Sustainable Development

The California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED) is holding their 36th Annual Conference, Fresh: Ideas, Perspectives, Directions, at the South San Francisco Conference Center on April 26-28, 2016. Join CCLR at these two workshops: Brownfields: Legal Tools for Revitalizing Valuable Land and Economic Tools for Brownfields to learn about the basic legal tools and  economic incentives  to transform underused properties into facilities and businesses that generate jobs, tax revenue, and contribute to their communities again. 

In January of this year the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) released a draft publication called “Planning Healthy Places: A Guidebook for Addressing Local Sources of Air Pollutants in Community Planning.” This guidebook establishes "best practices" that cities and developers of new residential projects can implement to mitigate and/or minimize new residents’ exposure to existing air pollution and maps the areas -- mostly near freeways and major roads -- where those best practices should be implemented. We are overall very pleased with the direction of the Guidebook and believe that it could be a powerful tool to assist communities in building sustainable infill and transit-oriented developments that are fully health-protective. However, we are strongly concerned that BAAQMD’s support of local and regional efforts to promote “focused growth” (i.e. infill, transit-oriented, and mixed-use development) throughout the region may be severely undercut by the Guidebook’s recommendation that cities use their zoning authority to prohibit all future residential development within the identified areas.

Through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NCRS) seeks to co-invest with partners in innovative, workable, and cost-effective approaches to benefit farming, ranching and forest operations, local economies, and the communities and resources in a watershed or other geographic area. NCRS will deliver conservation assistance to producers and landowners through program contracts or easement agreements. Pre-proposals Deadline: May 10, 2016

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) State and Local Assistance Program provides grants to States, their political subdivisions, and Indian tribes to acquire and/or develop public land for a range of outdoor recreation purposes, such as parks, playgrounds, picnic areas, campgrounds, bike trails, swimming pools and sports fields, as well as supporting infrastructure. Certain State agencies may also apply for grants for the preparation or update of Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plans or supporting elements. Application Deadline: April 29, 2016

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accepting applications for collaborative, community-based research that will foster better understanding of how ecosystems support human health and well-being. Specifically, this research should examine how communities can integrate ecosystem services with human health and well-being to inform their decision making and management practices. It should also develop information that allows communities to integrate environmental, societal and economic information and to better manage multiple stressors and their cumulative impacts on humans and ecosystems.

Application Deadline: April 21, 2016

Thanks to the eighth round of the Transportation Investment Generic Economic Recovery (TIGER) competitive grant program, $500 million will be available for transportation projects across the country. TIGER grants focus on capital projects that generate economic development and improve access to affordable, reliable, and safe transportation for communities. In 2013, The City of Truckee, California was awarded $1.5 million for a pedestrian tunnel that will improve connections between residential and commercial areas. The Center for Creative Land Recycling helped Oakland-based Holliday Development leverage that TIGER grant for an additional $8 million from the State’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Grant Program for the cleanup and redevelopment of the adjacent underutilized Truckee Railyard.

Join CCLR at the Brownfield Coalition of the Northeast (BCONE) Northeast Sustainable Communities Workshop (NSCW) in Newark, New Jersey on March 16. The NSCW's goal is to break new ground, offer new ideas, and posit new concepts on the topics of sustainability, collaboration and leverage, resiliency, brownfields, and their impact on community revitalization.

On Thursday February 25, The Center for Creative Land Recycling partnered with the Bay Area law firm Holland & Knight for a fantastic discussion of H&K's newly published report, "In the Name of the Environment"—a comprehensive study of recent lawsuits filed under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and recommended reforms.  More than thirty people from across the Bay Area came to hear from H&K's Jennifer Hernandez on the key findings of the study, and the author's suggestions on how to curtail further litigation abuse.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced $500 million will be made available for transportation projects across the country under an eighth round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) competitive grant program.

Deadline: April 29, 2016

Legislation introduced on February 3rd would give $1 billion towards cleaning up and redeveloping former mine lands, thus helping the coal communities around the country that have been devastated by the decline of the coal-mining industry. The Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More (RECLAIM) Act would help coal communities cleanup and redevelop former mining sites that possibly pose health and environmental hazards and revitalize their economies.