Policy News
Thursday, July 8th, 2010
Recent actions by both Congress and the State of Illinois are bringing Green Infrastructure (GI) closer to becoming the preferred stormwater strategy to control runoff by sustainable, cost- and ecologically effective methods.
The U.S. Senate now is considering national Green Infrastructure policy, with introduction of the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act. CNT and a broad national coalition worked vigorously for development of the “GI for Clean Water Act”, which is now introduced in both chambers.
The Act would fund the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to finance federal cost-share grants for planning and implementation of community Green Infrastructure, and would establish “centers of excellence” for GI training and research. The Act would also financially support states that develop Green Infrastructure Portfolio Standards—incremental targets for stormwater management that would increase the use of green infrastructure over time, similar to renewable energy portfolio standards that most states have adopted to reach renewable energy targets. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources, Policy | 2 Comments »
Friday, June 4th, 2010
Location Efficiency Trumps Sprawl, HUD’s Job is Housing AND Urban Development
At the recent 18th Congress for New Urbanism, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan made a tremendous declaration: “For the first time in the history of federal grant competitions, I want to announce today that HUD will be using location efficiency to score our grant applications”.
The energy in the room was tangible. “We’re breaking down silos”, Donovan asserted, and indeed, this commitment from HUD to weight grant applications with spatial context in mind will advance the comprehensive approach to community development that CNU, CNT and other smart growth advocates have urged for years.
Over the past year, HUD has taken on an impressive task of touring cities, meeting and listening—“from mayors and other officials of both small and large communities, to business leaders in growing regions, to governors of states that have been hit hard economically”—to design and tailor a program that reflects what communities want, with the ability to apply context-sensitive solutions that work for each community. And CNT believes that the outcome and the subsequent announcement by Donovan show a real commitment to developing tools and resources that will help regions become strong economic engines—with healthy communities and reduced household expenses. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Location efficiency, Policy, Transportation and Community Development | 1 Comment »
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
In an important step toward creating affordable communities, the Illinois legislature has adopted the measure of housing and transportation affordability as a planning tool for five agencies and as a consideration for those agencies’ investment decisions in metro areas.
Senator Kwame Raoul led the effort to pass the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index Act (SB 347) in the Illinois Senate last month, and on Tuesday the bill passed in the House with overwhelming bipartisan support, led by Representative Barbara Flynn Currie, Chief Sponsor, and seven co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.
CNT has been working with Illinois legislators since early 2009 to advance this valuable piece of legislation that applies CNT’s framework of combining housing and transportation costs to planning and making public investment decisions. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Policy, Transportation and Community Development | 4 Comments »
Friday, March 19th, 2010
On Thursday, March 18, the Illinois Senate passed the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index Act, SB 374. We have been working with legislators since early 2009 to advance this landmark piece of legislation. The bill will now move to the House, which passed an identical bill last year with a near unanimous vote.
If passed, SB 374 (formerly known as SB 414) will ensure that five state agencies in Illinois take both housing and transportation costs as a benchmark for affordability into account when planning and making public investment decisions within Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Areas around the state.
Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Policy, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Friday, March 12th, 2010
CNT Research Director, Linda Young, at the Chicago press conference in Union Station.
March 11th marked Transportation Freedom Day for the Chicago area—the date on which a typical area household has earned enough income to cover its annual transportation costs. In the Chicago region, it takes the average household 70 days to make enough money to cover their transportation costs. That’s about $8,300 per year, though costs vary widely in the region. For example, in Chicago’s Roscoe Village, transportation costs are only about $7,000 annually, whereas in suburban West Dundee, costs increase to almost $11,800 annually. In contrast, residents of New York City only spend about $5,400 on transportation each year.
In transit-rich neighborhoods within walking distance to retail, schools and recreation such as Roscoe Village and the South Loop in Chicago, household transportation costs are lower, and residents spend 6-8 weeks of pay for annual transportation costs. In dispersed communities, far from jobs and with no access to transit, such as West Dundee and Sugar Grove, households spend up to 13 weeks of wages on annual transportation costs.
Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Policy, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Yesterday, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Ray LaHood, announced the 51 projects—a mix of highways to boulevards projects, complete streets initiatives, streetcars and light-rail projects, and innovative highway funding—that will receive federal funding from the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) program, which was funded by $1.5 billion included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). According to Sec. LaHood, awards went to “projects that create jobs, stimulate economic activity, and help develop livable communities.”
USDOT continues to affirm its commitment to fund innovative transportation projects that focus on multi-modal transport, reducing greenhouse gases and creating livable communities; simultaneously addressing economic, environmental and travel issues.
In particular, the Chicago region is poised to benefit greatly from a $100 million investment into the CREATE (Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency) program.
Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Policy, Transportation and Community Development | 2 Comments »
Monday, February 8th, 2010
The Illinois EPA is seeking public comment by Wednesday, February 24, 2010 on the development of a Stormwater Green Infrastructure Plan for the State of Illinois, as required by the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act, passed in 2009.
Green Infrastructure is the interconnected network of open spaces and natural areas that naturally recharges aquifers, improves water quality and quantity, and provides recreational opportunities and wildlife habitat. Green infrastructure manages stormwater by capturing raindrops where they fall. CNT encourages reuse of natural moisture by using rain gardens, swales, green roofs, tree planting, permeable pavement and other low impact approaches to restore natural drainage functions and recycle stormwater in urban environments. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources, Policy | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
(From CNT’s partner, Reconnecting America)
The U.S. Department of Transportation has released its 2009 Record of Accomplishment, and it includes implementation of the Economic Recovery Act, called “the most ambitious infrastructure investment program in more than half a century, creation of the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant program, and a number of other initiatives including the Federal Transit Administration’s work with the Center for Transit-Oriented Development.
Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Policy, Transit-Oriented Development, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Scott Bernstein, CNT’s President, recently made a presentation about the need to redefine housing affordability at the Home Depot Foundation National Partners and Federal Government Officials Convening in Washington, D.C. When people shop for home or apartments, they don’t necessarily have the full knowledge of the true costs of a location. The current definition of housing affordability is 30% of income, which does not take into account transportation costs. Our research shows that for a working family, those earning $20,000-$50,000, housing takes 30% while transportation takes up to 27% of income, and in the exurbs, transportation can easily exceed housing costs. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Policy, Scott Bernstein, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
All seemed fairly routine when the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency hosted a meeting at their offices to provide an update on the study of green infrastructure practices and regulations the Agency is required to conduct under P.A. 96-0026, the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act. But it was not expected that during the meeting, Marcia Willhite, Chief of the IEPA Water Bureau, informed the 100 or so people in attendance that the IEPA Water Bureau “needs to rethink some things, part of which is how to promote green infrastructure and innovative environmental projects” through the funding of projects with State Clean Water Revolving Fund money. Willhite said she intends to establish an advisory committee to revise revolving fund criteria to ensure that green infrastructure projects receive greater priority.
Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources, Policy | No Comments »
