical, healthy and environmentally-sound transportation system.

Moderator: Councilmember Elaine Clegg, City of Boise, ID

Supervisor Steve Kinsey, County of Marin, California; Board Member, Metropolitan Transportation Commission

Commissioner Will Toor, Boulder County, Colorado; Chair, Denver Regional Council of Governments

Harrison B. Rue, Executive Director, Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission & Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization

Optional Salon Sessions

Advantages and Challenges of Form-Based Codes
Form Based Codes are a creative alternative to Euclidian zoning that have engaged communities all across the nation. Its versatility and application is as varied as the issues these codes are used to address. Communities are using form based codes to revitalize corridors and downtown alike. This highly interactive salon will feature a brief presentation of the Columbia Pike (Arlington, VA) Form Based Code and its administration. National experts on Form Based Codes will be available in small discussion groups to share their experiences and to answer questions about this innovative tool.

Kevin Nelson, AICP, Policy Analyst, U.S. EPA

Richard Tucker, Columbia Pike Initiative Coordinator, Department of Community Planning, Arlington County, Virginia

Learning from Each Other: An Information Exchange for Public Health Professionals
Come share your ideas, approaches and lessons learned on developing and implementing public health efforts to address barriers to the built environment and social, cultural and economic barriers to healthy eating and physical activity. This salon is intended for both the novice and experienced and will give participants from all areas of public health an opportunity to exchange information and discuss strategies and opportunities.

Tina Zenzola, Director, Safe and Healthy Communities Consulting

Valerie Rogers, Program Manager, National Association of County & City Health Officials

A Dialogue on Eminent Domain--Restoring the Smart Growth Partnership
The eminent domain controversy from the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo continues to reverberate through the halls of Congress, state legislatures, and city halls. Many smart growth organizations remain divided on eminent domain’s future. When used judiciously eminent domain can facilitate neighborhood revitalization and infill development.  It can also divide and dislocate neighborhoods in the name of jobs and private economic gain. The fall out from this debate could seriously injure the strong relationships among many Smart Growth partners. Come join representatives from local governments, community groups, developers, and regional and national smart growth organizations in a dialogue about the past and future of eminent domain. Using a Samoan Circle (a long standing mediation process ideal for open discussions on controversial and emotional issues), participants will not only share their stories and perspectives on eminent domain--the good, the bad, the ugly--but the Circle provides a respectful environment for reflection on what Smart Growth partners should or should not do about eminent domain.

Joe Schilling, Professor in Practice, Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech will facilitate the Salon. Anyone interested in participating inside the Samoan Circle should send him an e-mail at jms33@vt.edu. All perspectives welcome!

Joseph Schilling, Associate Director, Green Regions, The Metropolitan Institute of Virginia Tech

Winning with Teamwork . . . Building Communities Together
This salon session will present a variety of views on opportunities for involving volunteers in activities that contribute to livable communities. Volunteers throughout the United States undertake many tasks that would otherwise go undone, but are crucial to maintaining the fabric of our communities. At the same time the volunteers are personally knit to their communities in ways that benefit their own sense of well being.

Moderator: Audrey Straight, Coordinator Mobility Options, Outreach and Service, AARP

Patricia DeMichele, State Director, AARP Louisiana

Palmer Pekarek, APR, MPA, MS, Vice-President of Public Affairs, Seniors' Resource Center, CO

Rockford "Rocky" Williams, Volunteer Specialist, AARP

Break Out of the Office: Recapture your Creativity
We all need a forum in which we can learn new ideas and frameworks by which to approach our work. Have you considered returning to school to supplement your professional experience? The Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies has a long-standing tradition of building leadership. F&ES offers professionals with 7 years or more of work experience the opportunity to earn a Master’s degree in only one year. Learn about this program and how taking a year off can build your professional capacity.

Melanie Loftus, Graduate Student, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, MEM 2006

Perrine Punwani, Graduate Student, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, MEM 2006

Federal Transit Administration Listening Session
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) will hold a listening session as part of its program for implementing the transportation reauthorization law, the Safe, Affordable, Flexible and Efficient Equity Act - A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). Revised language in SAFETEA-LU included changes for how land use and economic development should be included in the metropolitan transportation planning process and considered as FTA evaluates major transit projects. Conference attendees are in a unique position to provide comments on effective land use and economic development policies to support FTA's mission "to improve public transit for America's communities." FTA will also provide other information related to SAFETEA-LU, as well as the expected timeframes for gathering public comment over the next year.

Brigid Hynes-Cherin, Associate Administrator, Office of Planning & Environment, Federal Transit Administration

Codes 301: How to Develop, Adopt and Implement a Form-Based Code
Code reform, and specifically form-based codes have been receiving a lot of attention in recent years as communities figure out ways to implement smart growth community design concepts. This intermediate level session will discuss how a community goes about developing, adopting and implementing a form-based code. Practitioners who have been working on these types of codes for the past few years describe the steps that need to be taken to prepare a code, from the analysis of existing building and planning typologies to working with developers and builders on how to build under it.

Moderator: James van Hemert, AICP, Director, Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute

Paul Crawford, Principal, Crawford Multari Clark

Daniel Parolek, Principal, Opticos Design

Allycen Whidden, Director, HDR/LCA+Sargent

Peter Park, Planning Director, City of Denver, Colorado

Getting Parking Right: That Most Vexing Difference between Smart Growth and Sprawl
Parking is the poor relation of architecture and design. Unglamorous and often downright ugly, it tends to be treated as a necessary evil. If the parking system works well, nobody notices. If it doesn't, it can work against a city's best efforts to improve urban design, manage traffic, and achieve a wide array of other goals.

Parking can determine the success of both a particular development and the entire urban neighborhood around it. Parking requirements imposed by local jurisdictions, when coupled with height, bulk and floor area restrictions, often dictate the type of building that is possible on a constrained site. The amount of parking and the way it is designed and managed control the traffic, congestion, and quality of the pedestrian environment in a neighborhood. Meanwhile, the cost of parking--often $50,000 per space and up--can determine the project's financial feasibility, and the scope to include additional neighborhood amenities.

Join some of the nation’s experts who will explore why parking policies are often the greatest obstacle to achieving Smart Growth, how some cities have fixed their parking "problems," and what you can do to rationalize your own city's parking.

Jeffrey Tumlin, Partner, Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates

Christopher Forinash, Transportation Analyst, U.S. EPA

Smart Growth Tools II: A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Public Participation
The session covers three compatible powerful tools for public involvement, Web-based tools, Interactive Value Analysis (IVA) and Risk Analysis Process (RAP), and Charrettes.

The speakers will present: 1) helpful tips for citizen participation in web-based public planning initiatives, explore challenges and opportunities in the process of designing and implementing web-based impact analysis tools will be presented, 2) a planning tool that enables citizens to engage in the detailed analysis of major growth alternatives and to shape the community values that drive technical alternatives to different policy conclusions, and 3) an overview of Dynamic Planning, a three phase collaborative planning process that features a charrette as the transformative event.

Bill Lennertz, Director, National Charrette Institute

Ken Snyder, Director, PlaceMatters, Orton Family Foundation

Mohammed Omar, Principal/Financial Analyst, HDR|HLB Decision Economics Inc.

Land Banking for Smart Growth and Revitalization
Efficiency in acquisition, management, and disbursement of vacant properties is crucial to the revitalization of cities and towns throughout the United States. Whether it’s to preserve open space or encourage redevelopment in blighted communities, land bank authorities and land trusts can help achieve smart growth and community development objectives.This session will provide an overview of each of these strategies and consider how differences in the local market (weak or strong market cities) can require a different approach.

Moderator: Jennifer Leonard, National Vacant Properties Campaign Director, Smart Growth America

Daniel Kildee, Treasurer, Genesee County, Michigan; Chairman, Genesee Institute

Aaron Miripol, Executive Director, Thistle Community Housing

Melissa Barry, Director, Louisville Metro Housing and Community Development; Chair and President, Louisville & Jefferson County Land Bank Authority

Completing the Streets, Reconnecting Our Nation
This interactive implementation session will start with a short introduction of current complete streets initiatives and the variety of ways jurisdictions can transform deadly speedways into public spaces that draw people to communities even as they serve as transportation corridors. The three panelists will present their struggles and triumphs in recent complete streets transformations at the local, regional and national levels, each opening their discussions up to attendees to help them solve implementation issues that still remain for their initiatives. Attendees will then have a chance to offer their own complete streets concepts and receive feedback from the panelists and other attendees.

Moderator: Sue Knaup, Executive Director, Thunderhead Alliance

Dave Snyder, President, Transportation for a Livable City

Jim Sayer, Executive Director, Adventure Cycling Association

Jeff Taebel, Director, Community and Environmental Planning, Houston-Galveston Area Council

Gaining Consensus and Successfully Implementing Regional Transit Initiatives
This workshop will bring together three of the County's best examples of successfully implementing Regional Transit Initiatives-Charlotte (NC), Miami (FL) and Denver (CO). The focus of the session will be on the lessons learned from these initiatives, including problem solving, consensus building, managing a referendum, and fulfilling expectations.

Moderator: GB Arrington, Principal Practice Leader, PB PlaceMaking

John Muth, Deputy Director for Development and Chief Development Officer, Charlotte Area Transit System

Liz Rao, Assistant General Manager, Planning and Development, Denver Regional Transportation District

Councilmember Pat Cronenberger, City of Littleton, Colorado; Board Member, Transit Alliance

Lynn Harris, J.D., Government Affairs/New Starts Manager, Miami-Dade Transit

The Retailer's Perspective on Smart Growth
If you plan it, will they come? Good renderings alone cannot create successful retail centers. Whether you are working on a new town center, commercial corridor strategy, or trying to bring an old commercial center back to life, you can still come up empty handed if you don't know what the retailers are thinking about when they consider these new shopping venues or your market.

Our panel consists of some of the largest national retailers and developers who are already achieving success with these mixed-use formats. See examples of their stores and projects. Hear what it takes to get these deals done. You will have an opportunity to learn what these players have to say about attracting them to your mixed-use projects; from project design to store design, cotenancy and the right mix of complimentary uses, parking, store operations, and more.

Co-Moderator: Lee Sobel, Real Estate Development and Finance Analyst, U.S. EPA

Co-Moderator: Cynthia Stewart, Director, Local Government Relations, International Council of Shopping Centers

Lawrence E. Kilduff, President, The Kilduff Company

Howard Gerelick, Vice President, Safeway, Inc.

Thomas J. Connolly CLS, Divisional Vice President, Walgreen Co.

Tapping Smart Growth Resources: Bring Your Plans to the Experts
Looking to improve your site designs, master plans or regional plans to make smart growth happen? Or need assistance developing that hard-to-market property? This open workshop session features national planning and design practitioners who will provide expertise on how to improve community-sponsored or developer site designs, get the best out of large-site master plans, and strengthen regional comprehensive plans to achieve local development goals. Participants should bring copies of their plans to work in breakout groups to brainstorm design solutions that best achieve local goals.

Mayor William Fulton, City of Ventura, CA; President, Solimar Research Group

Paul Zykofsky, AICP, Director, Land Use and Transportation Programs, Local Government Commission

Harriet Tregoning, Executive Director, Smart Growth Leadership Institute

Tim Van Meter, Architect/Urban Designer, Van Meter Williams Pollack

Dan Burden, Senior Urban Designer, Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin Lopez Rinehart

Paul Morris, FASLA, Managing Principal, PB PlaceMaking

Rick Bernhardt, Metro Planning Department, Nashville and Davidson County, TN

Concurrent Breakouts Session

Dispelling Green Building Myths: True Costs and Unanticipated Benefits
Building green communities that emphasize smart location has had more benefits than initially anticipated such as reclamation of wetlands, helping promote the use of recycled paints, and helping educate residents about the health and environmental impacts of their living space. Hear from architects, construction managers, and nonprofit community developers that have embraced green building and found a return on their investment much higher than they could have imagined.

Moderator: Kate Allen, Local Office Director, Enterprise Portland

Jane Jones, Senior Project Manager, Homeowners Rehab, Inc.

Deane Evans, Director, New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Center for Architecture & Building Science Research

Greening the Code
Form based codes have shown increasing promise as a way to assure that Smart Growth projects get built as intended. This planning tool can also be useful in addressing environmental concerns. Learn how the City of San Jose is using the form- based code to assure water sustainability in new development and redevelopment, and brainstorm how additional LEED ND requirements might be integrated into a form based code.

Moderator: Susan Mudd, Boardmember, Congress for the New Urbanism

Ken Kay, Principal, KenKay Associates

Laurel Prevetti, Senior Planner, City of San Jose, California

Integrating Land Use, Natural Resource, and Cultural Resource Plans into the Transportation Decision Making Process
Integrated transportation planning is about a collaborative, well-coordinated decision-making process that addresses the mobility and accessibility needs of communities while recognizing other community goals-such as economic development, community livability, environmental protection and equity. This session will offer some examples from communities and resource agencies that are undertaking integrated planning initiatives.

Carol Adkins, Environmental Protection Specialist, Office of Project Development and Environmental Review, Federal Highway Administration

Mark A. Benedict, Ph.D., Senior Associate, Strategic Conservation, The Conservation Fund

Suzette Thieman, Regional Transportation Planning Manager, North Front Range MPO

Jeff Winston, Principal, Winston Associates

Denver's Thriving Communities Initiative: Promoting Health Through Environmental and Policy Chang
In this session, funding partners and grantees of Denver’s Thriving Communities initiative will describe an innovative approach to promoting healthy eating and active living through multi-disciplinary partnerships established to create significant and sustainable environmental and policy changes. Panelists will describe the strategies driving this work, the outcomes they intend to achieve and what they’ve learned from early implementation efforts.

Moderator: Corina Lindley, Senior Community Health Specialist, Kaiser Permanente

Dana Crawford, Urban Neighborhoods, Inc.

Jessica Osborne, Community Development and Planning Services Department, City of Commerce City, Colorado

Carol Maclennan, Environmental Policy Coordinator, Tri-County Health Department

Robyn Spittle, Health Planner, Tri-County Health Department

Monica Buhlig, M.P.H., Program Administrator, Denver Healthy People 2010

Envisioning Where Growth Goes: Using Geography to Achieve Smart Growth
This session explores the significance of "location" in regional planning and how to use locational criteria to achieve smart growth on a regional scale. The panel will review principles and taxonomies of regional geography, and how those can be applied to influence and rationalize growth. Focus will be given to the three largest locational issues in regional growth management: 1) what areas are to be non-developable; 2) what areas merit infilling and redevelopment; and 3) where greenfield growth will be staged. The session includes a case study of applying smart growth locational criteria in the Seattle/Puget Sound region; a methodology for New Urbanist transect-based regional growth visioning; and a resource kit for learning more about location-efficient regional planning.

Moderator: Eliot Allen, Principal, Criterion Planners

Ben Bakkenta, Principal Planner, Puget Sound Regional Council

Thomas Clark, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Planning and Design, University of Colorado

Saving Farms and Ranchesin Fast Growing Communities
Surveys nationwide show that people want to save the farms and ranches in their community. They recognize the economic, cultural, environmental and scenic values of agricultural land. In this session, participants will learn about a two-pronged approach to saving farms and ranches that is being used successfully from coast to coast. The approach includes land use techniques for making farm and ranch land affordable, as well as economic development tools to improve profitability. They also will learn how to build a supportive constituency for agriculture and run a successful land conservation fundraising campaign.

Nissa Maddox, Western States Conservation Program Manager, Trust for Public Land

Jane Kirchner, Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications, American Farmland Trust

Dawn Thilmany, Associate Professor, Colorado Cooperative Extension

Preservation Tools for Smart Growth
Historic preservation is a proven smart growth strategy. The unique character of historic neighborhoods and commercial areas is attracting residents and investment back to community centers across the country. Yet this success is also bringing new challenges, as many established areas struggle to maintain stability while also accommodating new construction and density. This session will address the many connections between smart growth and historic preservation, and provide examples of innovative tools and policies.

James Lindberg, Director of Preservation Initiatives, Mountains/Plains Office, National Trust for Historic Preservation

Matt Goebel, AICP, Principal, Clarion Associates, LLC

Dan Corson, Director of Intergovernment Services, Colorado Historical Society

Evaluating the Livable Community
What are the different mechanisms that advocates and agencies have used to evaluate the general livability of a community? In this panel, a diverse set of speakers will discuss methods and criteria they have used to identify community needs and inform policies to address those needs. Examples of implementation will include best practices, evaluation by survey methods, as well as the use of publicly available data at the federal, state, and local level. Together, such tools help inform the policy process.

Moderator: Andrew Dannenberg, MD, MPH, Medical Officer, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Brett Van Akkeren, Senior Policy Analyst, U.S. EPA

Jim Walker, Director, Central Texas Sustainable Indicators Project

Mia Oberlink, The AdvantAge Initiative, Visiting Nurse Service of New York

Rolling Up the Shirtsleeves and Getting the Job Done: How Three States Are Faring with Smart Growth Policies and Programs
When all is said and done, major smart growth initiatives are really built on innovative implementation strategies of committed state agencies. Come learn how leading states are putting smart growth into action - building partnerships, developing interagency response, crafting the message, and developing long-term support. This interactive session will highlight current initiatives, successful strategies, and emerging lessons that are critical to future success of state smart growth policy.

Moderator: John Ratliff, Esq., Associate, AIA; Director, Environment, Energy & Natural Resources, National Governors Association Center for Best Practices

Robert Mitchell, AICP, Special Assistant for Sustainable Development, Office for Commonwealth Development, State of Massachusetts

Anne Aurelia Fritzel, AICP, Associate Planner, Growth Management Services, Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development

Bleached Barrios and Gentrified Ghettos: Ensuring Equitable Smart Growth through Grass-Roots Engagement, in Denver and Elsewhere
Growth through Grass-roots Engagement, in Denver and Elsewhere
Smart Growth, and its various manifestations such as "TOD" and "New Urbanism," are celebrated for counteracting suburban sprawl and bringing new investment to the central city. But the introduction of new investment and wealth to the inner-city, often through substantial public subsidies, can be associated with the "bleaching" of historic minority communities, rapidly rising housing prices, and residential displacement (i.e., gentrification). With a case-study focus on Denver developments, including the nation's largest urban infill project (Stapleton), this panel will consider ways that "smart growth" developments can involve substantial challenges for historic low-income communities, and will discuss a grass-roots "community benefits movement" in Denver that is seeking to capture the benefits of smart growth for lower-income populations.

Leslie Moody, President, Denver Area Labor Federation

Robin Kniech, Policy and Research Associate, Front Range Economic Strategy Center

Tony Robinson, Associate Professor, Political Science Department, University of Colorado, Denver

Flourishing Communities/Environmental Stewards: Integrating Green into Sustainable Metropolitan Strategies
Learn how to create greener, healthier, more livable and sustainable communities. This session will address techniques and principals behind the latest green strategies to build sustainable, smart growth communities. Case studies highlighted will provide practical tools to help engineers, public health officials, city planners, designers, developers, etc. understand the interconnectivities between health care, nature, the built environment, and sustainable design.

Moderator: Suzanne Rynne, Community Planner, RBF Consulting/Urban Design Studio

Dana Bourland, Program Director Green Communities Initiative, Enterprise

Rob Bennett, Projects Manager, City of Vancouver, Office of Sustainability

Creating Housing with People in Mind
Modern neighborhood design often does not lend itself to a vibrant sense of community among residents. Hence, the rise of new urbanism and efforts to create neighborhoods more traditional in character, leading to the possibility of greater interaction amongst neighbors. But what happens when many of the precepts of new urbanism don’t apply to a particular project? How can the design of the home and community enable social and civic engagement? How does one pursue innovative, sustainable design while at the same time making the project affordable over the long run? These and other questions will be addressed in a special session linking home and community design to social outcomes for people of all ages and abilities.

Moderator: Brett Van Akkeren, Development, Community and Environment Division, U.S. EPA

Laura Kirk, Principal, DHM Design

Andrew Kochera, Senior Policy Advisor, Public Policy Institute, AARP

Stephen C.R. Holley, AIA, Principal, Poss Architecture & Planning

Clark Atkinson, Principal, Vice President, Shaw Construction

Retrofitting Suburbs
This session will present Smart Growth strategies for redeveloping existing malls, strips, office parks and subdivisions, in both built-out inner ring suburbs as well as building-out outer-ring conditions, into more sustainable places. Ellen Dunham-Jones will present an overview, from her current research, of actual case studies that illustrate the range of types of retrofits happening, and the best practices they employ. Michael Freedman will present projects from his practice that are employing new techniques to re-structure multiple-parcel suburban sites and infrastructure. These range from infilling Edge City sites to converting commercial strips into boulevards as part of a downtown revitalization. Judy Corbett will draw on her extensive experience with local governments to moderate discussion of the strategies presented and their ultimate promise for retrofitting sprawl itself.

Judy Corbett, Executive Director, Local Government Commission

Michael Freedman, Principal, Freedman Tung & Bottomley

Ellen Dunham-Jones, Director/Associate Professor, Architecture Program, Virginia Tech, College of Architecture

Smart Growth Schools: How to Make Them Happen
So, you're sold on the idea of integrating smart growth and school planning. Now you want to know how to make it happen. This is the session for you. It will open with a video case study showcasing the transformative story a struggling public school that is reborn as a beacon of academic excellence, design innovation, and community involvement. After the video, two panelists will discuss their experiences and approaches to influencing and improving school investment decisions. Find out why and how a developer thoughtfully integrated schools into his master plan. Learn how one smart growth advocate influenced the local debate about school siting in his town. Then participate in an open discussion led by the President of the American Architectural Foundation.

Moderator: Ronald E. Bogle, President and CEO, American Architectural Foundation

John A. Flaherty, Director of Research and Communications, Grow Smart Rhode Island

Hank Baker, Senior Vice President, Forest City Stapleton

Local Leaders in Vacant Property Revitalization: Lessons from the Field
Effective reclamation of vacant properties and abandoned buildings requires a coalition of local leaders taking charge of the vacant property activities within their communities. Perhaps the mayor, city Councilmember or county commissioner announces a new anti-blight initiative that requires top-notch management by the planning director or city manager. In some regions a group of businesses, community development corporations, foundations, and other nonprofits may lead the charge. The National Vacant Properties Campaign (NVPC) has collected dozens of compelling stories of how mayors, city managers, county treasurers, CDC directors, and others have become the champions and the catalysts of vacant property initiates in their communities. Hear from local champions about how they generated the political will and garnered community support to tackle vacant properties.

Moderator: Susie Sinclair-Smith, Fannie Mae Foundation

Don Chen, Executive Director, Smart Growth America

Daniel Kildee, Treasurer, Genesee County, Michigan; Chairman, Genesee Institute

Melissa Barry, Director, Louisville Metro Housing and Community Development; Chair and President, Louisville & Jefferson County Land Bank Authority

Placemaking on a Budget
“Placemaking on a Budget” is built on a premise that small and affordable urban design projects are uniquely influential in placemaking – helping to improve the image, vitality, and social strength of communities. This concept illustrates that small-scale community design projects rooted in local values, history, and culture, and based upon community-wide participation, can be both affordable and add more meaning to our physical environments. Through real-life examples from communities throughout the country, “Placemaking on a Budget” shows how to bring to life these small and affordable projects that can have big impacts in our downtowns, neighborhoods and communities. Participants will walk away from this session with tools to employ in their downtowns and neighborhoods back home.

Al Zelinka, AICP, Principal, RBF Consulting’s Urban Design Studio

Susan Jackson, AICP, CMSM, Community Planner, RBF Consulting’s Urban Design Studio

Regional Smart Growth Alliances
Around the country, diverse interest groups are banding together to promote better, more efficient development in their regions. Come hear about successful, innovative alliances of business, development, environmental, and citizens groups that educate the public and local governments, improve the climate for smart growth development, and help get good projects built. Share your ideas for encouraging better growth with a broad range of partners. Find out about the Urban Land Institute's project to start new regional alliances and tell us about your interest in starting an alliance in your region.

John Bailey, Director, Smart Growth Alliance

Barry Seymour, Assistant Executive Director for Regional Planning, DVRPC

Michael Leccese, Executive Director, Urban Land Institute, Colorado Chapter

Addressing Peak Oil: Can Smart Growth Provide a Way Out?
Few issues have obsessed Americans as much as energy. Rising prices at the pump, high home heating costs, and a growing sense of a dwindling oil supply has prompted a re-examination of our relationship to energy. Despite calls for conservation, most Americans are locked into their commuting habits, inefficient homes, and reliance on the automobile and possess few ways to reduce energy use. Smart growth advocates should seize the moment to advance smart growth as an energy conservation strategy. This workshop will provide an overview of current energy issues related to smart growth and how energy can be more effectively integrated into land-use planning and community design. Participants will also discuss how planners and advocates can form productive partnerships with energy advocates -- including the 187 U.S. Mayors committing to reducing greenhouse emissions in their cities.

Moderator: Naomi Friedman, Director of Sustainable Markets, Center for a New American Dream and Consultant, Environmental and Energy Study Institute

Jennifer Henry, LEED for Neighborhood Developments Program Manager, U.S. Green Building Council

Michael Kinsley, Principal, Integrated Design Team, Rocky Mountain Institute

Beth Conover, Director, Sustainable Development Initiative, Office of Mayor John W. Hickenlooper, City of Denver, Colorado

Kelo, Eminent Domain, and Equity: Implications for Smart Growth
Revitalization of existing communities and social equity are two of the central goals of smart growth; both appear to be threatened by the U. S. Supreme Court's Kelo decision and by subsequent legislative responses to that decision. This panel looks hard at a few of the critical issues raised by the flurry of activity around eminent domain: What did Kelo change? What are the implications for social equity? For revitalization of older communities? Should economic development be considered a public purpose? We bring together a lawyer, a former legislator and a champion for social equity to help us puzzle through these complex questions.

Moderator: Elizabeth Schilling, Director of State and Local Programs, Smart Growth America

Ed Sullivan, Attorney, Garvey Schubert & Barer

Victor Rubin, Director of Research, PolicyLink

Gene Krebs, State Director, Greater Ohio