David Crossley

Sustainability taking off

President, Houston Tomorrow, May 25, 10.

Tagged with grand parkway, land use, commuter rail, smart growth, transportation policy, economic development, sustainable development

At the 18th Congress for the New Urbanism just concluded in Atlanta, the theme was “Rx for Healthy Places.” From an enormously transformative speech by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Shaun Donovan to a human health-based talk by Howard Frumkin to advocacy for agricultural urbanism by Andrés Duany the movement toward healthy, happy, prosperous, sustainable communities is moving forward at a fantastic pace in America. Everyone seemed to agree that the tipping point away from government sponsorship of sprawl has occurred already and that sustainable development will rule from now on.

HUD Secretary Donovan electrified the audience with his promise of broad federal support for New Urbanist principles, and said “Our challenge now is to bring that holistic view of our communities into the mainstream.”

He noted that HUD will embrace sustainability by making the most significant federal investment in planning in a generation. “With our $100 million Sustainability Planning Grant program, we want to encourage metropolitan and rural regions to plan for the integration of economic development, land use, and transportation investments. With the $140 million in regional planning and community challenge grants…we hope to send a message to every community in the country that planning is important.”

The name of the program that will dispense that money is the Sustainable Communities Partnership, which is an unprecedented joint effort of HUD, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Transportation (DOT).

The Houston region wants some of that money and the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) and the City of Houston are working on a proposal. But this is going to be tough for Houston for a number of reasons…