smart growth conference march 10, 2010
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Dan Staley |
Ninth Smart Growth Conference was held in Seattle in February 2010. Attendance of this conference exceeded all expectations of the organizers. Such a high attendance emphasizes again the increasing importance of Smart Growth.
Dan Staley with DCS Consulting was one of the attendees at this conference. Dan noticed a difference between the ninth conference and previous Smart Growth Conferences. This difference was that the federal government is becoming more involved in Smart Growth. EPA brought many of new national publications to the conference. Focus on human health in context of Smart Growth made the ninth conference different from previous conferences as well.
There were major themes that Dan found throughout conference. One of them was financing of projects. Spreadsheets where generated to show how to calculate ROI and IRR. Other themes were human health and storm water. Water quality of coastal areas is an important topic that has been discussed on a national level for the past few years. Land use codes also were addressed at this conference. The concern is that some codes that are in place do not reflect cities’ goals for future development. Transportation is among these themes too. A content-sensitive solution for transportation is important for safety and better management of storm water.
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