Why You Should Attend

Planning Professional

The 11th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference organizers are constantly working to take smart growth tools, research and information to the next level. In addition, this conference has a focus on implementation to help you walk through new codes, figure out how to sell new ideas, get a "reality check" from places that are innovating, and admit what we learned from "lessons learned." We expect 98% of all conference sessions to be accredited for AICP Planners. Of particular note this year:

  • Growing wealthier: Achieving the prosperity benefits of transit and smart growth
  • Smart growth performance measurement
  • The status of smart growth funding
  • Collaborating with non-traditional partners to successfully plan and implement projects
  • Countering smart growth opponents
  • Incorporating equity and environmental justice into every aspect of your work
  • Sustainable Return on Investment
  • Revitalizing our dying cities, blighted and contaminated properties, and struggling suburban communities
  • Preparing for the realities of climate change and natural disasters to promote resilient communities
  • The links between public health, transportation and land use
  • Rural to urban, village-city-county: advanced form-based coding coast to coast
  • Successful rural, low-density and suburban transportation systems
  • Linking jobs, housing, and transit to economic development
  • Development Oriented Transit and Transit Oriented Development
  • Planning for solar and energy efficiency in your community
  • Community schools—the case for joint use
  • Landscape conservation toolkit for rural communities, the carbon market and streamlined planning
  • The importance of complete street implementation
  • Implementing green infrastructure in your community
  • Supporting rural economic development
  • Transforming suburbs into sustainable communities
  • And much, much more!

The New Partners for Smart Growth conference has provided our organization with so much direction and information about what works and about the current practices that we can incorporate in our own local efforts. We have truly benefited from mingling with the foremost experts and learning about the various applications of Smart Growth practices around the US. We have actively used many of the resources provided at the conference that allow us to stay in touch with the current trends in planning. The projects we learn about at the conference that demonstrate the application of Smart Growth give credence to our local efforts.

—Rachel DiResto, Vice President,
Center for Planning Excellence