“Livability Principles” Announced In Federal Interagency Agreement Echo Urban Land Institute Efforts To Promote Sustainable Communities
For more information, contact Trisha Riggs at (202) 624-7086; email: priggs@uli.org
June 17, 2009
The recent announcement of six livability principles for sustainable communities jointly issued by US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, US Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood, and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson represents a “pivotal point in restoring land use issues as a national priority,” according to Richard Rosan, chief executive officer of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Worldwide.
The three Administration officials announced a “landmark” agreement to work together to coordinate federal housing, transportation and environmental programs during June 16 testimony before the US Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. The agreement includes six “Livability Principles” that will serve as the goals driving the coordination effort. These principles, said Donovan, “mean that we will all be working off the same playbook to better serve American families who expect more affordable and sustainable choices in their communities.” The principles seek to:
Provide more transportation choices;
Promote equitable, affordable housing;
Enhance economic competitiveness;
Support existing communities;
Coordinate policies and leverage investment; and
Value communities and neighborhoods.
“This commitment demonstrates a stronger focus on land use and community building than we have seen at the federal level for many years,” Rosan said. “Clearly, this Administration understands that our nation’s cities and metropolitan regions are the economic engine for America, and that they are in competition globally for business and for talented workers. We stand ready to offer our expertise in helping this effort gel, in terms of policies, funding and programs that foster communities that are more affordable, better connected, and environmentally sound.”
At the Senate hearing, Donovan, Jackson and LaHood discussed issues related to community sustainability that ULI has long analyzed and promoted, in terms of building workforce housing closer to employment centers; integrating land use and infrastructure planning; and accommodating urban growth in a way that minimizes auto dependency and is pedestrian friendly, thus conserving land and energy and improving the environment.
For instance, echoing ULI’s recent Infrastructure 2009 report, LaHood called for “a holistic approach…to improve the linkage between housing, water, and transportation investments.” For surface transportation programs, DOT will be taking a “hard look at potential changes to metropolitan and statewide transportation planning processes to ensure that they improve livability,” he said.
Donovan described a new housing and transportation affordability index that measures combined housing and transportation costs. The intent – to equip consumers and businesses with a mechanism to gauge affordability in terms of location – is similar to research produced by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing in its recent Beltway Burden report, which measures housing and transportation costs for various neighborhoods in the Washington, DC region. “An affordability index will empower customers and businesses alike with the information they need to make informed choices about where and how they live, and in the process create a more dynamic, efficient marketplace,” he said.
EPA, said Jackson, will bring the perspective of the healthy environment to the housing and transportation partnership. Pedestrian friendly communities, she noted, are those in which “people feel safe enough to walk, they have somewhere to go when they walk, they have recreational opportunities and they have transit opportunities. We’re all about building thriving communities of pedestrians, along with HUD and DOT.”
The new interagency partnership was discussed at ULI just prior to the hearing by representatives from HUD and EPA at the third annual meeting of the Smart Growth Alliances Information Network. This network was created by ULI with funding from the EPA to support the work of regional smart growth alliances around the United States. Tim Torma, policy analyst in EPA’s Smart Growth Program, and Ron Sims, deputy secretary at HUD, discussed the partnership in terms of new working relationships among the three agencies, which previously shared little information and tended to work in isolation more often than in concert. “We (the federal government) can’t keep funding in this piecemeal, municipality by municipality way,” Sims said.
Rosan pointed out that while land use decisions are local, the federal government can encourage innovation at the local level, and across all levels of government, by rewarding plans that foster collaboration on infrastructure, land use and the environmental policies. The joint federal effort is a promising sign that the US is “entering a new era of community building,” he said.
About the Urban Land Institute:
The Urban Land Institute (www.uli.org) is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has more than 35,000 members representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines.
