Former Maryland State Senator, Paul Pinsky, who currently serves as Director of the Maryland Energy Administration brought all of this into a state-level context and discuss ways that state and federal programs can aid in this renaissance.
Local Land Use Law and the Rise of Agrivoltaics
Recorded September 17, 2024
In rural communities across the U.S., prime agricultural land is being targeted for large-scale solar farm development, in part to meet state and national renewable energy goals. States are also setting goals for the preservation of prime agricultural lands. Agrivoltaics, the use of land for both agriculture and solar photovoltaic energy generation, is touted as a potential solution.
This webinar explored local government's role in the development of solar agrivoltaics, including developing codes and ordinances. Speakers will also share lessons learned on managing public expectations and project implementation realities. This webinar was presented in partnership with the Smart Growth Network and the
Mid-Atlantic Planning Collaborative.
Presentation Slide Deck
Growing Recreational Economies for Rural Communities
Recorded September 12, 2024
Encouraging growth on Main Streets while promoting outdoor recreation can help foster community revitalization, protect air and water quality, create jobs, support economic diversification, and offer new opportunities for people to connect with the natural world. The Recreation Economy for Rural Communities (RERC) program, which is currently accepting applications, provides planning assistance to small towns and rural communities to help them boost their outdoor recreation economy and revitalize their Main Streets.
This webinar introduced the
Recreational Economies for Rural Communities program of the U.S. EPA, how it works, and how it can assist in the economic development of rural communities, including two case studies from Hartwell, GA and Brunswick, MD.
Presentation Slide Deck
U.S. EPA Recreation Economy for Rural Communities webpage
Post Disaster Housing Resilience in Greater New Orleans
Climate Resilience Month – August 2024
Recorded August 27, 2024
Hurricane Katrina exposed deep socioeconomic and environmental inequities in greater New Orleans. It also spurred historic spending for post-disaster aid and protective infrastructure. This webinar will assess how those investments, existing tools like property insurance and risk information, as well as evolving activities such as community engagement and planning, shaped the resiliency of housing to withstand and recover from future hazards in the New Orleans region. The presenters will also discuss how these can inform current actions well beyond the Gulf Coast.
Carlos Martín and Claudia Solari, co-authors of a new report about housing resilience in post-Katrina Louisiana, discussed community-level interventions and their impacts. Katharine Burgess from Smart Growth America discussed how real estate developers and public sector officials are adapting to more extreme weather conditions nationwide.
Data Driven Approaches to Planning for Extreme Heat
Climate Resilience Month – August 2024
Recorded August 20, 2024
This webinar featured the
Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard™ for Heat whose development was led by researchers from the University of Arizona and Arizona State University in partnership with the American Planning Association. Zoe Davis, Climate Resiliency Project Manager for the City of Boston Environment Department, described the city’s approach to heat resilience solutions and how data is used to inform equitable decision making. EPA’s Office of Community Revitalization (OCR) gave an overview of federal activities related to extreme heat protection.
Speakers: Ladd Keith, University of Arizona; Sara Meerow, Arizona State University; Zoe Davis, City of Boston; and Victoria Ludwig, U.S. EPA.
Viewing Resilience Planning Through an Equity Lens
Climate Resilience Month – August 2024
Recorded August 13, 2024
Equitable resilience describes the capacity to withstand, respond, adapt, and transform in the face of climate change and disasters in ways that are culturally appropriate, participatory, and enhance the resilience of the community, not just individuals. The EPA has developed an Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB) application to support communities in resilience planning with a focus on equity. The tool provides a guide to inclusively assess local hazards, equity, and the resilience of built, natural, and social environment systems.
Community Action for Climate Change
Climate Resilience Month – August 2024
Recorded August 6, 2024
Unprecedented heat waves, storms of the century, and devastating fires are impacting communities across the country. While large-scale interventions in policy and technology are necessary to preserve the planet, the most impactful adaptation solutions often originate at the local level. However, with something as large as the climate crisis, it can be hard for local communities to know where to begin.
This webinar, featuring Cate Mingoya, Author of Climate Action for Busy People, and Mara Parker, Montgomery County, MD Climate Adaptation Program Manager, presented a roadmap with helpful case studies for anyone who wants to boost their community’s climate resilience and move the needle toward environmental justice.
Complete Streets Webinar: Lessons Learned from On-the-Ground
Safe Streets Projects from Alaska to Connecticut
Recorded June 20, 2024
In 2023, Smart Growth America hosted Complete Streets Leadership Academies in Alaska, California, Connecticut, and Tennessee. These four states joined local jurisdictions to help push their Complete Streets work further. The leadership academies are designed to increase capacity, improve relationships, and lead to immediate on-the-ground change through quick-build demonstration projects on dangerous state-owned arterials. Program participants and SGA staff as share what worked, what didn’t, and how those interested in these projects can leverage the experiences from this program to advance street safety in their own communities.
Speakers:
-
Heidi Simon, Smart Growth America (see presenter's slides)
- Daniel McDonell, Tennessee Department of Transportation
- Anna Dearman, City of Nashville Department of Transportation (see presenter's slides)
- Mesach Adams, Transportation Planning Intern at Nelson Nygaard, Alabama A&M University (see presenter's slides)
- Kandese Holford, Director, Active Transportation and Micromobility, Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT)
When Driving is Not an Option: Designing Transportation for Involuntary Non-drivers Improves Accessibility for All
Recorded June 13, 2024
One third of people living in the United States do not have a driver license. The majority of involuntary nondrivers are disabled, lower income, unhoused, formerly incarcerated, undocumented immigrants, kids, young people, and the elderly. They are also largely invisible due to a mobility system designed almost exclusively for drivers. The speakers in this webinar explained that when the needs of involuntary nondrivers are viewed as essential to how we design our transportation systems and our communities, not only will they be able to more easily get where we need to go, but the changes will lead to healthier, climate-friendly communities for everyone.
Speakers:
- Anna Zivarts, (Anna's Slides) author of When Driving is Not an Option
- Dustin Black, Michigan Department of Transportation’s Engineer working on Design/Development/Operations
- Rebekah Kik, (Rebekah's Slides) Assistant City Manager for the City of Kalamazoo
Dangerous by Design: How Street Design Contributes to the Pedestrian Safety Crisis
Recorded June 6, 2024
This webinar dove into Dangerous by Design 2024, detailed the national trends in the epidemic of pedestrian deaths, looked at which metro areas are the most dangerous for pedestrians, and offered interventions, such as quick-builds, that can help stem the tide of pedestrian fatalities.
Dangerous by Design 2024 was released on May 30, 2024.
Over the Seawall: The Delusion of Controlling Nature
Recorded April 18, 2024
Presented by
Stephen Robert Miller.
In this webinar, Stephen Miller shared stories behind the unintended consequences and the fixes that can do more harm than good from his new book,
Over the Seawall. Discover what we can learn from Stephen’s study of maladaptation practices.
How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It
Recorded April 11, 2024
M. Nolan Gray, the author of Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It, and Toccarra Nicole Thomas, AICP, the Director of Land Use and Development and Executive Director of Form-Based Codes Institute at Smart Growth America, discussrd zoning reforms and how to create more equitable and useful places to live.
Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives
Recorded March 21, 2024
Jarrett Walker talked about his new book, Human Transit, Revised Edition, and offered guidance to achieve successful public transit that will enrich any community. Here are some useful links that Jarrett shared during his presentation.
The Affordable City: Supply, Stability, and Subsidy — and Lessons Since 2020
Recorded February 22, 2024
During this webinar, Shane reviewed the core principles of the housing crisis, his Three S’s approach, and what lessons he has learned since his book was originally published in 2020.
Climate Resilience for an Aging Nation
Recorded December 5, 2023
Danielle Arigoni uplifts the often-ignored needs of older Americans in her new book Climate Resilience for an Aging Nation. Arigoni outlines how to create safer, more livable communities in a changing world by integrating aging considerations into community planning and disaster preparedness efforts. Danielle discussed the unique needs of older adults and how to meet the challenges they face through new planning approaches, including an age-friendly process and a planning framework dedicated to inclusive disaster recovery.
Beyond Greenways: The Next Step for City Trails and Walking Routes
Recorded October 31, 2023
Greenways expert Robert Searns wants to change that. He envisions communities that provide more accessible pathways, wide enough for two people to stroll together, that stitch together urban and suburban areas. He brings this vision to life in his new book, Beyond Greenways: The Next Step for City Trails and Walking Routes. In this webinar, Robert discussed the tools needed to develop successful and affordable plans for more trails.
Walkinar 4: Equity
Recorded October 26, 2023
Panelists Michael Rodriguez, AICP, Director of Research at Smart Growth America, Matt Johnson, AICP, Bikeways Coordinator for the Division of Transportation Engineering, Montgomery County Department of Transportation, and Charles L. Marohn, Jr., Founder and President of Strong Towns and Author, discussed equity issues in walking design and how to improve not just the designs of roads, sidewalks, and transit stops for people with vision disabilities but also the planning and design processes.
Walkinar 3: Maryland Initiatives
Recorded October 19, 2023
Panelists Molly Porter, AICP, Bicycle and Pedestrian Planner for the Regional and Intermodal Planning Division of the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA), Doug Mowbray, Data Program Manager for the Maryland Highway Safety Office, and Chester Harvey, Director of the Transportation Policy Research Group at the National Center for Smart Growth, presented walkable urban design and its implications for multimodal transportation and placemaking.
Walkinar 2: Infrastructure and Safety
Recorded October 12, 2023
Panelists Edward Erfurt, Director of Community Action at Strong Towns, Wesley Mitchell, PE, Senior Vice President / Mid-Atlantic Transportation Planning lead, and Kathryn Hendley, AICP, Lead Transportation Planner, presented the future of infrastructure and safety for walking.
Walkinar 1: National and State Perspectives
Recorded October 5, 2023
Panelists Mike McGinn, Executive Director for America Walks, and Mike Watson, Director for Liveable Communities at AARP, discussed trends in walkability at the national level, in particular the increased funding available for safe streets and new initiatives for safer vehicles. Mike also shared ways in which individuals can help build momentum in their local communities for more walkable, accessible places.
Inclusive Transportation -- Rethinking Transportation Planning and Engineering
Recorded September 19, 2023
How are accessible transportation plans created and successfully executed? They start by serving people over cars and disrupting the status quo of the transportation industry. They look at the past injustice that transit projects created while elevating current practices to do the hard work involved in making safer and more useful systems.
Veronica Davis, author of
Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities, and
Lynn Peterson, author of
Roadways for People: Rethinking Transportation Planning and Engineering, shared their decades of collective transportation experience in this webinar.
