5th Annual Smart Growth Conference:
Regional Participation for Sustainable Development

The 5th Annual Smart Growth Conference, presented by The Pittsburgh Foundation, University of Pittsburgh Institute of Politics and Sustainable Pittsburgh, was held on Friday, May 20, 2005 at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown Pittsburgh. The Conference focused on benefits of a planning process for public infrastructure investments that integrate land use, economic development, and transportation to revitalize Southwestern Pennsylvania’s communities.
Co-Chairs for the conference were Esther L. Bush, Urban League of Pittsburgh, Ronald D. Painter, Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board and P. Kevin Silson, Oxford Development Company.
The keynote speaker was John Norquist, President and CEO, Congress for the New Urbanism. Norquist spoke about New Urbanism, a form of growth that promotes the creation and restoration of diverse, walkable, compact, vibrant, mixed-use communities composed of the same components as conventional development, but assembled in a more integrated fashion. He observed that intrusive rules contribute to sprawl and abandonment of existing communities. Often zoning codes are exclusionary, for example, calling for single and separate use developments as opposed to mixed use. "We've made the urban form illegal," he lamented, whereas new urbanism communities contain housing, work places, shops, entertainment, schools, parks, and civic facilities essential to the daily lives of the residents, all within easy walking distance of each other. Norquist also explained that New Urbanism promotes the increased use of public transportation to alleviate the need to construct more roadways, stating that urban living is becoming more popular for all age groups. Currently, there are over 500 New Urbanist projects planned or under construction in the United States alone, half of which are in historic urban centers. Acknowledging the Smart Growth Conference's role in building relationships for progress, Norquist noted that curbing sprawl and strengthening existing communities is a recipe for economic growth.
Jane Downing, Senior Program Officer, The Pittsburgh Foundation, facilitated “Southwestern Pennsylvania Case Studies on Planning and Investment.” Panelists provided expertise in the areas of government, business and civic interests. Royce Lorentz, Councilman, Borough of Slippery Rock, provided a government case study from Slippery Rock regarding a collaborative effort amongst the Borough, the University, and Slippery Rock Township to identify transportation solutions to promote community redevelopment. R. Damian Soffer, president and CEO of Soffer Organization added his business expertise from his work developing Southside Works. Linda Gwinn, President, Blairsville Improvement Group, provided a case study of her group’s Trail Town initiative to promote community redevelopment. All three panelists identified their experiences and lessons learned in how to make the government process work for their organization’s objectives.
Allen Kukovich, Director, Southwest Regional Office of the Governor, facilitated the session on “Federal and State Plans and Programs.” During this discussion, attendees heard presentations from Steven Nesmith, Assistant Secretary for the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, United States Department of Housing and Community Development (HUD). Nesmith stated that HUD is looking to partner with organizations seeking to redevelop their communities as well as focused on the importance of home ownership to getting ahead in America. Dennis Yablonsky, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development described the Governor’s economic stimulus package intended to invest in core communities and businesses that want to stay in the Commonwealth. He noted that half of the stimulus funds will go to redevelopment of previously used sites that are environmentally or infrastructure or excavatively challenged vs greenfield which leads to core city flight. Allen D. Biehler, P.E. Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation reviewed linkages between sustainable development and economic development through the use of transportation infrastructure in a presentation entitled “Smart Transportation”. He noted that sustainable development is hard work acknowledging the region's excessive rate of land consumption and 60 percent traffic increase over 40 years despite no population growth. Commenting that we can't build our way out of congestion, he described need for right sizing transportation projects by working with local governments on land use controls.
Ronald Painter, CEO, Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board introduced the Regional Policy Guidance Document. The Document was prepared in advance of the Smart Growth Conference with a purpose to create awareness and encourage many organizations to collaborate in developing policy recommendations that will influence regional investment and planning for sustainable development. There are currently 24 endorsers. Mr. Painter noted his organization’s endorsement of the document as a vehicle to guide the region’s future and encouraged other Conference participants to review and endorse the document as well. The Regional Policy Guidance Document is comprised of nine interrelated policy papers in areas such as Transit Oriented Development and Land Use, Transportation Equity, etc. The nine topic papers have common themes such as:
. Accountability and transparency in the planning, programming and funding of regional infrastructure, including transportation and water and sewer.
. Enhanced public participation that ensures equity in programming and funding of regional infrastructure, including a prioritization process.
. An integrated transportation system developed with a balanced investment approach for each mode (roadway, public transportation, bicycle/pedestrian, aviation, and rail).
. Fix-It-First: A regional infrastructure system that promotes investment in existing communities, including transportation and water and sewer facilities.
. Regional economic development strategies that are established with public participation and through a prioritization process aligned to advance sustainable development.

The second half of the Smart Growth Conference featured an Official Public Input Session for updating the Southwestern Pennsylvania current 2030 Long Range Transportation and Development Plan (LRP) that links over $33 billion of transportation projects with proposed economic and business development initiatives into a single integrated plan. James Hassinger, President and CEO of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, introduced this session and reviewed the process for updating the LRP and the 2005-2008 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) that identifies highway and transit improvements recommended for advancement from the Long Rang Plan.
Lew Villotti, Director of Planning and Development, Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, facilitated the Official Public Input Session for Project Region, a regional planning initiative to update the current LRP that will adopted by the Commission in July 2006 along with the 2007-2010 TIP. Attendees were assigned to small groups to develop consensus on a series of general questions related to the region’s future. The vote of each group was viewed instantaneously utilizing a hand held voting device.
F. Michael Langley, Chief Executive Officer, Allegheny Conference on Community Development, in wrapping up of the conference stressed the importance of Smart Growth planning to the region and implored all to be confident in the region as the mistakes of the past are not irreversible.

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