U.S. SMART GROWTH LEADERS TO GATHER IN CALIFORNIA
by Ron Leighton
The American Society of Landscape Architects is pleased to be a cosponsor of an important conference being held in San Diego from January 24 through 26 of next year. The nation's most highly recognized smart growth pioneers and leaders will gather at the New Partners for Smart Growth: Building Safe, Healthy, and Livable Communities conference produced by the Local Government Commission and Penn State University. These representatives will hail from numerous fields--politics, architecture, planning, transportation, health, government, crime prevention, land development, and education--are all included. The conference joins the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) annual Partners for Smart Growth conference series and a pioneering, multi-disciplinary conference presented January 2001 by the Local Government Commission and Penn State titled, Redefining Community. U.S. EPA Director Christine Todd Whitman has been invited to represent the federal government. As the past overnor of New Jersey, Whitman has been highly acknowledged for her efforts to preserve that state's open space. She will be joined by Governor Parris Glendening of Maryland. Glendening's legislative and cabinet level initiatives to stop sprawl have put his state at the cutting edge of smart growth and created a highly acclaimed national model. Representing the architectural profession will be the esteemed New Urbanist pioneer Andres Duany. Seaside, the Florida community he designed and built during the eighties, was the first response to the lament, "Why can't we build them like we used to?" Duany and his partner, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, continue to demonstrate that we can build communities like we used to, creating wonderful neighborhoods designed for people instead of the car. From the transportation sector, the Director of the California Dept. of Transportation, Jeff Morales, is invited. Morales is taking extraordinary leadership in steering the "Freeway State" to a new direction--toward the development of new transit options and more walkable, bicycle-friendly communities. California has recently allocated over $1 million in grants to cities, counties, and RTPAs for the implementation of more livable land use patterns. Also from the transportation sector, Dan Burden, the Johnny Appleseed of traffic calming, will be present to offer his never-ending enthusiasm and impressive expertise. Health prevention professionals are among the most recent advocates for smart growth, and they bring a whole new perspective and enthusiasm to the movement. A pioneer in this effort, Dr. Richard Jackson, Director of the National Center for Environmental Health, will provide his mind-expanding perspective. Richard Killingsworth, formerly with the Centers for Disease Control and now director of a multi-million dollar effort to promote smart growth nationwide, will share why his project sponsor, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, believes that auto-oriented land use planning is damaging the health of people of all ages. The relationship between crime prevention and smart growth will be highlighted by Jack Calhoun, Director of the National Crime Prevention Council, as well as other law enforcement and crime prevention professionals working on these issues in communities throughout the United States. In addition to keynotes, plenary sessions, breakout sessions, and salons, the conference program also features "hands-on" implementation workshops led by national experts who will focus on how to implement smart growth policies, programs, and tools in local communities. Topics of interest to professionals from all fields, will combine with a focus on interdisciplinary cooperation to address how smart growth solutions can answer community planning problems. Major conference sponsors reflect the diversity of the program. They are the Smart Growth Network, the EPA, the California Dept. of Transportation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Federal Highway Administration's TCSP Program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Association of Realtors. Visit the conference website for a complete list of conference sponsors and cosponsors. Visit the conference website for more information on the program and online registration. We look forward to seeing you in San Diego this January! Ron Leighton is ASLA's Education Director.
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