Thank you to everyone who attended the May 17 event A SMART Step Forward co-hosted by Conservation Action Fund for Education, the Accountable Development Coalition and the Great Communities Collaborative. The event provided an opportunity for community discussion around building walkable and bikeable neighborhoods in Sonoma County near the proposed Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit stations, with a focus on creating good planning policies as well as ideas for funding specific development projects.
If you didn’t get a chance to check out our media coverage around the SMART neighborhood planning process, check out the interview on KRCB and read the great story in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
The esteemed panelists (listed below) presented information about the importance of smart growth in terms of health, transportation, urban design and economic development. They generously offered to share their presentation as well as their contact information in case attendees, or other members of the public, want to continue the conversation:
Karen Chapple, Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley and faculty director of the Center for Community Innovation, chapple@berkeley.edu
Ann Cheng, Director of GreenTRIP at TransForm, ann@TransFormCA.org
Anthony Taylor, a Health Program Manager for the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, ataylor1@sonoma-county.org
Lois Fisher, President and urban designer at Fisher Town Design Lois@FisherTownDesign.com
Greenbelt Alliance recently released a report Strategies for Fiscally Sustainable Infill Housing, in collaboration with the Great Communities Collaborative and the UC Berkeley Center for Community Innovation about funding mechanisms for infill smart growth projects. If you were not able to attend A SMART Step Forward, but would like to learn about creating vibrant neighborhoods near where you live, this report serves as a useful resource.
