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About the Event
Smart growth and livable community strategies have received national prominence because of their effectiveness in addressing traffic congestion, improving air quality, and preserving open space. However, many challenges facing society are exacerbated by poor community planning—including public health, crime and public safety, community economic vitality, water quality, and other environmental concerns, as well as mobility for seniors, the economically disadvantaged, and children.
The New Partners for Smart Growth conference represents the coming together of two highly successful events in the past—the annual U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Partners for Smart Growth series and the Local Government Commission’s and Penn State’s Redefining Community conference, a multidisciplinary gathering held in January 2001.
This new conference will again bring together diverse constituencies and help us learn how smart growth can address each of their concerns. It will examine how we can most effectively work together toward a common goal—creating safe, healthy, and more livable communities, and a higher quality of life for all.
“We already know the results of traffic congestion, air pollution, and unregulated urban sprawl. We must continue to work hard to weave together the threads of transportation, commerce, health, safety, and the environment to build more livable communities. This conference provides a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between these issues.”
—Jeff Morales, Director, California Department of Transportation |
Who Will Benefit
This conference will benefit local elected officials, city and county staff, law enforcement/crime prevention professionals, transportation professionals, public health professionals, architects, developers, landscape architects, planners, educators, youth leaders, park and recreation professionals, urban designers, realtors, public works professionals, senior citizen advocates, bicycle and pedestrian advocates, and all others who seek practical, holistic, community-based strategies for rehumanizing the places where we live and work.
Don’t miss your opportunity to ...
- participate in hands-on implementation workshops led by the premier smart growth experts who will focus on how to implement smart growth policies, programs, and tools in your community
- explore opportunities to partner with new constituencies to advance a smart growth agenda
- hear how smart growth principles can address community safety issues and improve national security
- participate in a dynamic program that includes a mix of keynote presentations, implementation workshops, breakout sessions, salons, and tours, with more than ninety presenters from around the nation
- learn how to address many of the public’s top concerns with comprehensive smart growth solutions
- hear practical advice and learn proven strategies you can implement in your own community
- participate side by side with youth leaders from around the nation, and hear their unique perspective on what makes a community healthy and safe
“In this time of national crisis, it is all the more imperative that we continue to build the bond of community from which we derive both comfort and strength. Livable Communities strategies offer local leaders an invaluable blueprint for strengthening the sense of community in our neighborhoods, towns, and cities.”
—Council Member Gil Garcia, City of Santa Barbara; LGC Board Chair |
Conference Organizers
The Local Government Commission (LGC)
The LGC is an award-winning, twenty-one-year-old nonprofit membership
organization of forward-thinking, locally elected officials, city and county
staff, and other interested individuals. The LGC helps local officials
address the problems facing their communities and maximize their civic,
environmental, and economic resources. The Ahwahnee Principles for Livable
Communities, developed in 1991 by the LGC, helped pave the way for the smart
growth movement.
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Penn State
The core mission of The Pennsylvania State University is teaching, research,
and public service. Making the University’s intellectual and physical
resources available for the common good has been a Penn State tradition for
nearly 150 years. Today, Penn State Outreach constitutes the largest, most
diversified outreach effort in American higher education. Penn State Outreach
programs serve more than five million people from the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, all fifty states, and eighty countries around the world. |
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