National
Organizations Working on Smart Growth and Sprawl
American
Farmland Trust
Working
nationwide to protect farmland from suburban sprawl -- by working with
individual farmers and communities, and by promoting better public policies
at the local, state and federal level, and by educating the public.
American
Planning Association
APA
is a non-profit, public interest organization representing 30,000 practicing
planners, elected and appointed officials, and citizens involved in urban
and rural planning issues. APA's members believe that sound planning
is essential to meeting our nation's economic, environmental and community
development needs. Sixty-five percent of the members work in state and
local government agencies, helping citizens define the kind of community
they want to live in and developing policies, plans, and land use regulations
responding to those desires. APA is working with the other organizations
to disseminate "best practice" techniques for encouraging citizen participation,
reforming state and local planning frameworks, and promoting sustainable
development patterns.
Brookings
Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy
The
Center has special expertise on regional governance issues and seeks to
shape a new generation of urban policies that will help build strong cities
and metropolitan regions. In collaboration with leading scholars
and practitioners nationwide, the Brookings Center is launching a series
of original research and policy projects to help inform national debates
and
provide
practical policy options for key decisionmakers.
Community
Rights Counsel
Community
Rights Counsel (CRC) is a non-profit, public interest law firm established
in 1997 to assist local communities in protecting the public interest through
appropriate land use controls. CRC provides strategic assistance
to local government attorneys in defending smart growth controls, environmental
safeguards, and other community protections. CRC also conducts litigation
workshops, helps local governments secure amicus support, and, in critical
cases, provides free representation to state and local governments.
The
Conservation Fund
Through
a range of activities, The Conservation Fund is involved in sprawl-reduction
and community revitalization and has protected 1,400,000 acres of land,
sponsored regional conferences on the sustainable use of land, promoted
efforts to revitalize the Land and Water
Conservation
Act and has provided more than 250 grants and loans for greenway and trail
projects that enhances the livability of communities.
Environmental
and Energy Study Institute (EESI)
EESI
has been involved in smart growth issues since 1995, focusing on the federal
role in creating and perpetuating the sprawl problem. EESI conducts
cngressional briefings and other activities to inform Members of Congress
and other federal policymakers about the adverse environmental, economic
and social consequences of sprawl and federal policy options to
encourage
smart growth at the state and local level. EESI has emphasized the
relationshiop between federal transportation and water policies and smart
growth.
Environmental
Law Institute (ELI)
ELI
operates an on-going collaborative program devoted to promoting the sustainable
use of urban, suburban, and rural land at the state and local levels. The
objective of ELI’s Sustainable Use of Land Program is to encourage land
use and development patterns that help preserve natural resources, support
community, and ensure lasting economic vitality. The Institute works in
collaboration with state and local partners to formulate and implement
options for overcoming barriers to sustainable land use found in local,
state, and federal law. ELI develops creative alternatives to promote vibrant
communities with sound economic, environmental, transportation, and
public infrastructure policies.
National
Council for Urban Economic Development
CUED's
mission is to develop and revitalize communities. CUED promotes strategies
and disseminates information to its largely public-sector membership
to aid in urban revitalization efforts.
National
Neighborhood Coalition
The
NNC is an umbrella organization of national nonprofits, networks of community,
neighborhood and faith-based organizations and other advocates who are
committed to promoting socially and economically healthy, vibrant neighborhoods.
National
Main Street Center of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
The
Main Street Center helps communities to rebuild the economic strength of
their traditional commercial districts. The Center helps communities
build strong partnerships, develop an in-depth understanding of the regional
economic opportunities, and capitalize on the unique
environment
their historic commercial buildings provide.
National
Trust for Historic Preservation
The
National Trust provides information, technical assistance and advice to
organizations and individuals working to preserve their communities and
avoid urban sprawl. Concerned with the community disinvestment NTHP
has conducted a wide variety of activities that include promotion of federal
transportation and tax policies that encourage community revitilization
and
the rehabilitation of historic houses.
National
Wildlife Federation
The
National Wildlife Federations smart growth policy framework protects and
restores wildlife threatened by sprawl. Their Smart Growth and Wildlife
campaign advocates for land use policy reforms at the federal, state and
local levels for the benefit of imperiled wildlife. Working in
coalition with other smart growth advocates, NWF will work to improve environmental
laws, to increase conservation funding, to develop mechanisms for targeting
conservation funds toward protection of the most imperilled habitats, and
to re-route government subsidies away from
developments
that would destroy imperilled habitats to more thoughtful developments.
Natural
Resources Defense Council
Through
a range of projects, NRDC is extensively involved in fighting the negative
impacts of urban/suburban sprawl in cities and towns across the country.
NRDCís multidisciplinary approach to sprawl can be summarized in
three primary categories - influencing metropolitan growth patterns, reducing
damages to the natural environment, and strengthening our cities.
The
Northeast-Midwest Institute
Formed
in the mid-1970's to address regional approaches to restoring environmental
and economic vitality to the 18-state region, the Institute has become
a leader in linking sustainability with economic development through its
brownfield, smart growth, and energy efficiency programs. The Institute's
Urban Environment Program explores the impacts of federal programs and
policies at the local level, and educates key constituencies in its states
and through the Northeast-Midwest Congressional and Senate Coalitions.
Program staff have published a number of reports, case studies, and legislative
summaries and matrices on the subjects of brownfields and smart growth.
Scenic
America
Scenic
America is a national nonprofit membership organization dedicated to preserving
and enhancing the scenic character of America's communities and countryside.
Scenic America's Smart Growth/Scenic Stewardship initiative helps state
and local activists protect the natural beauty and distinctive character
of their communities with technical assistance on
billboard and on-premise sign control; place-sensitive highway design;
design review; scenic byways programs; and cellular tower siting, tree
preservation ordinances; scenic resource identification, including using
GIS mapping; and ridgeline protection. Scenic America produces a
full range of publications on preserving scenic beauty, open space, and
quality of life
that
contribute to our environment and economy.
Smart
Growth America
Smart
Growth America is a new coalition promoting a better way to grow; one that
protects open space, revitlaizes neighborhoods, keeps housing affordable,
and makes communities more livable. Smart Growth America is a coaltion
of many local, statewide and national organizations already involved in
smart growth.
Sierra
Club
The
objective of the Sierra Club's national Challenge to Sprawl Campaign
is to provide materials, winning campaign strategies, training and funding
to better equip Sierra Club volunteers and staff to change sprawling suburban
development patterns faced by their communities. Challenge to Sprawl activists
are making use of high-profile approaches which are easy to reproduce in
areas across the country: These include grading public officials on sprawl-related
votes and crafting local "Sprawl Costs Us All" reports which document the
economic costs of sprawl.
Smart
Growth Network
The
Smart Growth Network encourages development that is environmentally, fiscally,
and economically smart and helps create national, regional and local coalitions
to support smart growth. The Smart Growth Network's partners work
with the US Environmental Protection Agency's Urban and Economic Development
Division on outreach programs, technical assistance, research, publications,
and other collaborative projects.
Surface
Transportation Policy Project
STPP
promotes open, accessible, planning processes regarding transportation
policies, and transportation investments that achieve environmental,
economic, and social equity principles. STPP played a major role,
and is very knowledgeable about, the federal intermodel Surface Transportation
Efficiency Act and TEA 21 on federal highway policy.
Trust
for Public Land
The
Trust for Public Land practices a unique blend of market-based entrepreneurial
conservation. TPL works in collaboration with communities and organizations
around the country to bring private land into public ownership and to help
create parks, greenways, riverways and to protect those traditional landscapes
that define the character of where we live. TPL helps communities
acquire endangered open space, create urban parks and promote bond issues
to purchase open spaces. |