In the spring of 2009, the Obama Administration announced an unprecedented new partnership involving three federal agencies: the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Known as the Sustainable Communities Initiative, this partnership is focused on implementing the Obama administration's Livability Principles through better integrating transportation, land use, and housing.
Grant Programs
These federal planning objectives are being pushed out to the state and local level via a variety of grant programs that include:
Sustainable Building Blocks Program (EPA)
Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant (HUD)
Community Challenge Planning Grant (HUD)
Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Grant (DOT)
The list of communities, agencies, and organizations which have received these grants are listed on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities website. NAHB has also organized these grants by state and local HBA and will be tracking various projects as they are developed.
Although various regulatory and policy efforts to promote sustainability have been largely voluntary until now, and theoretically "all land use is local" still holds true since that is where planning and development approvals continue to be made, the criteria and incentives embedded in these new federal grant programs are much more prescriptive and intrusive into local land use planning and development review procedures than previous federal planning and technical assistance programs. Communities are being heavily encouraged to use federal funding to revamp planning and zoning codes and adopt a number of specific planning tools and concepts, such as form-based codes, inclusionary zoning, "complete streets," a housing and transportation affordability index, health impact assessments, and transit-oriented development.
In order to help members find key information resources on these planning tools and concepts, the Land Development Committee has developed Land Use 101 as a web-based, train-the-trainer toolkit that will help NAHB federation members shape the residential constructions industry's regulatory environment.
