Lake Worth, FL among Recipients of Smart Growth Assistance Provided by EPA
Contact Information: William McBride, 404-562-8378 (direct), 404-562-8400 (main), mcbride.william@epa.gov
ATLANTA – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that the City of Lake Worth, FL will receive technical assistance through the Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program.
EPA consulted with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Transportation to select this year’s 43 recipients from 121 applicants through a competitive process. EPA staff and national experts will conduct workshops that focus on the specific sustainability goal each community chose in their initial application to EPA. The agency offered nine tools this year, including using smart growth to build economic and fiscal health, exploring neighborhood planning for healthy aging&creating a Green Streets Strategy, and creating sustainable strategies for small cities and rural areas.
Lake Worth is receiving assistance with using Smart Growth to build Fiscal and Economic Health. Smart Growth strategies have inherent efficiencies and can minimize property values and associated revenues. This tool outlines strategies and approaches that can help cities integrate their land development policies, their municipal budgets, and their long-term economic development goals. These strategies could reduce service and infrastructure costs and increase revenues in an era when limited resources mean that growing inefficiently is no longer an option.
“Creating resilient communities is vital to protecting public health and the environment, “said Regional Administrator Gwen Keys Fleming. “EPA’s Building Blocks Program will give city leaders and other community partners Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities is a project of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities among EPA, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The interagency collaboration coordinates federal investments in infrastructure, facilities, and services to get better results for communities and use taxpayer money more efficiently. The partnership is helping communities across the country create more housing choices, make transportation more efficient and reliable, reinforce existing investments, and support vibrant and healthy neighborhoods that attract businesses.
Nationally 43 communities - rural, urban, and suburban - will receive technical assistance to pursue sustainable growth that encourages local economic development while safeguarding people’s health and the environment. To date, 141 communities have received EPA’s assistance through the Building Blocks program. Together, EPA, HUD and DOT form the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which coordinates investments in housing, transportation, and environmental protection to get better results for communities and use taxpayer money more efficiently.
More information on the Building Blocks program: >http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/buildingblocks.htm
More information on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/partnership/index.html
5 comments:
Look,basically ,there is never any such thing as a free lunch. It's very easy to spend other people's money.Where does the money behind these things come from? If something is free for one group,then another group has to pay the bills. I always seem to wind up in the "pay for someone else's stuff" catagory.My neighborhood over here west of I-95 never gerts anything handed to us from the city,that's for sure. Unlike the "priviledged" part of district 1, Retha Lowes neighborhood,which always seems to suck away every penny of grant money available!!!Wish we had a gym,basketball courts, playgrounds,etc.,etc.!!! And yet Retha still groans that it never is quite enough for "her" area! Katie Mcgiveron
I wonder if "Smart Growth" includes keeping the diversity of building heights we have now going into the future.
Will reducing flexibility for a good project in our "hotel district" add to our sustainability or detract from it?
The problem is, when you give an inch they take a mile. We don't trust government as someone said last night. The voters will decide. I am really offended that planners want to change our city so drastically and that some Realtors are just not happy.
the city needs to do something to up the class of people we get in the city----this wont happen until a change of thinking is done ---keeping things the same way will only hurt the reputation we already have--people think the low class are here and you cant debate that if your eyes are working--tons of run down homes -- lots of drug dealers--and dixie ave look like a third world country with people looking like they could blow at any time--when your a poor city like us --you get very low income people that cant improve there life so why should they care what happens all around them---to many living in this city just dont care what happens because they themselfs are hanging by a thread to survive--our downtown needs a facelift fast
Well, when the housing stock is valued at very little and we lost 65% of our value over 3 years, building higher buildings in our downtown (TIF that goes to the CRA, not the city) is not going to change the housing stock throughout our city. The CRA does nothing but attract affordable housing and more poor people. Let's start attracting the opposite and clean up our streets, something the CRA was missioned to do.
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