CNU e-Update
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Dear [Firstname], You can view past e-Updates and have your colleagues sign up for our email list online at http://www.cnu.org/eupdate. If you have questions about CNU activities, please contact our office at cnuinfo@cnu.org or 312-551-7300. To renew your membership or join a chapter, check your membership status, or read an archive of past e-Updates, please log on to www.cnu.org. You have received this email either because you are a member of CNU or you requested to be added to our email list. To remove your email address from future CNU e-Updates, please reply to cnuinfo@cnu.org with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. 1. CNU Announces 2009 Charter Award RecipientsWinners of Urbanism's Premier Award Demonstrate Excellence and Ambition in Putting Charter Principles into Practice The Congress for the New Urbanism announces the recipients of the Charter Awards for 2009. The 10 professional and 2 academic projects selected by a jury of leading urbanists represent the best of the New Urbanism. They will be recognized in a ceremony at the annual Congress for the New Urbanism in Denver, CO, June 13. The 12 recipients bring excellence in urbanism and sustainability to sites large and small, ranging from the blocks around a formerly abandoned streetcar storage facility in Toronto to the Crystal City office corridor near Washington DC to the entire Hertfordshire region in England. The honorees showcase the adaptability of New Urbanist principles to this extraordinary range of contexts while also illustrating how today's urbanists are building on collective experience and successfully tackling ever more ambitious challenges. 2. Breaking Silos: Momentum Builds in Washington for Livable Communities, Sustainable NetworksHouse testimony by CNU's John Norquist follows promising announcement by DOT-HUD Secretaries In its approach to the built environment, the federal government has long operated independent silos. They include low-income housing, transit, and the biggest silo of all -- superhighways. This policy isolationism has helped weaken the connections between housing, jobs and community destinations in regions across the country. It's left the middle class and working poor facing high travel costs getting to and from work, school, and the range of places serving their daily needs. But serious interest in a smarter coordinated approach to housing, transportation and economic policy is surging within both the Obama Administration and Congress. This new reform spirit was on display this week at a two-day hearing on advancing livable communities and greening federal transportation and housing policy held by a House subcommittee with an appropriately interdisciplinary name: the Appropriations Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Urban Development chaired by Rep. John Olver (D-MA). 3. CNU Welcomes Eleventh Chapter -- CNU ColoradoCNU is proud to announce its newest chapter -- CNU Colorado, the host of CNU 17 in Denver this June. The chapter will provide a local organization for new urbanists in the State of Colorado for education, outreach, and to organize around local issue long after CNU 17 has left town. All CNU members in Colorado are now automatically members of the Colorado Chapter. For more information on CNU's chapters, visit www.cnu.org/chapters. 4. Norquist in Streetsblog Q&A: It's not roads vs. transit — it's good street networks vs. mindless out-of-scale roadsThat's the short takeaway from a two-part, extensive and lively Q&A with John Norquist in Streetsblog. With the announcement of the HUD-DOT "Sustainable Communities" initiative last week, there's new buzz around walkable green neighborhoods and the infrastructure that supports them. Covering this terrain with tenacity and intelligence, Streetsblog is hungry for specifics about how the two big federal agencies can make good on their intentions:
Read more about how to fix a broken system at Streetsblog:
5. What's New @ CNU.orgHere's a sample of what's happening at CNU.org:
If you haven't experienced CNU.org yet, it's time for you to see what you're missing. Please take a moment to log into our site and learn about the features it has to offer. Please read our Login Instructions to get started. Visit http://www.cnu.org/features to learn more about the website. 6. Call for Entries: 2009 National Award for Smart Growth AchievementThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pleased to announce
that applications are now being accepted for the eighth annual National
Award for Smart Growth Achievement. This competition is open to Smart growth development serves the economy, the community, and the environment. Smart growth approaches to development create clear environmental benefits, including improved air and water quality, preservation of critical habitat and open space, and more cleanup and re-use of brownfield sites. This year, applications will be accepted in five categories:
Interested parties are encouraged to submit applications for smart growth activities that have shown significant activity between April 23, 2004, and April 23, 2009. Successful applicants will have incorporated the principles of smart growth to create places that respect community culture and the environment, foster economic development, and enhance quality of life and public health. This year, the public sector winners will receive support for further implementing smart growth strategies in their communities. In addition, public sector winners will receive one complementary registration to the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in 2010. Applications are due on April 23, 2009. Up to five winners will be recognized at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. in December 2009. For more details about the National Award for Smart Growth Achievement, including an application packet, visit: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/awards.htm. 7. USGBC Colorado Chapter: Colorado Sustainability ’09, May 6-7Colorado Sustainability ’09: The Colorado Facilities & Green Building
Expo and Conference Visit http://www.usgbccolorado.org/news-events/COsustainability.html to learn more, to see the education session schedule, and for registration information. Interested in a booth at the expo? Contact Jan Welch: jan@nationalexpositions.com or 727-230-9828 8. Your Help Needed: Survey for Urban Infill Research StudyThe link below will direct you to a brief online survey. This survey is part of a National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) study to develop guidance and a methodology for the preparation and review of transportation impact analyses (TIAs) of infill development in urban or urbanizing areas. You can help support this effort by answering a few brief questions. Why this is important Higher density, mixed-use redevelopment and infill development are smart growth concepts that are an increasingly common form of development subject to environmental review and often traffic impact studies. However, there is a lack of standardized guidance and trip and parking generation data for preparing these studies. Why your help is needed The first phase of this study involves collecting information on current infill development definitions, infill traffic and parking generation data and estimation methods, TIA analysis methods and agency review procedures. Kimley-Horn and Associates, on behalf of NCHRP, would like to survey those involved in various aspects of infill development in order to collect this information. Your responses are completely confidential and will be used to identify valuable information and resources regarding the current state-of-the-practice of analyzing the impacts of infill development. Thank you for your time. Please click on the link below to complete the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Lrpd92BY_2fdnhnncV_2bWeYmg_3d_3d 9. SmartCode Workshop, Decatur, Georgia, April 16-18 Start: 04/16/2009 5:30 PM Overcoming the limitations of single-use zoning demands tools that are comprehensive and cost-effective. The form-based SmartCode is such a tool. It provides an integrated template for stimulating healthy growth in keeping with community character and for broadening choices for residents and businesses. At the spring SmartCode Workshop, you can hear context-setting theory from those who invented the Code and get a line-by-line explanation of its key provisions. With technical experts guiding discussions, you can dig deeply into lessons learned and best practices for implementation. Five miles east of downtown Atlanta and serviced directly by rail, Decatur exemplifies the challenges of any modestly sized city operating within a larger metropolitan region. You'll be surrounded by colleagues with similar goals and empowered by the collective wisdom of leading practitioners. The evening of Thur., April 16, features a public lecture with John Norquist and Andrés Duany. Host Organization: PlaceMakers, LLC 10. Form-Based Codes Institute: Upcoming TrainingsWant to preserve or increase the quality of our communities? Because Form-Based Codes can require rather than recommend the vision elements that make for good urbanism, FBCs are being adopted at an ever increasing rate throughout the U.S. The mission of the Form-Based Codes Institute (FBCI) is "to advance the knowledge and use of, and develop standards for, Form-Based Codes as a method to achieve a community vision based on time-tested forms of urbanism." Perhaps the most important way FBCI advances knowledge and standards for FBCs is through its 3-course series, taught by nationally recognized practitioners. Upcoming Trainings Save the date for the following Form-Based Code trainings. Visit the Form-Based Codes Institute website for more information and a full list of events. The ABC's of Form-Based Codes: Special One-Day Introduction FBC 201: Preparing a Form-Based Code – Design Considerations FBC 301: Completing, Adopting and Administering the Code Registration for these courses is available at www.formbasedcodes.org. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust Scholarships of $500 each are available for representatives from not-for-profit historic preservation organizations or public organizations with oversight authority for historic preservation as well as students and faculty from schools of architecture. 11. National Charrette Institute: Upcoming TrainingsVisit the National Charrette Institute (NCI) website for details on upcoming trainings. Current CNU members receive a 10% discount on NCI registration fees for public trainings held in Portland. All NCI trainings in the United States will qualify for AICP credit hours. NCI
Charrette System™ Certificate NCI Charrette
Management and Facilitation™ Certificate To remove your email address from future CNU e-Updates, please reply to cnuinfo@cnu.org with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Congress for the New Urbanism |