2009 Community Development Summit

For presentations at the 2009 Community Development Summit, click here.

 

Creating Great Places:

From House to Market

September 16-17, 2009

Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center

Schedule at a glance.  Continuously updated.

Registration information.

Frequently Asked Questions.

Keynote Speakers.

Panel Sessions, Workshops, and Training

Parking and Lodging

From the City Manager

Preparations for this year’s Summit are well underway.  It is certainly not too soon to mark September 16th and 17th on your calendars.  And now is the time to think about how you would like to participate.

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I am very excited about the innovative spirit that is already defining the 2009 Summit.  First of all, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) is partnering with the City of San Antonio to put together a fantastic program.  This is the first time that this respected national organization has partnered with a municipality for an event of this caliber.  This year’s theme, “Creating Great Places: From House to Market” sets the stage for provocative and productive stakeholder dialogue.  ULI’s involvement will bring discussion on the perspective of the real estate and development professionals who engage the market on a daily basis.

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Read more.

Summit Presentations

We have created a page dedicated to the presentations which were at the 2009 Community Development Summit.  If you would like to access these, please click here.

Participate in VIA’s Long Range Comprehensive Transportation Plan

The future of transit in San Antonio is the topic of a four-day charrette at Sunset Station.  Each day has a specific topic:

Monday, August 31: Opening public meeting
Tuesday, September 1: Transit Oriented Development
Wednesday, September 2: Modern Streetcars / Innovative Financing
Thursday, September 3: Multimodal Transportation, and Closing Public Meeting

The results of the charrette will form the starting point for a new Long Range Comprehensive Transportation Plan — and no doubt kick off many conversations at the Community Development Summit.  The Strategic Plan for Community Development recognizes transit as a key component of sustainable communities.  In fact, the Summit will feature sessions that explore the general benefits of transit to a community, as well as specific development techniques for Transit Oriented Development.

For more information, visit www.SmartWaySA.com.

Summit Keynote Speakers to address growth, affordability

This year the Summit features nationally renowned speakers on innovative approaches to affordable housing and land use policy.

During the September 16 luncheon, Regina Gray, from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will describe the innovative partnerships that are forming at the Federal level to support the development of sustainable communities.  Regina is working closely with EPA’s Office of Smart Growth to develop research on the linkage between sustainable development and green building.

On September 17, Gerrit Knaap will be the luncheon keynote speaker.  Gerrit is the executive director of the Nation Center for Smart Growth as well as a professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Maryland.  As mentioned in a recent San Antonio Business Journal article, Gerrit will share his perspective on the latest best practices for growth and land use, so that San Antonio can be poised to take full advantage of its regional advantages.

To find out more, click here.

What makes streetscapes walkable? Three Houston examples.

Houston’s Midtown has experienced a lot of infill development in recent years — not all of it good, according to Andrew at neoHOUSTON.  What makes some projects great, and others not so much?

One factor is the interface between the street and the building.   This area — sometimes called public frontage — is where pedestrians move.  If the details are right, the walk is comfortable and safe.   A successful walkable interface brings people out onto the street, which is one of the requirements for successful urban retail, as well as the urban residential examples explored in neoHOUSTON.

After reading the post and the comments, let us know your thoughts below.    You might also want to add the Multimodal ROW session to your Summit calendar, and continue the discussion with a fantastic panel, including  Sinclair Black (who has designed walkable streets in Austin) and Jeffrey McKinnie (who is designing walkable streets for San Antonio).

Schools and Reinvestment: Dr. Robert Durón and Stephen Bingler to present at Summit

Can schools be called on to serve as the centers of their communities?  What role can schools play to support reinvestment activities in neighborhoods?

Dr. Robert Durón, Superintendent of SAISD,  and Stephen Bingler, a nationally recognized expert on design of schools as centers of the community will take on this timely issue on the morning of the 17th.

Read more about this session.

HUD-DOT-EPA Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities

Following up on a previous post:

On June 16, 2009, EPA joined with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U. S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to help improve access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs while protecting the environment in communities nationwide. Through a set of guiding livability principles and a partnership agreement that will guide the agencies’ efforts, this partnership will coordinate federal housing, transportation, and other infrastructure investments to protect the environment, promote equitable development, and help to address the challenges of climate change.

Read the Livability Principles, Partnership Agreement, and more.

Complete Streets: Integrating Safety and Livability into the Next Transportation Bill

Complete Streets: Integrating Safety and Livability into the Next Transportation Bill

On June 5, EESI and Transportation for America (T4A) held a briefing to discuss how the next transportation authorization bill can help create safer streets and more livable communities.

Highlights from Speaker Presentations

• “Complete streets” policies would encourage the use of a wide variety of tools and practices to make transportation system safer and more useable for all users–including motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, parents with strollers, transit riders, wheelchair riders, and others.
• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most traffic-related deaths and injuries are not caused by “accidents”, but rather by unsafe street design where collisions can be predicted.
• Children and older adults are particularly in need of safe routes to school, stores, services, and other needs, and are also at a disproportionately greater risk of being killed or injured in traffic collisions.
• Common safety problems include poorly-designed intersections (left-turns can be particularly hazardous), streets that are difficult to cross, and lack of adequate sidewalks and bike lanes that force non-motorized travelers to use motor vehicle lanes.
• Safety problems are often caused or amplified by road design that encourages inappropriately high speeds, and reducing vehicle speeds is often an important design goal. Despite slower speeds, overall traffic flow is typically improved by complete streets measures.
• Safety problems often deter people from engaging in healthy behaviors and limit social and economic opportunities. Enhancing street design can improve individual quality of life and promote community vitality and livability.
• Streets do much more than move cars, they often define community character and serve as important public spaces. Small towns and larger cities alike are using complete streets policies to reclaim public space and solve traffic problems at the same time. For example, fixing a problematic six-way intersection at Times Square in New York created entire new plaza space for cafe and outdoor seating.
• Many complete street solutions are low-cost–some are as simple as changing paint-striping on pavement. Complete streets policies, in general, do not add cost but shift and enhance the use of existing funds.

Click  http://www.eesi.org/060509_streets for more information on the complete streets briefing, including video, presentations from the speakers, and a link to the recently-released AARP report Planning Complete Streets for an Aging America.

The greenest car

Richard Rosan, CEO of ULI, outlines a three-part solution to climate change.

1) improved vehicle efficiency

2) cleaner fuels

3) reducing the need to drive by improving urban growth patterns

That third item –  reducing the need to drive  –  is also integral to the Vision for Community Development described in the San Antonio’s Strategic Plan for Community Development.  From page 5:

We seek to create and sustain a connected community comprising:

• sustainable neighborhoods that are safe, walkable, mixed-use, diverse, compact, green and well designed

ULI and the City of San Antonio share a common vision: the kind of urban development that we invest in today will have a direct impact on our quality of life tomorrow .   This is one of the reasons that ULI and the City are partnering to produce this year’s Community Development Summit.

To read Richard Rosan’s full statement, click here.

To read the Strategic Plan for Community Development, click here.