News

4:00PM EST

ATTENDANCE
Elisa, Rayla, Devon, Kate – SGA
Alison Van Gorp – Cascade Land Conservancy
Robin LeBlanc – PlanNH
Mary Kyle McCurdy, Eric Stachon – 1000 Friends of Oregon
Gloria Katz – Smart Growth Partnership of Southeast Florida
Edward Oser – Center for Neighborhood Technology
Sharon Roerty – Nat’l Center for Bicycling and Walking
Stephanie Potts – Transportation Choices Coalition (WA)
April Putney – Futurewise (WA)
Stuart Cohen – Transform (CA)
Chrissy Nichols – Metropolitan Planning Council (IL)
Kevin Doyle – Livable Communities Coalition (GA)
Nancy Smith – Grow Smart Maine
Adam Garcia – Greenbelt Alliance (CA)

Federal Policy Updates (Devon Barnhart)

• We are focusing on the lame duck session after the election. It is unclear at this point whether Congress will come back for a full session or not, but we know the transportation reauthorization bill will be extended, and we’re pushing for as short an extension as possible.
• In terms of long-shot items that SGA will be focusing on during lame duck, we are trying to get the Livable Communities Act and Clean-TEA language included in any packages that might go through. This will probably be very challenging.
• SGA is putting together a federal agenda for next year. Kate and Devon have already heard back from some organizations about this, but would love more feedback.
  • Action Item: Contact Kate (krube@smartgrowthamerica.org) or Devon (dbarnhart@smartgrowthamerica.org) to weigh in on SGA’s 2011 federal policy agenda.

DOT Fiscal Project Update (Elisa Ortiz)

• SGA is looking at the current budget realities for state DOTs, and will be providing a list of fiscally responsible policy recommendations to incoming governors. We are broadly targeting all 37 states with gubernatorial elections. We’ve narrowed down that list to a five-or-so states where we will hopefully have meetings with the governors’ transition teams.
• We are still working on the data analysis for this project so our timeline is up in the air, but we are looking at Dec. 8th for getting packages to incoming governors. We will be contacting state partners in our target states to review materials and provide feedback within the next couple weeks.

Questions:

Q: Stephanie, TCC: Will SGA reach out to re-elected governors as well as new governors.
A: Yes, we will send materials to all 37 governors.

Climate and Transportation Report

• This report (by SGA in partnership with NRDC and Friends of the Earth) evaluates and scores states based on how well they are aligning their transportation policies and spending decisions with climate change goals. The release date for the report is Wednesday, Dec. 1st, with a fall-back release date of Dec. 8th.
  • Action Item: Contact Rayla (rbellis@smartgrowthamerica.org) if you are interested in releasing the report and provide any information you have on what kind of release you will do. You can also contact Rayla with any questions.

Questions

Q: Eric Stachon, 1000 Friends of OR: They are currently focused on the fiscal frame with a lot of their work. Does the report address the fiscal benefits of the climate-friendly transportation policies?
A: SGA has also been looking a lot at the “do more with less” frame recently, and this will be a major component of our national release strategy and the materials we produce for the field.

Federal Grant Updates (Kate and Devon)

• SGA’s goal is to build a community around the HUD, EPA and DOT grants (made up of grant recipients and groups that applied but didn’t get grants).  We are hoping to tap into this pool of people and turn them into advocates for these issues over the long term.
  • Action Item: We will be sending around a survey to fill out addressing whether or not you applied for a grant, whether or not you received one, etc. There is a slightly longer form that addresses possible technical assistance options that will also be circulated.
  • Action Item: We are also hoping to cultivate some blog posts from recipients. We’ve already asked a few state and local partners for posts, but if you would like to draft a post or recommend other recipients for us to contact that would be helpful.
• Other things we are doing: on the T4 website we have a map tracking grant applicants and recipients and would love help building this map through feedback/contact info from the coalition. We are also looking into trainings including webinars over the next few months and possibly a fly-in meeting as well.
  • Action Item: We would love any feedback now or later about what else we can be doing around these grants.

Questions/Discussion

• Alison, CLC: Their region received a grant and they will be part of the team working on it. She thinks it would be really helpful to hear from other recipients what their project plans are so they can make their own plan better.
  Kate: This lines up well for SGA’s plans. Kate will follow up separately with Allison about her ideas.
• Stuart, Transform: He thinks it’s a brilliant idea to organize around this. It’s going to be a brutal budget year, so this is probably one of the best/only ways to keep these programs around.
• Devon: Did anyone apply for a grant but not receive one?
  Robin, PlanNH: They applied but didn’t get it. Learning about other people’s applications and plans for implanting would be really helpful.
• Ed Oser: Can we get a list of recipients from the partnership itself?
  Devon: We have put in a request and haven’t heard back yet. We’ll follow up as soon as we do hear.
• Action Item: For any other questions or feedback, contact Kate and Devon.

Updates

• Eric, 1000 Friends of OR: They sponsored two candidate forums on growth and transportation. This is a new thing for them, and both were pretty successful in raising the profile of their issues. They have been trying to fight some recent negative publicity around urban growth battles they’ve had recently.
• Adam, Greenbelt Alliance: They are also looking at urban growth boundary issues. In addition, they are working at the regional level on the state’s sustainable communities strategies bill. They are also looking at land conservation targets, and are trying to get the best research in about watersheds, habitats, etc.
• Nancy, Grow Smart Maine: Back in September they worked as a coalition with eleven other orgs on a quality of place gubernatorial forum. They had a ninety minute forum, taped it, and it went out on local access cable three times in the last week.
• Gloria Katz: Their Southeast FL region just got one of the regional planning grants. She’s wondering if other recipients are scratching their heads like they are in FL about what to do next. They are wondering about next steps, how to corral everyone, etc.
  Devon: We have heard this from other partners (confusion, lack of info from the feds about deliverables, etc.) We would like to provide assistance around this and get ideas about what would be most helpful.
• Stephanie, TCC: Bill LaBorde has moved to work on to the Seattle council, so TCC is looking to hire a new policy director.
• April, Futurewise: For the past few years they have been looking for a common solution to protecting critical areas like wetlands while also protecting farmland. They are zeroing in on a consensus answer and will be trying to pass something next year.
  

Reminder Next call will be Thursday, November 18th at 4:00pm EDT.  (Rescheduled for Thanksgiving)