An historic effort is underway that is significant to communities trying to implement sustainable practices in their cities and towns. Federal government departments and agencies are collaborating to invest millions of dollars in grants to help advance sustainability and smart growth practices. The goal is to help create more housing, make transportation more efficient, and support neighborhood development. The question is, How well-positioned is your community to be awarded grant funding? What's the best way to competitively plan and prepare to apply for these opportunities?

A recent grant available from the Department of Housing and Urban Planning and Environmental Protection Agency for the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities Program will award $5.65 million to help recipients strengthen existing sustainability programs. But for this grant, a community must already have the ball rolling and currently be engaged in some level of sustainability planning efforts, such as:

• Developing implementation strategies for economic development and planning;
• Advancing community participation in planning and decision-making;
• Strengthening sustainability practices for tribes, small towns, and rural places;
• Scenario planning;
• Incorporating water infrastructure planning and investments into planning;
• Addressing sustainability in slow local and regional economies; and,
• Establishing a national sustainability learning network.

This particular award program supports the Partnership for Sustainable Communities launched by President Obama in June 2009, along with the U.S. Department of Transportation, HUD and EPA. We can anticipate future federal grants to be announced as sustainability continues to gain momentum. Meanwhile, your community can start sustainability planning now.

Urban Planning Economic Development using sustainable goals of the LEED for Neighborhood Development program is offered by TKA as a low cost training program for your community stakeholders. The LEED-ND program of the US Green Building Council is gaining national acceptance by grant administrators. We'd like to share our strategies for identifying cost-effective sustainability improvements in your community, utilizing the LEED for Neighborhood Development model.

TKA offers a one-time Discovery Phase engagement to help your community determine its readiness for LEED-ND, as well as how to effectively utilize LEED-ND as a tool for growth. Our Discovery Phase service includes immediate training of your staff to prepare for in-house implementation of neighborhood development.

Visit our Urban Planning Services page to learn more.

Federal funding resources:
http://www.grants.gov/
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/topics/grants
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/index.htm