February
16, 2006
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EVENTS
(Click on Links)
·
"Economic
Agenda for the Great Lakes Region" featuring John Austin, Brookings
Institution Sr. Fellow
·
Getting
to TRID-Understanding the Planning and Implementation of Act 238 of 2004
·
Transit
Oriented Development: Connecting Neighbors to Neighborhoods and Communities to
Regions
·
Opportunity
to Testify at EPA Hearing with GASP
·
Pittsburgh
Community Information System
·
6th
Annual Southwestern Pennsylvania Smart Growth Conference
·
Driving
Down the Cost of LEED
·
Byways
to the Past Conference
TRANSPORTATION
FOR LIVABLE COMMUNITIES
·
Proposed
budget boosts PennDOT spending 5.1 percent
·
Harris
Interactive -- Older American Attitudes Toward Mobility and Transportation
·
Train,
Boat Diesel Engines Source of Deadly Pollution
·
Roddey:
Get smart on transportation
·
The
founders of Maphub want to get you offline -- and out into the streets
LEGISLATIVE
ALERTS
·
Proposed
Rulemaking Environmental Quality Board Pennsylvania Clean Vehicles Program
LAND
USE NEWS AROUND THE REGION
·
Ruling on Union Twp.
Zoning a setback for 388-home plan
RESOURCES
·
Switch Grass:
Alternative Energy Source?
·
'Micro'
wind turbines are coming to town
·
Triangle living: As
Downtown goes residential, people connect as neighbors
·
Using Smart Growth
Techniques as Stormwater Best Management Practices
·
New Power Meters Show
Users the Money
·
Perfect Storm:
Stagnation, taxation and the vicious cycle of decline
·
URA advances projects
for Downtown, Hill District
·
State may bill
municipalities for police service
·
Councilman urges
diligence to avoid TIF max-out
·
SustainAbility - John
Elkington
·
Businesses can help
solve the world’s environmental problems
·
What was Congress
thinking when it voted to cut children's health care?
Wednesday, February 22
11:45 am - 1:15 pm
The Rivers Club (Note
Change in Venue)
$30 members, $40 non-members, $15 students
(Please pay at the door by cash or by check made payable to: The Economic Club
of
Pre-registration soon via http://www.econclubpgh.org/index.html
Presented by The
Economic Club of Pittsburgh in collaboration with: Allegheny Conference on
Community Development;
John Austin, Brookings
Sr. Fellow share insights to this initiative to improve the economic vitality of
the
To this end, Brookings
is assessing the economic and social challenges faced by the region, and working
with a wide range of leaders in the political, corporate, civic, and academic
sectors, to develop a pan-regional strategic vision and action plan for how the
meta-region can leverage its assets to successfully pursue a high-road economic
strategy. The analysis will be widely disseminated to inform the region's
business, political and opinion leadership, and public policies among the states
within the region. In addition this
analysis and recommendations will inform the debate leading up to the 2008
Presidential campaign, which will hinge on the swing states within the region,
as well as the thinking and agendas of our current and future federal officials.
Please join the
Pittsburgh Economics Club in learning more about this important effort,
considering how this complements existing planning efforts, and what's at stake
in broadening our definition of 'region'.
Thursday,
February 23
Radisson
Hotel
and
Wednesday
March 22
12:30
– 4 pm
Cost:
$25 ($20 for members of PSAT)
Contact:
(717)763-0930
Two workshops explaining the fundamentals of the Transit Revitalization
Investment District Program to assist municipalities, counties and public
transportation agencies to work cooperatively to establish Transit
Revitalization Investment Districts.
Wednesday,
March 1
7:30
- 9:30 am (Breakfast included)
http://www.lpinc.org/community_events.asphttp://www.lpinc.org/programs.asp?id=8
Register now for the spring 2006 Opportunity Connections series. Our fall
2005 series was an overwhelming success, with each session oversubscribed.
Attendance for the spring series will be limited to 50 people, and with the
timely topics and impressive line up of speakers, we expect that the session
will again be oversubscribed.
Opportunity Connections is a unique time-efficient program designed for
executive-level individuals who are interested in examining our region's
resources and challenges and discovering their links with regional policy. Each
session will explore unique attributes and current challenges faced by our
community and give participants rare insight into the
Thursday,
March 2
2 pm - 3:30
pm
http://www.lisc.org/content/calendar/detail/1233/
Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Smart
Growth America, and Reconnecting America present a three-part series to explore
the ins and outs of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). The real estate market
has come back to urban core neighborhoods and suburban town centers, driven by
changing demographics and the intractable problem of traffic. Households living
near transit save up to $5,000 per year on transportation costs. Directing
regional growth around transit boosts ridership, creates value in emerging
neighborhoods, and increases sustainability and affordability. The first session
of the series will focus on some basic principles of TOD from around the nation.
Learn about how these trends are playing out across the country, and tools and
techniques for planning and design around transit. The presentation will
highlight the spectacular success of three communities for doing TOD right.
Tuesday,
March 7
8
am – 4 pm
Cost
$60; $50 for each additional member from your organization
Registration
will begin Monday, January 30
www.pittsburghnonprofitsummit.org
Participate in a 21st Century community decision-making process
that is being used in
Advanced
Registration Only!
Unlike last year, attendees must register for the Non-profit Summit in
advance. We especially encourage
trustees, government officials, and business people to participate in the
America Speaks special segment. Are you one of the 400 people that have already
registered? If not, please do so
today, seating is limited.
Wednesday,
March 8
Contact:
Rachel 412-325-7382 gasp@gasp-pgh.org
On December 20th the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced
proposed revisions to the current PM2.5 standards. While this was a major
opportunity to set new standards that reflect the new health science and protect
public health, the EPA instead ignored the Clean Air Act Scientific Advisory
Committee and their own staff and proposed a standard higher than the
recommended range.
GASP (Group Against Smog and Pollution) will rent a van and drive to
Wednesday,
March 15
11:30
am – 1 pm
425
O’Neill
Room, 23rd Floor
Downtown
No
fee to attend
RSVP
412-258-664 or info@sustainablepittsburgh.org
Developed for the city by an academic and nonprofit partnership, the Community
Information System (CIS) is an easy to use web-based property information
system that connects data related to neighborhoods and individual properties.
Participants will learn how to use the over 50 key indicators in real-time
conditions on any property, related to land use, investment, vacancy, and
disinvestment collected from over 10,000 properties in the City of Pittsburgh.
CIS users can click from a map of the city to a neighborhood, then to one
property. Which ones are vacant? Which are vacant with tax liens? Which are
vacant with liens and condemned? Which have environmental citations plus
building code violations plus liens? Which are owner-occupied? And how does all
this compare with a decade ago?
Bring
your own brown bag lunch, refreshments will be provided.
Coming Together to Revitalize Our Communities:
RenewSWPA Cross-Community and
Friday, May 19
7:30 am – 4:30 pm
Omni William Penn Hotel,
Keynote: David
Soule, Associate Director
Center for
Urban & Regional Policy, Northeastern University
Cost: Early
Registration: $30. Registration
after May 12: $40 (free to elected officials)
Call (412)
258-6642 for early registration
The 2006 SWPA Smart Growth Conference will address
strategies to revitalize the region's core communities and seek to identify a
set of policy opportunities around which there is consensus for collaboration.
Leading up to the conference, a series of
community forums will be orchestrated around the region to identify common barriers
and opportunities to redevelopment. Common needs and policy options identified
through the forums will be presented at the annual conference toward
developing consensus on policies to renew
Please mark your calendars for May 19 and
register early.
The annual Smart Growth conference and regional
forums are hosted by the Regional Coalition of Community Builders, Southwestern
Pennsylvania Commission,
Tuesday, April 4
9 – 4:30 pm
Regional Learning
$300 USGBC Members; $350 Non-members
www.paladinoandco.com
and select Get to Green from the Events page
The Green Building
Alliance (GBA) is hosting a nationally acclaimed workshop presented by Paladino
& Company of
Pre-conference
workshop May 16
Conference
May 17 – 18
Eberly
Auditorium
Indiana,
PA
$75
for pre-conference workshop & conference; $50 for conference
717)
705-1482
The Byways Conference features sessions highlighting
transportation-related preservation projects and speakers from both the historic
preservation and transportation communities. Byways offers the
Commonwealth’s best and most comprehensive opportunity to discuss and learn
about the goals, achievements, and challenges of building and maintaining the
transportation network of the future, while retaining the fabric of the past.
Watch for dates and times in upcoming copies of 3 E Links or visit the forum schedule soon on www.sustainablepittsburgh.org
Call (412) 258-6642 for more
information.
Regional Forums are
being scheduled in
Participants will be
asked to identify their community needs and challenges and be introduced to a
number of currently emerging regional policy options, and have an opportunity to
judge their relevance to community's needs.
In identifying these policies, the forums will focus on those that are
likely to gain broad support for passage and implementation at local, regional,
and state levels. Additionally, each
local forum will serve as input to the current process of updating the region's Long
Range Transportation and Development Plan by the Southwestern Pennsylvania
Commission
The forums are being
sponsored by local hosts, Regional Coalition of Community Builders, University
of Pittsburgh Institute of Politics, Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, and
TRANSPORTATION FOR LIVABLE
COMMUNITIES
Public transit
assistance would not go up as much. The governor's budget proposes a 2 percent
increase, continuing a string of small increases and keeping his promise to
transit agencies. About $1.5 million more would come to the Port Authority for a
total of $75.8 million that
"The governor
continues to recognize the importance of transit," said Dennis Veraldi, the
authority's acting chief executive officer. He said the agency still faces about
a $36 million deficit in its 2006-07 operating budget.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06040/652496.stm
Not surprisingly, mobility and independence are
of high importance to senior citizens, particularly as they get older. Older
Americans want to maintain their independence for as long as they can and worry
that they will be stranded and unable to get around when they are no longer able
to drive...Importantly, senior citizens recognize the role that public
transportation plays in maintaining their quality of life. They believe that
public transportation offers mobility and access to the things they need in
everyday life, providing older Americans with the freedom they seek. This
sentiment is even more pronounced when thinking about driving alone at night
with the majority of senior citizens saying "… public transportation is a
better alternative to driving alone, particularly at night."
http://www.apta.com/media/releases/051206harris_interactive.cfm
State air quality officials say the diesel
engines in locomotives and boats account for a large chunk of
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5186090
Changing the transit system will be painful and
include higher fares and cuts in services, but the situation is close to a
crisis, Roddey said.
http://www.timesonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16102703&BRD=2305&PAG=461&de
“[Maphub] is useful for us on two levels,”
says Hoffman, who still works with Bike Pittsburgh as director of member
resources for its national counterpart, Thunderhead Alliance. “It’s a
fantastic resource for novice cyclists – where things get tight, where it’s
dangerous, where amenities are.” Clusters of icons near
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/cover_story/index.cfm?type=Main%20Feature
Low Income Housing Tax
Credit Developers Take Note! PHFA is
proposing to change the the way points are awarded for the pay-in of equity on
tax credit developments. Specifically, they are proposing that "The agency
may award up to 20 points to proposals receiving greater net equity pay-in
values for the Tax Credits from investors than provided on average in the
existing market. Net equity pay-in is calculated after deducting all syndication
costs including bridge loan interest and expenses.
The Housing Alliance is
concerned that this "one size fits all" system unwittingly pits
dissimilar projects against one another to the detriment of those serving more
vulnerable people. We urge developers to take a close look at the proposed
change and weigh in.
To view the proposed
plan, go to PHFA.org, news and notices: http://www.phfa.org/forms/public_hearing_notice/2006-02-21PublicHearing.pdf.
Written comments are
due by Friday, February 17.
Send to:
Manager, Tax Credit
Program
Pennsylvania Housing
Finance Agency
The public hearing will
be held on February 21 at 9:00AM at the PHFA office at
The Environmental Quality Board (Board) proposes to amend Chapter 126,
Subchapter D (relating to new motor vehicle emissions control program). The
proposed rulemaking postpones the compliance date from model year (MY) 2006 to
MY 2008 and updates definitions in § 121.1 (relating to definitions) for terms
that are used in the substantive provisions in Subchapter D. The amendments also
propose to clarify the Pennsylvania Clean Vehicles Program (Program) in
Subchapter D and to specify in that subchapter a transition mechanism for
compliance with the Program.
http://www.pabulletin.com/secure/data/vol36/36-6/221.html
A former federal judge appointed to preside in
the matter says the bulk of an ordinance creating an agricultural-preservation
district is legitimate.
http://www.readingeagle.com/re/news/1480243.asp