Friday, May 16, 2008
Omni
William Penn Hotel,
8:30 am - 3:30 pm (continental breakfast and lunch included)
Keynote speaker: Christopher Leinberger,
Cost: Early Registration: $30. After May 1: $40 (free to elected officials)
Full conference agenda
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
- The new smart growth course plotted b y the Region's Plan
- Exercise to assess your community's readiness to win investment for redevelopment
- Launch of consultancy to assist local government to attract business and industry
- Panel of leading developers who are driving market interest in downtowns
- Learn about innovations in zoning to speed redevelopment
-
Kick-off of the SWPA Sustainable Community Development Network
REGISTRATION
ATTENTION ELECTED OFFICIALS: To register, please send full contact information to info@sustainablepittsburgh.org.
Otherwise, there are two ways to register:
REGULAR MAIL: Download registration form here.
or
ONLINE: Click the button below to register securely online using your credit card:
For more information call (412) 258-6642 or email info@sustainablepittsburgh.org
Presented by:
Local
Government Academy
Pennsylvania
Department of Community and Economic Development
Pittsburgh Partnership for
Neighborhood Development
Smart Growth
Partnership of Westmoreland County
Southwestern Pennsylvania
Commission
Sustainable Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
Institute of Politics
Sponsored by:
Supported by:
The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation
The Heinz Endowments
The Richard King Mellon Foundation
For sponsorship and tabling opportunities call 412-258-6643.
CONFERENCE
OVERVIEW
Keynote
Speaker: Christopher B. Leinberger is a metropolitan land use strategist,
developer, teacher,
consultant and author helping to make progressive development profitable. He is
a founding partner of Arcadia Land Company, a real estate development
firm serving to create walkable communities in harmony with nature.
Leinberger is a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings
Institution focusing on research and practices to help transform traditional
and suburban downtowns to places that provide “walkable urbanism." He
is also a professor and director of the Graduate Real Estate Program at the
This conference, designed for communities in the
region that desire to accelerate their redevelopment, will be rich in content,
featuring tools, case studies, and technical assistance opportunities. A
window of opportunity is growing for communities that are prepared to foster
smart growth in step with the shift in the development market that is now
occurring. Renewed interest in urban and core communities by developers and
investors spells opportunity for restoring prosperity. This shift is fueled by
demographic, economic, and cultural trends that are serving to revalue our
core communities. Want to be better prepared to seize this market interest?
This Smart Growth conference will help communities better understand the
changing market, appreciate how to capitalize on their assets,
comprehend what needs to done to participate in the market-based
renaissance, and engage in a network to pursue mutual interests.
Our region's sustainable growth depends on it.
Conference Highlights:
Project Region: The new regional transportation and development plan,
plots a new smart growth course for
Deal Makers and Breakers: To fully benefit
from the Region's Plan, it's incumbent on existing communities to understand
what developers and investors are looking for when they scan a region for
opportunity. In a unique undertaking, the National Association of Industrial
and Office Properties (NAIOP) and the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at
Northeastern University (CURP) have collaborated to investigate new approaches
municipal officials can employ to help attract new development to their
communities. Project leader, David Soule will engage conference participants
in discovering what is takes to attract smart growth investment. Furthermore,
a consultancy will be launched to work with communities around the region to
take a proactive, aggressive stance to meet the complex needs of firms looking
to start up operations, relocate, or add new facilities.
Window of Opportunity: Keynote, Christopher Leinberger (see below),
will demonstrate the shifting market now brewing in favor of “walkable
urbanism” -- downtown and suburban downtown revitalization, New Urbanism,
transit-oriented development, green field mixed-use development (“lifestyle
centers”), regional mall redevelopment, among others. He will review ways
the real estate sector is re-tooling how it designs, plans, regulates and
finances to serve these markets to formulate and implement the next American
Dream. A panel of regional developers and government leaders will discuss the
trend of revaluing urbanity now stirring in our SWPA and how to accelerate
market readiness.
Zoning for Smart Growth: Too often zoning techniques that shaped the
growth of the American suburb create barriers to meeting today's community
visions for traditional types of development. Gregory Heller of the Delaware
Valley Regional Planning Commission will be on hand to explore new innovations
in zoning that provide flexibility to respond to changes in private market
demand. Learn from Gregory and local leaders how your community can be an
early adopter and zone the way to seize market interest to redevelop core
communities.
In his recently released book, The Option of Urbanism, Leinberger
reviews how Americans are voting with their feet to abandon strip malls and
suburban sprawl, embracing instead a new type of community where they can
live, work, shop, and play within easy walking distance. He explains why
government policies have tilted the playing field toward one form of
development over the last sixty years: the drivable suburb. Conversely,
Leinberger shows how the American Dream is now shifting to include cities as
well as suburbs and how the financial and real estate communities need to
respond by building communities that are more environmentally, socially, and
financially sustainable.
Leinberger has written award-winning articles for publications such as The
Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal and Urban