News

4:00PM EST

Attendance
Jacky Grimshaw – Center for Neighborhood Technology
Lacey Stroshein – Center for Planning Excellence
Graham Brownstein – Transform (CA)
Dan Stonington – Cascade Land Conservancy
Gloria Katz – Smart Growth Partnership (FL)
Jay Corbalis – New Jersey Future
Kevin Doyle – Livable Communities Coalition
David Levinger – Rails to Trails Conservancy
Alia Anderson – Reconnecting America
Chrissy Nichols – Metropolitan Planning Council (IL)
Julie Seward – LISC
Mary Kyle, Eric – 1000 Friends of Oregon
John Bailey – 1000 Friends of Minnesota
Will Schroeer, Kate Rube, Devon Barnhard, Roger Millar, Jon Zeidler, Rayla Bellis, Elisa Ortiz – SGA

Federal Policy Updates (Kate Rube)
For more information, view SGA’s biweekly Washington Update. To sign up for this update, visit our website here.

• Livable Communities Act
  • A couple months ago, this bill passed out of the senate banking committee, and there was a hearing on the bill last week in the house. Congress is no longer in session so we are hoping to move the bill during lame duck. This will likely be a challenge, but we are focusing on trying to get it included as part of Senator Dodd’s energy bill.
  • Action Item: Ask your member of Congress to cosponsor the Livable Communities Act. If your Senator is already a cosponsor, thank them and ask them to support moving the bill in the lame duck this year, and to communicate with Senator Dodd (CT) and Senator Reid (NV) in support of that goal.
• Energy Issues
  • Action Item: Sign onto a letter to Senator Reid (NV) in support of adding CLEAN-TEA language and funding to any energy package that comes up this year in the lame duck session. Sign-ons are due COB Monday, October 4 to: adam.meyer@t4america.org
• Sustainable Communities Grants from DOT and HUD
  • We haven’t heard specific dates but have heard that these grants will likely be coming out on a rolling basis over the next month or so. We will keep the coalition updated.
• SGA 2011 Federal Priorities
  • Action Item: We will be holding a call with partners to solicit feedback on our draft agenda for next year on Friday, Oct. 15th at 3:00pm. If you can’t make this call, you can contact Kate individually with your thoughts at krube@smartgrowthamerica.org

Questions
Q: (Dan Stonington – Cascade Land Conservancy): What might be a vehicle for the Livable Communities Act?
A: (Kate) They are looking primarily at Senator Dodd’s possible energy package.

Overview of DOT Fiscal Crisis Project Work (Roger Millar)

• This project’s official title is, “State Transportation Fiscal Crisis as a Lever for Reform.” We are testing the hypothesis that transportation reform is a good idea from a fiscal standpoint, and that spending money on state of good repair is a better bang for your buck but is consistently under-prioritized by state DOTs.
• Our broad targets for this work are the 37 incoming state governors. We recognize that we probably won’t be able to reach all 37 governors-elect, so we are working with a political strategy firm to identify 5-10 primary target states where transportation is a hot issue and where the governor-elects will likely be receptive to our proposal.
• The variables we are looking at include state DOT revenue, debt, spending, and conditions of roads and bridges. We will also be looking at revenue projections.
• The project kicked off in early September and is on a very fast track. We are hoping to have a package for each governor elect around Thanksgiving. We will likely begin working with the 5-10 governors’ teams starting in early January.

Questions
Q: Is there any sense yet of which 5-10 states SGA will focus on?
A: (Roger) Not yet, at this point a lot of the races are too close to call. We are contracting with a firm that will help us with targeting.

Q: How can the state groups keep up-to-date on this work?
A: Elisa will continue to contact partners. People should also feel free to contact both her and Roger with any specific questions.

Updates to SGA Coalition Website (Rayla Bellis)

• The SGA Coalition website has been restructured and updated. You can access the website at http://coalition.smartgrowthamerica.org (password = coalition). Some features include:
  • Under the “Events” tab, clicking on “Upcoming Events” will direct you to a calendar with SGA calls and meetings, as well as upcoming conferences and trainings. Clicking on an event will bring up a description of that event and a link to the event website if a website exists. Notes and materials from past coalition calls and meetings are available on the “Past Events” page.
  • The “Resource Library” contains a compilation of existing research organized by topic. We will continue to add to this library.
  • The “Recent Partner Posts” tab directs you to a compilation of recent posts from coalition member blogs.
• Action Item: Contact Rayla at rbellis@smartgrowthamerica.org with any feedback on the website or thoughts on anything else you would like to see included. You can also email Rayla with 1) a link to your organization’s blog, to be included on the “Recent Partner Posts” page, 2) Any resources that you think would be helpful to the coalition, and 3) Upcoming conferences and events you think the coalition would be interested in.

SGA Smart Growth and Economic Prosperity Sourcebook

• The idea for this resource first came up at last fall’s coalition meeting. SGA has produced several PowerPoints with a large compilation of data connecting smart growth and economic prosperity. We are hoping you will be able to use the information in your own presentations. This is a resource, not a ready-to-go presentation. One thing it needs is many more local examples and case studies.
• Action Item: Contact Will at wschroeer@smartgrowthamerica.org with local examples and case studies. The more detail you can provide (including any pictures), the better. You can also contact Will, Elizabeth (eschilling@smartgrowthamerica.org), and Jon (jzeidler@smartgrowthamerica.org) with other feedback and questions.
• Action Item: SGA will be hosting a webinar on these PowerPoints, scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 14 @ 2pm EST, to provide more details on how to use them. If you would like to use them between now and then and need guidance you can contact Elizabeth.

Q: (Jacky-CNT): Some of the slides have sources and others don’t.
A: (Jon)—there should be sources on every slide and we will be looking through everything in more detail over the next week to catch any mistakes and omissions. The slides often have text below them, and the source will typically be listed at the bottom of that. If you do find any errors, please let Jon know.

Lacy-CPEX: They are very excited about this resource at CPEX. They will go through it in more detail and provide any feedback they have. They are especially interested in rural issues.

David, Rails to Trails: He likes that the long-term maintenance costs are highlighted and seem to be captured well. In terms of something else to possibly include, transportation rescissions from August were just reported on Friday. Rails to Trails did an analysis and hosted an event on this, and the info is posted on their website. Rescissions are exclusively the realm of governors, so that could provide insight into where governors stand on transportation. Info on this is available here.

Updates and Further Questions

• David-Rails to Trails: Rails to Trails launched a campaign in mid September, an “effort to get AAA to recognize walking and bicycling as legitimate transportation investments for any new legislation related to Highway Trust Fund expenditures. For more information or to sign onto the petition, click here.” (language provided by David)
• Julie Seward-LISC: A few state updates—In AZ, TOD has been prioritized for funding in terms of points. In MN, state-level complete street legislation passed. A couple historic tax credits also recently passed, one in KS and one in MN. Vacant Property legislation recently passed in KS and PA.

Reminder Next call will be Thursday, October 28th at 4:00pm EDT.

Livable Communities Talking Points: Ask your Member of Congress to cosponsor the Livable Communities Act. If your Senator is already a cosponsor, thank them and ask them to support moving the bill in the lame duck this year, and to communicate with Senator Dodd (CT) and Senator Reid (NV) in support. To download the Talking Points, click here.

Energy Sign-On Letter to Senator Reid: Sign onto a letter to Senator Reid (NV) in support of adding CLEAN-TEA language and funding to any energy package that comes up this year in the lame duck session. Sign ons are due COB Monday, October 4 to: adam.meyer@t4america.org. To download the Sign-On Letter, click here.