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Introducing Smart Growth America

<p>At the heart of the American dream is the simple hope that each of us can live in a neighborhood that's healthy, prosperous, and resilient.</p>
<p><strong>Our work helps make these dreams a reality.</strong></p>

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<p>Smart Growth America was founded with three staff members in 2000, and officially recognized as a 501(c)(3) organization in 2003.</p>

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<p>Our research helps to shape the national discourse around how development strategies can help improve lives for Americans everywhere.</p>
<p>Read some of our signature reports:</p>
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<p>Everyone in America - no matter their age, ability, income, or race - deserves the option to live somewhere affordable, convenient, beautiful, and safe. Become a changemaker today.</p>

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<p>Smart Growth America continued to expand programmatically in these early days with the development of technical assistance workshops and a grant from the <strong>National Endowment for the Arts</strong> in mid-2005 to run the Governors’ Institute on Community Design.</p>

<p>In 2008, SGA launched <a href="/programs-and-coalitions/locus/">LOCUS</a>, an alliance of real estate developers for promoting sustainable urban development in the United States.</p>
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<p>Growing SGA</p>

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<p>In 2008, the organization continued to grow rapidly when it received a large multi-year grant to establish <a href="/program-of-work/transportation-for-america/"><strong>Transportation for America</strong></a>, a national campaign for transportation reform.</p>

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<p>In 2012, our portfolio of issues and allies grew significantly as we became the new home of the <a href="/programs-and-coalitions/national-complete-streets-coalition/"><strong>National Complete Streets Coalition</strong></a> and the <a href="/programs-and-coalitions/national-brownfields-coalition/"><strong>National Brownfields Coalition</strong></a>. Since then, Smart Growth America has continued to see steady growth in staff size and operations.</p>

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<p>In 2018, Smart Growth America’s senior leadership came together to define a new vision—our north star.</p>
<p>Since then, everything we do has aligned with one goal: to help create a country where, no matter where you live or who you are, you can thrive in a place that is healthy, prosperous, and resilient.</p>

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<p>SGA launched the Arts &amp; Transportation Rapid Response initiative during the summer of 2020. The project sought to partner transportation agencies with artists to develop creative solutions to COVID-related transportation challenges, with the hypothesis that artists’ creative practices would enhance agencies’ responses to quickly shifting new demands related to mask wearing, social distancing, and communicating rapidly changing rules and regulations.</p>

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<p>In 2024, Smart Growth America launches the Center for Zoning Solutions to support communities to implement equitable and inclusive land use policies that allow people to live, work, and thrive</p>

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<p>Our goals and programs have evolved with the changing political and economic landscape since 2003, and the growth of our staff has allowed us to expand our work.</p>

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<p>Our technical assistance work has evolved immensely to now include workshops on downtown revitalization and revitalization without displacement, <strong>Complete Streets design</strong>, <strong>Smart growth in rural communities</strong>, and <strong>DOT innovation</strong>, among others. We are a leading advocate for federal policies and programs that support great neighborhood development.</p>
<p><a href="/services/workshops-technical-assistance/arts-and-culture/">Learn more about our workshops and technical assistance programs.</a></p>

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<p>Smart Growth America isn’t just an idea—it's a movement that's only as strong as the community behind it.</p>

<p>We’ve laid the foundation, but it's you who helps bring our vision to life. If you believe in creating vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable communities, now is your chance to be part of something transformative.</p>

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<p>Smart Growth America cultivates vibrant, sustainable communities with diverse living and transportation options, enhancing quality of life for all.</p>
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<p>Throughout the year, we host a number of in-person and virtual events covering topics related to public health, social equity, and climate resilience.</p>
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<p>Smart growth is an approach to community design that connects housing, transportation, and land use to create healthy, prosperous, and resilient neighborhoods.</p>
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<p>Smart Growth America cultivates vibrant, sustainable communities with diverse living and transportation options, enhancing quality of life for all.</p>
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<p>We offer a library of case studies, videos, and reports to support policymakers, practitioners, and advocates interested in advancing smart growth.</p>
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Even the best-planned cities have a few hidden alleys.

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<p><strong>Data center development is accelerating across the country as AI drives demand, but zoning and land-use rules haven’t kept pace. We break down the tradeoffs, what communities are doing today, and how policies need to evolve to keep up.</strong></p>
<p>For decades, data centers have quietly powered the information age, supporting everything from websites and cloud computing to streaming and online services. While they have long existed as critical infrastructure for the information age, their role is now rapidly expanding. Over the past three to four years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become deeply embedded in daily life, underpinning many of the platforms, services, and tools we rely on.</p>
<p>This surge in AI demand is accelerating the expansion of data centers, driving a corresponding increase in the infrastructure required to support it. These power-hungry facilities <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/confronting-and-addressing-rising-energy-bills-linked-to-data-centers/#:~:text=As%20the%20artificial%20intelligence%20(AI,the%20development%20of%20new%20generation">require massive amounts of energy to operate</a> and, in many cases, are already contributing to rising electricity bills for nearby households, placing additional pressure on communities at a time when housing affordability is already severely strained.</p>
<p>Underpinning this newest era of the information age, data centers are emerging as one of the most pressing land use challenges of the decade. They are here to stay, and we are still in the early stages of a massive expansion in their scale and distribution. Communities across the country are already grappling with this in real time.</p>
<p>Where should data centers go? Where have they been built thus far? How should they be classified as a land use?</p>
<p>Most importantly, are our nation’s zoning ordinances equipped to guide data center development in ways that most benefit the communities where they are being placed? Right now, the answer is no.</p>
<figure id="attachment_113826" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-113826" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/1200px_data_center_asburn_loudoun_wod_trail_drone_4-10-23_credit_hugh_kenny_pec-33-jpg-scaled.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-113826" src="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/1200px_data_center_asburn_loudoun_wod_trail_drone_4-10-23_credit_hugh_kenny_pec-33-jpg-1024x683.png" alt="Aerial pic of Data Center in Asburn, VA" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/1200px_data_center_asburn_loudoun_wod_trail_drone_4-10-23_credit_hugh_kenny_pec-33-jpg-1024x683.png 1024w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/1200px_data_center_asburn_loudoun_wod_trail_drone_4-10-23_credit_hugh_kenny_pec-33-jpg-300x200.png 300w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/1200px_data_center_asburn_loudoun_wod_trail_drone_4-10-23_credit_hugh_kenny_pec-33-jpg-768x512.png 768w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/1200px_data_center_asburn_loudoun_wod_trail_drone_4-10-23_credit_hugh_kenny_pec-33-jpg-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/1200px_data_center_asburn_loudoun_wod_trail_drone_4-10-23_credit_hugh_kenny_pec-33-jpg-2048x1366.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-113826" class="wp-caption-text">Data Center in Ashburn, VA. Photo credit: Hugh Kenny, Piedmont Environmental Council</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Where should data centers go?</h2>
<p>Modern (Euclidean) zoning ordinances are structured around regulating distinct land use categories—typically residential, commercial, and industrial, with various subcategories of each. Most local governments have classified data centers as a form of industrial use. On paper, this makes sense, since data centers typically are large, warehouse-like buildings, often located in industrial areas, with limited public-facing activity. But that is where the similarity largely ends.</p>
<p>In practice, data centers do not fit neatly within traditional industrial definitions, and this is where much of the regulatory friction begins. They operate continuously, twenty-four hours a day, often with minimal on-site staff beyond occasional maintenance. They require enormous amounts of electricity, and their cooling systems can consume significant quantities of water. And unlike traditional industrial uses, they generate very few jobs relative to their size. So while they may look like warehouses, they function more like major pieces of energy infrastructure.</p>
<p>This mismatch creates a fundamental land use challenge. Zoning frameworks designed around 20th-century assumptions (e.g., daytime operations, truck traffic, and employment density) are now being applied to a modern use that does not follow those rules. As a result, data center siting decisions are often reactive rather than intentional, leading to tension between local governments, developers, and community members. In many cases, data centers are being developed in locations that are not well aligned with infrastructure capacity or community priorities.</p>
<h2>Polarization: the pros and cons of data centers</h2>
<p>One of the biggest concerns about data centers is the massive amount of energy they require to operate. This demand is already placing significant strain on local electrical grids, particularly in places like <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/data-centers/ai-data-centers-impact-on-electric-bills-water-and-more-a1040338678/">Loudoun County in Northern Virginia, home to “Data Center Alley,”</a> where regional utility companies are quickly needing to reinvest in new generation and transmission infrastructure. Without appropriate regulatory safeguards, the significant costs of these upgrades are passed on to ratepayers in the form of higher household electricity bills, raising concerns about affordability and equity at a time when overall housing costs are already high nationwide.</p>
<p>The environmental impacts of data centers are just as significant. Energy demands are immense, cooling systems can require substantial water use for cooling, and backup generators contribute to air pollution and <a href="https://weather.com/news/climate/news/2026-04-14-artificial-intelligence-heat-island-warming">localized heat emissions.</a></p>
<p>These impacts are not just systemic—they are felt on the ground. Data centers are typically large, windowless structures with little architectural or street-level appeal. They generate persistent noise (often described as a constant mechanical hum) from cooling systems and generators. For nearby residents, this is not abstract; it is a daily quality-of-life issue.</p>
<p>In response, some jurisdictions are beginning to require stronger mitigation measures, including noise testing, setbacks, and visual screening (such as tree buffers). <a href="https://reimagineappalachia.org/turning-a-byproduct-into-a-community-asset-why-data-center-waste-heat-matters/">Some are also exploring opportunities to reuse waste heat</a>, such as through district energy systems that could benefit surrounding communities.</p>
<p>At the same time, the growing demand for data centers has created strong incentives for states to attract their development. As of April 2026, at least <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/fiscal/subsidizing-servers-how-states-are-competing-to-attract-data-centers#:~:text=Table_title:%20Table%201:%20State%20Tax%20Incentives%20for,receive%20local%20tax%20abatements%20to%20qualify%20%7C">38 states are offering tax breaks and other benefits to bring data center investment into their jurisdictions.</a> For states, the appeal is clear: data centers can generate substantial property tax revenue, strengthen local tax bases, and signal competitiveness in the digital economy. They are also often framed as long-term infrastructure investments that can anchor broader economic growth.</p>
<p>This dynamic is driving increasing tension between state and local governments. States are competing to attract data centers as an economic development priority, while local governments are left to manage the land use impacts and on-the-ground regulatory complexities.</p>
<p>[alert type="info"]<strong>In 2025, lawmakers in West Virginia passed legislation to incentivize statewide data center development, including provisions that limit local regulatory authority, create Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemptions, and establish special tax valuations.</strong> [/alert]</p>
<h2>What communities are doing right now</h2>
<p>At this point, there is no clear set of best practices for regulating data centers. Given the speed of their recent expansion, local governments are experimenting with new approaches in real time.</p>
<p>Some communities have gone as far as to hit the pause button on data center development altogether; <a href="https://www.aei.org/technology-and-innovation/the-political-backlash-to-data-centers/">temporary moratoria</a> are being used to create space and time for more thoughtful regulatory updates. In April 2026, lawmakers in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/16/us/maines-moratorium-data-centers.html">Maine passed legislation to ban new data center development through November 1, 2027</a> (pending approval by Governor Janet Mills). At the federal level, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/data-centers-ai-electricity-sanders-aoc-65651bd28c3d911d18eeb46cd54f4c75">a proposed pause from Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> signals growing concern over the pace of expansion and awareness of the need for broader oversight and regulatory clarity.</p>
<h3>Beyond a full-on pause, three general patterns are emerging:</h3>
<h4><b>1. Case-by-case approval:</b> the most reactive approach.</h4>
<p>Many municipalities now require conditional or special-use permits, meaning each data center proposal is reviewed individually. Anchorage (Alaska), for example, <a href="https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/anchorage-adopts-framework-for-data-8900865/">passed an ordinance in March 2026 requiring conditional use review for data centers.</a> While this allows flexibility, it can also lead to inconsistent outcomes and places significant pressure on local decision-makers to evaluate highly technical proposals without clear standards, often in loud, crowded and contentious public meetings.</p>
<h4><b>2. Impact mitigation and regulation: </b>a first step toward structure.</h4>
<p>Communities are adopting requirements around noise, setbacks, buffering, and design. In Chandler (Arizona), for example, <a href="https://www.chandleraz.gov/news-center/chandlers-data-center-ordinance-now-effect#:~:text=Jan.,the%20data%20center%20is%20complete">a 2023 ordinance</a> requires baseline and ongoing noise studies, along with mitigation measures to ensure operational noise does not exceed pre-construction levels. It also mandates community notification, neighborhood meetings, and on-site liaisons.</p>
<p>Some jurisdictions are also exploring how to regulate energy and water use—for example, requiring developers to provide their own power sources rather than relying on the local energy grid. However, these solutions can introduce additional challenges, particularly when they rely on fossil fuel-based generation.</p>
<h4><b>3. Zoning reform: </b>where this is all heading.</h4>
<p>Data centers are increasingly, and correctly, being treated as a distinct land use rather than a traditional industrial use. Some jurisdictions are creating new definitions, establishing overlay districts, or limiting where data centers can be located. Frederick County, Maryland, for example, has created a <a href="https://www.frederickcountymd.gov/9128/Critical-Digital-Infrastructure-Overlay-">Critical Digital Infrastructure Overlay zone </a>that limits data center development to a specific part of the county. Loudoun County (the aforementioned “Data Center Alley”) is developing <a href="https://www.loudoun.gov/5990/Data-Center-Standards-Locations">new use-specific zoning standards</a> for data centers that are more reflective of their scale and infrastructure demands.</p>
<h2>What it means to be data center-ready</h2>
<p>As things stand, data centers do not fit neatly into existing zoning categories, and their impacts are too significant to be managed through outdated frameworks. They are a new type of land use, and our zoning needs to catch up, fast.</p>
<p>The stakes are rising, as data centers are already reshaping local economies and energy systems in real time. Without clear regulatory guardrails, communities risk higher energy costs, growing infrastructure burdens, and increasing dependence on a single industry tax base—limiting long-term flexibility and economic resilience.</p>
<p>Being “data center-ready” means getting ahead of those risks. At a minimum, communities should:</p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Define where data centers are appropriate</li>
<li aria-level="1">Align siting decisions with infrastructure and energy capacity</li>
<li aria-level="1">Establish clear expectations for environmental performance and community impact, including protections to ensure that nearby households are not saddled with the high cost of upgrading the infrastructure needed to support these facilities</li>
</ul>
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<p>A stronger approach may also include:</p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Completely eliminating by-right data center development and requiring a dedicated discretionary review process that includes land use experts, environmental specialists, economists, and industry stakeholders</li>
<li aria-level="1">Requiring developers to cover infrastructure costs</li>
<li aria-level="1">Establishing clear, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-community-benefit-agreements-are-necessary-for-data-centers/">measurable community benefits</a> tied to workforce development, sustainability, and resource use</li>
</ul>
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<p>Ultimately, being “data center-ready” means ensuring that the benefits of development—especially tax revenue—translate into real, tangible outcomes for communities, without raising costs or lowering quality of life.</p>
<p>Data centers are here to stay. The question is whether communities and their planners can shape their development in a way that works for residents—and remains workable for the companies driving the nation’s rapid expansion of digital infrastructure.</p>
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<p><strong>This year's Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) reflects the Trump administration’s changing “safety” priorities, but it’s still a worthwhile opportunity to advance proven safety solutions in your community. We’ve highlighted three project strategies that can work under the updated NOFO.</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-safe-streets-for-all-grants-in-2026/">Our recent blog</a> highlighted changes to the 2026 <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/grants/SS4A">Safe Streets and Roads for All</a> (SS4A) program priorities, which focus more on truck parking and vehicle access than on genuine safety interventions, as they have in the past. These changes are not a surprise given this administration’s <a href="https://t4america.org/2026/02/23/freedom-means-actual-choices-you-wont-get-cheaper-transportation-if-theres-a-monopoly-on-mobility/">pro-car</a>, <a href="https://t4america.org/2026/03/26/the-trump-administration-tried-to-rip-out-a-bike-lane-in-dc-theyre-trying-to-do-the-same-nationwide/">anti-everything-else</a> transportation strategy. But all is not lost: Demonstration projects are still eligible for funding, and creatively using these funds can lead to actual safety improvements. Here are some ideas for how to frame your ideas to align with SS4A priorities this year:</p>
<h3>Strategy 1: Test how cars are (or aren’t) impacted</h3>
<p>The SS4A program description specifies “reducing level of service for vehicles,” “reducing access for emergency vehicles, delivery vehicles, and vehicles serving the disabled,” and “new dedicated bicycle lanes that reduce vehicular capacity or impair movements” as less favorable considerations for application review. This guidance is clearly based on outdated, incorrect assumptions that the level of service—an <a href="https://t4america.org/resource/community-connectors/what-they-mean/level-of-service/">overrated metric</a> of vehicle flow and delay—is king, and that capacity for cars is more important than anything else. So why not put these assumptions to the test?</p>
<p>Propose a temporary road design improvement (make sure to mention if the proposal is part of the Federal Highway Administration’s <a href="https://highways.dot.gov/safety/proven-safety-countermeasures">proven safety countermeasures</a>) and frame the pilot as a way to measure the impact of the roadway design on vehicles. Does the change impact travel time for drivers or the number of cars on the road? Can you work with emergency vehicle operators to see how they are affected? We know certain strategies, like <a href="https://highways.dot.gov/safety/proven-safety-countermeasures/road-diets-roadway-reconfiguration">road diets</a>, improve safety for everyone <a href="https://ssti.us/2024/07/22/reducing-lanes-for-cars-doesnt-slow-911-response/">without delaying</a> emergency response time. Considering the context of this year’s SS4A priorities, it doesn’t hurt to pitch your road design idea as an opportunity to double-check. Just be a bit cautious about word choice: “road diet,” “bike lane,” and “traffic calming” may raise red flags, whereas “roadway space” and “right-sizing” are less likely to draw scrutiny.</p>
<h3>Strategy 2: Work closely with public safety partners</h3>
<p>Public safety infrastructure, a new priority for SS4A, is defined as: “Physical and digital hardware, software, systems, technologies, equipment, protocols, facilities, and coordination models used by public safety agencies such as 9-1-1, emergency medical services (EMS), fire services, law enforcement, and trauma system partners to either prevent, respond to, or reduce the severity of roadway crashes.”</p>
<p>Since this definition of public safety infrastructure specifically includes crash prevention and severity reduction, partnering with your local public safety agencies will make a strong case for your proposed interventions. Support from public safety agencies and first responders is also emphasized in the NOFO. Definitely seek letters of support from these partners, but an even better strategy is to bring them in on the project itself. Here are a few project ideas:</p>
<p><strong>Improve your data collection practices.</strong> We know a lot gets missed in typical crash reports. Work with law enforcement, emergency responders, and hospitals to pilot updated crash-reporting strategies to produce a better measure of road safety in your community. Pilot a new approach to coordinate reporting across agencies to accelerate data synthesis. You could even develop near-miss reporting technology to capture close calls that often go uncollected.</p>
<p><strong>Test new trainings and practices.</strong> Propose a pilot training initiative to help public safety officers understand and incorporate roadway design issues in their assessment of crashes. Pedestrian-blaming can start in the <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/crash-reporting/">crash report</a>, so training officers to evaluate the full environment at a crash site could result in recommendations better than “wear bright colors.” Another approach could be implementing cross-sector post-crash evaluations, such as Strong Town’s <a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/crashstudio">Crash Analysis Studio</a> or <a href="https://www.emergencystreets.org/">Emergency Streets</a>, that bring departments together to identify ways to prevent crashes from happening again.</p>
<p><strong>Assess the existing vehicle fleets and assets.</strong> Communities are constantly evolving, and so is technology. You could propose using supplemental planning funds to help public safety agencies plan for future needs. This planning could include examining more nimble (that is, <em>smaller</em>) vehicles to improve access for emergency response. This project could potentially lead to reassessing design standards, such as lane widths, due to the newfound flexibility of smaller—<em>more nimble</em>—trucks. We wouldn’t want to predict where these conversations will go or what road design recommendations they could lead to, but starting this conversation may be a good pitch for your community to use SS4A.</p>
<h3>Strategy 3: Focus on kids</h3>
<p>Despite the pro-car stance in this year’s priorities, there is a clear focus on children’s safety. For example, automated traffic enforcement is viewed unfavorably <em>unless</em> it’s in school zones or on school buses (or in work zones), and “child-friendly elements” are among the favorable considerations for application review. Whatever you’re proposing, focus on the benefits for children. If you want to propose a traffic-calming design strategy that may seem to deprioritize cars, start with pilots in school zones. In your application narrative, remind reviewers to <em>think of the children</em>. Here are a few creative ways to improve safety through this focus on kids:</p>
<p><strong>Start with school zones.</strong> Use these designated areas to test proven safety countermeasures or to pilot automated enforcement. Improve connections between school zones and other key destinations for children, such as parks and libraries, using safe sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, and bike paths. If you don’t already have one, definitely pilot a <a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/book/countermeasures-that-work/bicycle-safety/countermeasures/other-strategies-behavior-change/safe">Safe Routes to School</a> program.</p>
<p><strong>Get kids moving!</strong> Organize <a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/book/countermeasures-that-work/pedestrian-safety/countermeasures/other-strategies-behavior-change-3">walking school buses</a> or a <a href="https://bikebus.world/">bike bus</a> to provide active transportation options for children and their families to get to school. Host a series of <a href="https://www.trafficgardens.com/">traffic gardens</a> to help kids get comfortable on bikes and learn to ride safely. You could even use these events as opportunities to start working with kids on their ideas for safer street design—it’s never too early to become a champion for safe streets! These strategies will involve parents, too, so consider partnering with your local parent-teacher organizations to support your application. You could even propose community engagement pilots focused on parents, children, and schools for long-term capacity building.</p>
<p>This list is by no means comprehensive. Start with your community’s needs, frame them in terms of this administration’s SS4A priorities, and don’t be afraid to ask for more. There is a lot of good work to be done!</p>
<p><strong>Smart Growth America has already helped communities secure more than $8 million in SS4A funding and is now offering limited support to help more communities succeed in what may be the final round. <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/apply-now-get-sga-support-for-your-2026-ss4a-application/">Learn more about these services</a>.</strong></p>


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Three strategies to help you win 2026 SS4A grants

Megan Oliver Headshot

<p><strong>SGA’s Community Connectors is a year-long program that supports teams in three small and mid-sized communities as they work to repair divisive infrastructure, improve safety outcomes, and advance lasting community reconnections. The program centers collaboration by bringing together community-based organizations with local government partners in learning sessions and hands-on workshops for quick-build demonstration projects.</strong></p>
<p>At its core, Community Connectors is about people. Our new blog series highlights the participants leading this work, offering a glimpse into how their journeys began and how deeply their commitment now runs. In this second round of participant profiles, we are featuring Connectors who work in city government.</p>
<p>Get to know Megan Oliver, a co-lead for Historic East Towson, MD, in this year’s <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-center/three-communities-selected-to-learn-about-and-design-quick-build-demonstration-projects/">Community Connectors</a> program. Megan is a senior planner at the Baltimore County Department of Planning.</p>
<figure id="attachment_113792" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-113792" style="width: 1000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-113792" src="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Megan-Oliver-Headshot.jpg" alt="Woman smiling at the camera, standing in front of a colorful mural on a brick wall." width="1000" height="666" srcset="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Megan-Oliver-Headshot.jpg 512w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Megan-Oliver-Headshot-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-113792" class="wp-caption-text">Photo courtesy of Megan Oliver.</figcaption></figure>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>The conversation below has been condensed and lightly edited.</em></p>
<h3>What got you interested in planning, transportation, and reconnection?</h3>
<p>I went to school for interior design, and I slowly scaled that up to architecture, and ultimately, urban design. I've been steeped in this ethos that favors walkability and bikeability over cars for decades at this point. But what's most important to me is that I feel a sort of calling in the work that I do. I know that we are each individually impacted on such deep levels, emotionally and physically, by the spaces that we spend time in. I feel driven to try to shape the built environment in ways that make us feel good, that bring us joy. Car-oriented spaces just don't do that. I know that to foster really healthy and happy communities, we need people to feel connected to one another, to the world around them.</p>
<p>Research has actually shown that we are healthier and more resilient when we are in community, so my work is all about finding opportunities to bring people together in community, to foster joy, and to remove whatever it is that's standing in the way of boosting community happiness. In Towson, the bypass is a huge barrier for the Historic East Towson community. The community fabric there is already really strong, despite the fact that this bypass has cut through, and I can just imagine how much more robust Historic East Towson will be once these roads become seams instead of divisions.</p>
<h3>What are you excited to bring to the cohort? What past experience do you want to share that the teams can learn from?</h3>
<p>My background in urban design has afforded me a lot of opportunities to work on cool projects. Parking Day, or planning an event to take over parking spots and create spaces for people instead of cars, was often a big part of my year. Through participating in a number of Parking Days, I slowly was able to build more familiarity and comfort with temporary activations of spaces, and I think that's really going to shape how we look at the program and engage people with the Towson project.</p>
<p>I had a chance to work on the Belair-Edison Main Street with a group called EnviroCollab out of Baltimore to create outdoor spaces for people to engage with businesses safely while keeping a distance during Covid-19. These projects where I've had to think creatively and resourcefully about how to fill, design, and program a space gives me some experience and an understanding of what's possible, but by no means do I think that I have everything.</p>
<h3>What is something you’ve learned so far from this program that you want other people to know?</h3>
<p>The greatest lesson that I've taken away at this point is to not overthink anything and just do it. Make sure you're following the right steps, of course, but don't let the idea become too burdensome. Don't worry about how to do an asphalt art project because it's absolutely within your reach, and you might be surprised at how easy it actually is.</p>
<h3>What advice would you have for someone looking to start a project like this in their own community?</h3>
<p>To get the ball rolling on a project like this—and to be able to get to a point where we're able to make some big changes in how things are done and shift the status quo—really requires starting with building relationships. First, start with the community around a space. Having all of those people on your side makes your collective voice that much stronger, so that you can come to officials, to public staff, to potential partners, and be able to be strong advocates for what it is that you want.</p>
<h3>What does success look like to you?</h3>
<p>Success for our project, for me, is creating a space that gives members of the Historic East Towson community a chance to be with one another and use the land of their community in a way that it hasn't been able to be used in a very long time. Since the bypass has come in, that area has been taken from the community as a space that could be serving their recreational needs and social needs through block parties, group dinners, or whatever that might be. Success in the Historic East Towson project is giving the land back to the community, reclaiming that space for people, and keeping the cars in their lane away from the people, and really prioritizing the experience of the residents.</p>
<h3>What sort of legacy do you want to leave behind in your work?</h3>
<p>I hope my involvement in this project paves the way for more work like this to happen throughout Baltimore County. I recognize that it's a challenge in our community, and in many communities, to be able to do something as simple as reclaiming the space for people and to just create a little bit of art, creativity, and liveliness. What I really hope my involvement in this project is able to do is demonstrate to others in Baltimore County, both on the government side of things, but also other residents throughout the county—who come by, drive through, and see stories of this in the news—and get a foot in the door so that we can have more opportunities like this in the future.</p>
<h3>What’s one go-to resource every person doing this work should have in their toolbox?</h3>
<p>Pinterest. It's such a mundane resource, but being able to see what's possible and what's happening elsewhere in the world can really fuel my creative juices and help me feel like the big changes are more within my reach than maybe I initially thought.</p>


Connectors

Local Leader

quick build

Community Connectors spotlight: Megan Oliver, senior planner in Baltimore, MD

us-capitol-stock-image

<p><strong>As Congress prepares for surface transportation reauthorization, nearly 100 organizations signed Smart Growth America’s letter calling on Congress to include the <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/get-involved/build-hubs/">Build Housing Unlock Benefits and Services (Build HUBS) Act</a> in the upcoming reauthorization package. This bipartisan, bicameral bill, introduced by Sen. Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Sen. John Curtis (R-UT), Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA), and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), would remove unnecessary barriers in federal financing programs, encouraging developers to build housing near transit.</strong></p>
<p>Because housing and transportation are deeply intertwined, transit-oriented development (TOD) is a practical way to align where we build housing with the transportation systems that serve it. Through our work, SGA has seen that this approach leads to more housing options, higher transit ridership, and better access to jobs and services, and jobs. TOD leverages existing systems to create more walkable, connected neighborhoods, reducing public infrastructure and personal transportation costs while increasing economic benefits for communities and residents alike. These outcomes align with the federal transportation program’s stated goals, including improved connectivity, public health, and economic growth, and better use of existing infrastructure.</p>
<p>Congress has already acknowledged the potential of transit-oriented development by including provisions in the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) and the Transportation Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act (TIFIA) programs to support housing projects near transit. LOCUS, SGA’s coalition of triple-bottom-line real estate developers, helped secure these provisions in 2015. But in practice, these tools have been difficult to use.</p>
<p>The Build HUBS Act would unlock their potential by cutting red tape, streamlining loan processes, shortening underwriting timelines, expanding credit validation options, and establishing clear guidance for infill projects and office-to-residential conversion. These changes would encourage private investment and public-private partnerships in housing development, making the Build HUBS Act an especially effective tool to address the most severe housing shortage in decades. This bill would help communities to not just increase housing supply in the places people want to live, but to do so in ways that leverage existing infrastructure to meet current and future needs.</p>
<p>As a national nonprofit working across housing, transportation, climate resilience, economic development, and governance from big cities to rural towns, Smart Growth America is uniquely equipped to identify opportunities to increase housing abundance through our cross-sector approach. That work brings us together with a broad, bipartisan coalition across the public and private sectors, as reflected in the signers below, which range from state departments of transportation to real estate developers and housing advocacy organizations. SGA and these partners urge Congress to use all available tools to increase housing supply in transit-served locations, and the Build HUBS Act is a clear, common-sense bill that does just that.</p>
<p>[alert type="info"] <strong><em>Take action to support this important piece of legislation by urging Congress to support or co-sponsor the Build HUBS Act. <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/get-involved/build-hubs/">Contact your federal representatives</a>.</em> </strong>[/alert]</p>
<p>Please contact Elisa Ramirez if you are interested in signing onto a committee letter or directly connecting with your Congressional delegation to support Build HUBS (<a href="eramirez@smartgrowthamerica.org">eramirez@smartgrowthamerica.org</a>). See the letter of support <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u79rhN5vKKdZfvSbw_x7H-uufW8rVPFe/view">here</a>.</p>
<h3>Thank you to the following organizations for signing our letter to support this bill:</h3>
<h4><strong>National Organizations</strong></h4>
<p>ACEEE<br />
Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations<br />
America Walks<br />
American Planning Association<br />
American Society of Landscape Architects<br />
CivicWell<br />
Congress for the New Urbanism<br />
Corporation for Supportive Housing<br />
Economic Innovation Group<br />
Enterprise Community Partners<br />
GreenLatinos<br />
Inclusive Abundance Action<br />
Just Strategy: National Campaign for Transit Justice<br />
League of American Bicyclists<br />
Local Initiatives Support Corporation<br />
LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers &amp; Investors<br />
Mortgage Bankers Association<br />
National Apartment Association<br />
National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders<br />
National Association of Development Organizations<br />
National Association of Home Builders<br />
National Association of Realtors<br />
National Association of Regional Councils<br />
National Leased Housing Association<br />
National Multifamily Housing Council<br />
Parking Reform Network<br />
Putting Assets to Work<br />
Sierra Club<br />
Smart Growth America<br />
The Niskanen Center<br />
U.S. Green Building Council<br />
Up for Growth Action<br />
YIMBY Action</p>
<h4><strong>State, Regional, and Local Organizations</strong></h4>
<p>10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania<br />
1000 Friends of Oregon<br />
1000 Friends of Wisconsin<br />
Abundant Housing MA<br />
Better Eugene-Springfield Transportation (BEST)<br />
CITYBUILDER<br />
Clean+Healthy<br />
Coalition for Smarter Growth<br />
Denver Streets Partnership<br />
East Metro Strong<br />
Elevated Chicago<br />
Farm&amp;City<br />
ForeverGreen Trails<br />
Greater Denver Transit<br />
Greater Ohio Policy Center<br />
Grow Smart Rhode Island<br />
GrowSmart Maine<br />
Hawaii Department of Transportation<br />
Let's Build Homes<br />
Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative<br />
Madison Area Bus Advocates<br />
Metropolitan Area Planning Council<br />
Metropolitan Planning Council<br />
Move California<br />
Neighbors for More Neighbors<br />
Neighbors Welcome! Rhode Island<br />
New Jersey Future<br />
Oregon Metro<br />
People Friendly Stamford<br />
Pro-Homes Connecticut<br />
Reno + Sparks Chamber of Commerce<br />
Snohomish County Transportation Coalition<br />
Somerville YIMBY<br />
Southwest Energy Efficiency Project<br />
Stations Unidos<br />
Texans For Housing<br />
The Wisconsin Bike Fed<br />
Together For Homes<br />
TrainRiders Northeast<br />
Transform<br />
Transportation Choices Coalition<br />
Urban Land Institute NW District Council<br />
Wasatch Advocates for Livable Communities<br />
Wisconsin Transit Riders Alliance</p>
<h4><strong>Private Sector</strong></h4>
<p>Ascension OZ Advisors, LLC<br />
Avesta<br />
Brookwood Group<br />
Concentric Community Advisors, LLC<br />
Continuum Partners<br />
DPZ CoDesign<br />
Ederer and Associates<br />
Galvin Architects<br />
Gilbane Development Company<br />
HarveyReed<br />
Lisa Wise Consulting, Inc.<br />
McCormack Baron Salazar<br />
Peter J. Park, LLC<br />
re:MAIN<br />
stok Investment Group<br />
T.H. McClory, LLC (d/b/a THM Advisors)</p>


Build HUBS Act

surface transportation reauthorization

Transit-oriented development

Nearly 100 organizations urge Congress to include the bipartisan Build HUBS Act in transportation negotiations

Miguel in Hawaii

<p>Over the past decade, as SGA’s research director, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside communities across the country on issues of housing, transportation, land use, and economic development.<br />
As I step into a new chapter, I’ve been reflecting on what’s actually changed since around 2015, and just as importantly, what hasn’t.</p>
<p>The world of urbanism and planning feels different today. Some ideas that were once niche are now mainstream. We now have enough hindsight to see that some “transformational” innovations didn’t quite transform. And some of the most important shifts happened quietly, at the local level, far from national headlines.</p>
<h2>Here are five observations from ten years in the field of smart growth.</h2>
<h3>1. Local leadership became the center of gravity</h3>
<p>One of the biggest shifts over the past decade is where leadership actually happens. When I finished my MPA and MS in urban planning, especially at the start of the Obama administration, it appeared that the locus of urbanism was heading towards more national leadership. Transportation reauthorization seemed to promise a full change in how we approached transportation systems; new federal grant programs like TIGER seemed to be the way to boost local projects; and a reorientation toward transit (and light rail and bus rapid transit) programs was becoming du jour.</p>
<p>Partly because of the pendulum of administration changes and approaches, and partly because of the inherent need for planning as a local matter, we’ve seen the local and state level flex atrophied urbanism muscles.</p>
<p>National policy still matters, but it has become less consistent as a source of direction on housing and transportation. In today’s environment, states, regions, cities, and even counties have taken on a much larger role.</p>
<p>The most meaningful progress I’ve seen has been local. These have included:</p>
<ul>
<li>zoning reforms at the state and municipal level, including several states enacting preemption laws on single-family zoning</li>
<li>transportation investments shaped by regional priorities and less reliance on USDOT, FTA, and federal oversight</li>
<li>housing strategies tailored to local market conditions, while looking less to HUD</li>
</ul>
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<p>I’ve seen this from leadership in small towns like <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/we-have-a-wonderful-downtown-but-it-is-still-underutilized/">Ruston, Louisiana</a>, where they led to push development towards downtown rather than more annexations. Huntington, California, was pursuing its own housing policy given the massive infrastructure and transit changes in the Los Angeles region. In Virginia Beach, they weren’t waiting for other levels of government to step up to address climate-informed zoning and were leading on their own. Finally, SGA’s major work in Vermont showed how state-level agencies and the legislature were getting it when it came to linking policy to place in their statewide designation program reform, which the SGA team and I had the pleasure of working on, including seeing legislative results.</p>
<p>But this shift towards local leadership cuts both ways. When leadership is decentralized, outcomes become uneven. We’ve seen some places move forward aggressively and perhaps others stall a bit. Many communities are somewhere in between.</p>
<p>The result is a planning landscape that is more innovative but also more fragmented than it was a decade ago.</p>
<h3>2. Zoning moved from obscurity to the mainstream</h3>
<p>In 2015, zoning reform was a niche conversation. To say “zoning” was something left for planning students and could possibly make a person on the street think you’re talking about a sport. For decades, zoning has lived mostly among planners, a handful of advocates, and some academic circles, and outside of that, it rarely broke into broader public discourse.</p>
<p>That’s no longer the case. <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/programs-and-coalitions/center-for-zoning-solutions/">SGA’s Center for Zoning Solutions</a> realizes its salience, and today, zoning is part of the national conversation. Now words like “missing middle housing,” “by-right development,” “single-family zoning,” and “upzoning” appear in local and national newspapers. They are the language of social media debates about place.</p>
<p>In other words, the planner’s obscure language is no longer a set of obscure terms. Zoning has entered the zeitgeist in a way that would have been hard to imagine ten years ago.<br />
And yet, awareness hasn’t made reform easy. If anything, the politics have become more visible, and in many places, more contested.</p>
<p>I had the pleasure of <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/new-analysis-breaking-down-barriers-to-housing-in-tulsa/">working with Tulsa, Oklahoma</a>, for example, with the newest mayor, Monroe Nichols, on major innovations for zoning reform and permitting process reform. While the ideas seem no-brainers, the local community still has a say, and the idea of additional infill still remains contested locally. In Redmond, Washington, the local team would tell me all about the challenges of retail and residential displacement from the pressures of being outside of Seattle and having a new light-rail line. These debates no longer play out only at local hearings but in the major media and across social media.</p>
<p>Zoning didn’t just enter the conversation; it became the conversation. But turning that conversation into durable change remains the hard part.</p>
<h3>3. Be patient with the “Next Big Thing”</h3>
<p>Over the past decade, we’ve seen no shortage of bold predictions about how technology would reshape cities. Maybe this is the part where I start to feel old, but how many grand visions have we heard over the past 10 to 15 years that did not come to pass?</p>
<p>Some of those ideas were compelling and even well-funded. A few were genuinely transformative, but most didn’t quite live up to the early hype. Here are a few of those examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ride-hailing services like Uber were expected to reduce congestion, and the companies made early claims that it was doing exactly that. It didn’t. In many cities, the additional gig-work drivers increased vehicle miles traveled as these neo-taxis spent a significant portion of their miles empty, idling, and waiting for passengers just like taxis of old.</li>
<li>Fully autonomous vehicles were always just around the corner, any day now. Any day! For real! (We still wait).</li>
<li>We learned that Hyperloop was a deliberate distraction meant to divert attention and funds away from traditional transit solutions. Its grandest implementation amounts to a tourist ride in a small part of Las Vegas.</li>
<li>“Moving to opportunity” style housing solutions were seen as a promising way to overhaul housing programs for low-income populations. We eventually learned that the results were more complex, mixed, and tenuous.</li>
<li>“Smart city” technologies promised integrated, real-time urban management, but often delivered incremental improvements rather than systemic change. The zeitgeist surely moved away from where this topic was in 2010, when “smart city” was all the buzz at APA and TRB conferences.</li>
<li>Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure systems remain promising, but not yet widely realized.</li>
<li>Amazon HQ2. Enough said.</li>
<li>Co-working, like WeWork, was to revolutionize the entire office industry and displace billions of square feet of occupancy, according to some. Instead, it’s just another niche space for smaller companies and specific users.</li>
</ul>
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<p>The lesson isn’t that innovation doesn’t matter. It does, and we shouldn’t be fully jaded. But technology alone rarely solves structural problems rooted in land use, pricing, and governance.<br />
The biggest impacts on our cities still come from the oldest tools: how we use land, how we price systems, and how we invest in infrastructure.</p>
<h3>4. The data revolution raised the ceiling—but not the floor</h3>
<p>The last decade has brought an explosion in data. I’ll date myself, but I’m old enough to have used the “Census Transportation Planning Package” as a bundle of 10 CDs to load onto my PC when I was in graduate school in 2008. Data was much harder to come by: the Census Bureau didn’t have APIs until 2012, so these were very new when I started at SGA. I-PUMS’ great web-based user interface was still a new thing, and we were just getting enough ACS 5-year estimates to have a decent time series (the first ACS 3-year estimates didn’t exist until 2010).</p>
<p>We now have access to:</p>
<ul>
<li>parcel-level land use data across large geographies via open web portals at most cities</li>
<li>detailed mobility datasets</li>
<li>real-time transit and traffic information</li>
<li>Cell-phone-based mobility data tracking trips, movement, foot traffic, speed, and anything else you can think of</li>
<li>Most data tools are now web-based and searchable</li>
<li>Highly-accessible satellite data</li>
<li>APIs and tools that make complex analysis far more accessible</li>
</ul>
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<p>In many ways, the technical ceiling of what’s possible has risen dramatically in ways I would’ve never expected a junior planner to be capable of running in 2010. We can measure things today that were essentially invisible in 2015. Across dozens of communities that I’ve worked with, I’ve been able to assemble data or receive data from our partners that have enabled things like fiscal impact analysis, hotspot analysis of real estate values, walkability analysis, and other technical approaches that simply would not have been possible just a few years before. I distinctly remember our USDA rural communities work across dozens of small towns where even communities of less than 15,000 people were able to provide me GIS shapefiles of their parcels, and knew what I was talking about when I asked.</p>
<p>But the floor hasn’t risen at the same pace. Many jurisdictions still face limited staff capacity, constrained budgets, and institutional barriers to using data effectively. Also, while the mid 2010s inspired many data urbanists with promises of more open data, we eventually saw some retrenchment with communities and vendors putting more of that data behind paywalls, request requirements, or black boxes.</p>
<p>And even when the data is available, it doesn’t automatically change decisions. We’ve largely solved the problem of not knowing. We have not solved the problem of acting, which requires sound analysis and wise decision-making.</p>
<h3>5. Housing became the through-line for everything</h3>
<p>Perhaps the most important shift is how central housing has become. Oh, how I feel vindicated by this one! Many of my colleagues and friends recall me saying in planning school and early in my career, in the early 2010s, that despite the global financial crisis, rising housing costs and housing unattainability would be the true problem, as cities were simply not building enough. <br />
A decade ago, housing was often treated as a silo. It was a niche affordability issue, perhaps even disappeared by what seemed like a housing crash that would endure. It was a programmatic concern, or something separate from transportation or economic development</p>
<p>That framing no longer holds.</p>
<p>Today, housing sits at the center of nearly every major planning conversation:</p>
<ul>
<li>economic growth and labor markets</li>
<li>transportation demand and system performance</li>
<li>climate goals and emissions</li>
<li>equity and access to opportunity</li>
</ul>
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<p>Just as importantly, the conversation itself has evolved. There is now a much broader recognition that supply matters a lot, that land-use constraints matter, and that systems (not just programs!) drive outcomes. I had the great opportunity to <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/a-path-forward-for-affordable-housing-in-hawaii/">work with Hawaii AARP</a>, which is now recognizing that housing is a major issue for seniors, and I briefed their enthusiastic state legislator on the issues and approaches to housing in the Aloha State. Our friends at the National Association of Realtors are on top of the housing supply question, realizing that this is not just a question of Realtor transaction volume but one of true policy initiatives. They have a standing smart growth group that I had the privilege to speak to about smart growth, and I am inspired by their leadership here.</p>
<p>This is all to say that more groups are understanding the housing salience question, and this now permeates policy discussions. Housing is no longer just a sector. It’s the system through which many other outcomes are determined.</p>
<h3>A final thought</h3>
<p>After ten years at SGA, one lesson stands out more than any other:</p>
<p><strong>We don’t lack ideas.</strong></p>
<p>We understand the problems, and we have tested solutions and continue to innovate on more. We now have more data than ever before. But what we struggle with is alignment, patience, and follow-through.</p>
<p>Progress in planning and urbanism is rarely about discovering something entirely new. Even writing a whole dissertation doesn’t make one a wise wizard of the planning keys. This is because change requires doing the hard work of implementing what we already know, consistently, over time, and at scale.</p>
<p>That work is slower than we’d like, but it’s also where real change happens.</p>
<p>I’ll miss my friends and amazing colleagues at SGA, who I am confident will continue to work with communities across the country to continue to do this very work and help make this real change happen.</p>
<p>Onward!</p>


Economic Development

Housing

SGA Staff

Ten years of smart growth: Five observations from the field

SGN QD Feb 26

<p><b>The </b><a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/programs-and-coalitions/smartgrowth-org/"><b>Smart Growth Network</b></a><b> (SGN) hosted its first quarterly discussion of 2026 on February 25 in Washington, D.C. SGN is an alliance of over 80 organizations working to advance sustainable, equitable, and healthy land use and infrastructure policies. The network hosts quarterly discussions to provide a space for sharing and elevating emerging ideas, research, and best practices from around the country.</b></p>
<p>February's event focused on the upcoming surface transportation reauthorization and what is needed to deliver significant safety, access, emissions, and other improvements across the U.S. Transportation reauthorization bills typically include <a href="https://t4america.org/resource/community-connectors/how-things-happen/reauthorization-101/">hundreds of billions of dollars</a> in funding for various transportation programs over five to six years. The most recent reauthorization, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), was passed in 2021 and expires on September 30, 2026. Across the discussion, a consistent theme emerged: despite decades of investment, federal transportation policy is not delivering on its stated goals, and without structural changes, more funding alone will not change that.</p>
<p>During the quarterly discussion, Beth Osborne with Smart Growth America, Sarah Kline with SK Solutions, James Bradbury with Georgetown Climate Center, and Yonah Freemark with the Urban Institute offered reflections on previous reauthorizations, opportunities for advancing smart growth in the upcoming reauthorization, and calls for a greater shift in how we think about funding transportation projects.</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zC2_ek5tl8I?si=06TfOsIX1wJt3fD2" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><b>Leaders reflected on how federal transportation policy has fallen short of meeting established goals</b></h3>
<p>Despite reauthorizations having stated goals of improving safety, reducing congestion, maintaining infrastructure condition, protecting the environment, and others since 1991, the US has seen little to no progress in many of these areas over the past few decades. For example, there has been a <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/signature-reports/dangerous-by-design/">75% increase in pedestrian deaths</a> since 2010 despite billions of dollars in spending on safety projects. Significant funding in the IIJA was set aside for intercity rail infrastructure, but due to limited capacity and experience with major non-highway projects, many states and cities have been unable to fully utilize the new funding for projects like new intercity rail lines. Given these challenges, there are concerns about continuing this trend with the upcoming reauthorization and the need to rethink how transportation dollars are allocated.</p>
<h3><b>To inform spending decisions, a new tool helps illustrate the impacts of different types of investments on smart growth goals</b></h3>
<p>Given the misalignment between stated policy goals and actual outcomes, it’s critical that members of the smart growth community have the tools to make the case for better investments. Different investment pathways can have significant implications for greenhouse gas emissions. For example, using dollars from the IIJA, California could make investments that increase carbon emissions by <a href="https://www.georgetownclimate.org/blog/states-in-the-driver-eys-seat.html">16 million metric tons</a> above business-as-usual through 2040, or decrease carbon emissions by 18 million metric tons below business-as-usual. Tools like the Georgetown Climate Center’s <a href="https://www.georgetownclimate.org/blog/tea-cart-landing.html">TEA-CART</a> can give advocates and decision-makers a better way to estimate the impacts of different transportation investments and land-use policies on carbon emissions, air pollution, and more, helping shift the conversation toward outcomes.</p>
<h3><b>While incremental policy wins are valuable, shifts in how legislators view reauthorization are still needed</b></h3>
<p>A few smart growth bills are currently being discussed in Congress that could be incorporated into the reauthorization package, such as the <a href="https://www.multifamilydive.com/news/transit-oriented-development-bill-build-hubs/811161/">Build HUBS Act</a>, which would modify two existing transportation loan programs to make it easier for developers to build more housing near transit. Potential incremental wins like this can represent progress, but many legislators still view reauthorization primarily as a highway-funding bill and measure success by the amount spent on roads. This isn’t new, but a major change will be needed to start seeing real progress toward the legislation's goals.</p>
<h3><b>Across the network, smart growth leaders are eager to see transportation policy reform</b></h3>
<p>After the presentations, attendees asked questions and then gathered in breakout groups to discuss several topics, including their perspectives on reauthorization, how delays and uncertainty in project funding stemming from recent federal actions have impacted state agencies and the private sector, and the need for greater support at the federal level in connecting transportation, housing, and economic development.</p>
<h3><b>What’s Next?</b></h3>
<p>As Congress discusses the next reauthorization, the question is not just how much to spend, but whether the program will finally be structured to deliver the outcomes it promises.</p>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/zC2_ek5tl8I"><i>A recording of the event can be found here</i></a><i>. If you are interested in joining the Smart Growth Network for future discussions on timely policy issues related to smart growth, please complete this short </i><a href="https://forms.gle/ybtuLZAFCjxYXmED6"><i>membership interest form</i></a><i> and a member of our executive committee will reach out.</i></p>


Smart Growth Network

Recap: February 2026 Smart Growth Network Quarterly Discussion on Surface Transportation Reauthorization

Transportation

Maneesh Krishnan photo

<p><strong>SGA’s Community Connectors is a year-long program that supports teams in three small and mid-sized communities as they work to repair divisive infrastructure, improve safety outcomes, and advance lasting community reconnections. The program centers collaboration by bringing together community-based organizations with local government partners in learning sessions and hands-on workshops for quick-build demonstration projects.</strong></p>
<p>At its core, Community Connectors is about people. This blog series highlights participants leading the work, offering a glimpse into their journeys and deep commitment to creating safer, connected communities. In this second round of participant profiles, we are featuring Connectors who work in city government.</p>
<p>Get to know Maneesh Krishnan, a co-lead for Little Rock, AR, in this year’s <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-center/three-communities-selected-to-learn-about-and-design-quick-build-demonstration-projects/">Community Connectors</a> program. Maneesh is the Director of Public Works for the City of Little Rock.</p>
<figure id="attachment_113702" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-113702" style="width: 1004px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-113702 size-full" src="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Maneesh-Krishnan.jpg" alt="Man sitting and smiling up at the camera while sitting at a desk in an office. " width="1004" height="760" srcset="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Maneesh-Krishnan.jpg 1004w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Maneesh-Krishnan-300x227.jpg 300w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Maneesh-Krishnan-768x581.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1004px) 100vw, 1004px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-113702" class="wp-caption-text">Photo courtesy of Maneesh Krishnan</figcaption></figure>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>The conversation below has been condensed and lightly edited.</em></p>
<h3>What got you interested in transportation, planning, and reconnecting your community?</h3>
<p>I went into engineering not really knowing exactly what my interest was going to be, but I was always interested in construction. When I first came to the U.S., I joined a master's program and got into transportation safety, reducing crashes, and improving safety for all road users. My first professional job was an internship with the City of Little Rock in 2006. Once I finished my master’s degree, I worked in the private sector for 16 years, and then came back to the city as an assistant director, and now I'm the Director of Public Works. From the beginning of my professional career, safety is what has driven everything.</p>
<h3>What are you excited to bring to the cohort? What past experience do you want to share that your team can learn from?</h3>
<p>While working in the private sector and now in public service, I've had the opportunity to work on projects like this. In my previous job at McClelland Engineering, we helped out with traffic counts for the <a href="https://www.littlerockchamber.com/o/lrrc/page/createlittlerock-puitr-2018">Markham Street PopUp</a>, a very successful pop-up that eventually became a construction project. My team at McClelland did the design. It's not yet done, so I'm on the city side of the table now with that project. I've seen that project go from a pop-up to a $2 million project that has become a reality. I'm excited to bring that experience, and I'm excited to learn from others. There's a lot you can learn from these kinds of projects.</p>
<h3>What's something that you've learned so far from this program that you'd want your colleagues to know?</h3>
<p>Knowing the history of the place where you live is very important. I say that because, honestly, I didn't know much about the history of Ninth Street until <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/community-connectors-participant-spotlight-ernest-banks/">Ernest</a> [Banks, director of studioMAIN and Community Connectors co-lead] talked to me about it. I was like, “Wow, that is just down the street from where I work, and I didn't really know much about it.” That's the number one thing I would say: know the history of your place.</p>
<p>The other thing I would say is that if there's an initiative that you want to take to improve an area in your city, no initiative is too small. Big things come from small ideas sometimes.</p>
<h3>What advice would you have for someone looking to start projects like these?</h3>
<p>Don't be afraid to share your ideas. Network, get to know people, and spread the word. Getting people to know what's going on is very important.</p>
<h3>What does success look like to you?</h3>
<p>In general, success for me is being able to drive around and see all these projects that I've been able to work on in my community. That my family's enjoying those areas, that there are parks and facilities I've worked on in the city. In this case, being a part of a team that's able to make that a reality and restore Ninth Street’s history and heritage would be awesome.</p>
<h3>What do you hope to leave behind for your community?</h3>
<p>Having sustainable infrastructure that improves the quality of life of our residents and also has a sense of history. A place that's rooted in its history and that is sustainable really is successful.</p>
<h3>What is one go-to resource every person doing this work should have in their toolbox for demonstration projects?</h3>
<p>Being able to communicate is going to be really important because you have so many people you need to work with to get something like this accomplished. Just like how Ernest has been going around, talking to each entity and person, trying to get everybody to the table. There are so many other things you need to get this kind of project done, but being able to get everybody together, communicate, and get expectations set is very important.</p>
<h3>Do you have any communication strategies, tips, or tricks?</h3>
<p>If you have the floor and you have an audience, you’ve got to really know who you're talking to and how quickly you need to make an impact. Make sure you make the best use of your time and drill the point across in an effective way. Communication is something everybody starts with at a different level. You have to learn what your strengths are and then work on your weaknesses.</p>


Community Connectors

Community Connectors spotlight: Maneesh Krishnan, Director of Public Works in Little Rock, AR

Technical assistance

DSC06356

<p>Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) represented a historic moment in federal funding for transportation safety. For the first time, local communities could apply directly for funds to address urgent safety and accessibility issues they face daily. These funds provided communities of all sizes with opportunities to establish safety action plans, gather critical data, and explore new designs and materials through quick-build demonstrations. <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-safe-streets-for-all-grants-in-2026/">As detailed in our overview of the 2026 SS4A program</a>, this year’s NOFO includes updated priorities and considerations that applicants should carefully navigate. With the final round of applications due by Tuesday, May 26, 2026, Smart Growth America wants to ensure communities are prepared to access the resources they need to create safer, healthier, and more connected places.</p>
<p>Since 2023, Smart Growth America has worked with communities to secure over $8 million in SS4A planning and demonstration grants. SGA’s decades of experience implementing proven safety countermeasures—such as quick-build demonstrations—combined with strong relationships with federal partners, allows our team to navigate an evolving policy landscape and position communities for success. For the first time, SGA is opening up this support to communities across the country to make the most of what may be the final year of SS4A funding.</p>
<p><strong>Participating communities will receive support for planning and demonstration grants, including:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Project scoping support</li>
<li>Partner identification and recruitment</li>
<li>Review of draft grant application materials</li>
<li>Identification of additional funding sources, if appropriate</li>
</ul>
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<p><strong>Specifically, communities will receive:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>An initial staff-facilitated scoping and brainstorming call</li>
<li>Strategic advice on project framing, letters of support, and other materials to strengthen competitiveness</li>
<li>Up to two rounds of draft application review</li>
<li>Assistance locating relevant data, resources, and peer examples</li>
</ul>
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<p>[alert type="info"]This program is available to communities with populations up to 250,000. Services will be provided through the deadline of the May 26 NOFO deadline. <strong><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScn8RPdZyurW5SSgKHlNIjZrCsoKAGTmra4G0G88FU44w0suQ/viewform?usp=sharing&amp;ouid=104508320995640583198">If you’re interested in learning more about this opportunity—including pricing—please complete this short form</a></strong>. [/alert]</p>
<p>To better understand what’s changed in the 2026 SS4A program and how to position a strong application, <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-safe-streets-for-all-grants-in-2026/">read our full breakdown here</a>.</p>
<p><strong>To learn more about SGA’s experience with SS4A, check out these resources:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/success-stories-versailles-kentucky-receives-safe-streets-for-all-funding/">Success stories: Versailles, Kentucky receives Safe Streets for All funding</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/six-things-to-know-about-applying-for-the-next-round-of-safe-streets-for-all-funding/">Six things to know about applying for the next round of Safe Streets for All funding</a> (2024)</li>
</ul>


SS4A

Apply now: Get SGA support for your 2026 SS4A application

Little Rock, AR Quick-Build

<p><b>USDOT has made the final round of grants from the </b><a href="https://www.transportation.gov/grants/ss4a/fy26-nofo"><b>Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program available</b></a><b>. This final guaranteed round of funding for SS4A looks a bit different from the original version of the program. Here’s what you need to know:</b></p>
<p>SS4A’s historic inclusion in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) allowed local communities to apply directly for federal funds to address the urgent safety and accessibility issues they see on a daily basis, instead of having to go through their state DOTs. SS4A funds provided communities of all sizes with opportunities to establish safety action plans and programs, gather necessary data, and explore new designs and materials through the use of <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/programs-and-coalitions/national-complete-streets-coalition/quick-build-demonstration-projects/">quick-build demonstration projects</a>. But to win a grant from this year’s pool of funds, your approach to describing your safety efforts may need to change.</p>
<p>This year, about $1 billion is available for SS4A awards: $305 million for Planning &amp; Demonstration and $688 million for Implementation. The program’s priorities have shifted to focus more on “Public Safety Infrastructure” (response and enforcement) than street design improvements that may inconvenience drivers (prevention), but you can still use these funds to make positive change in your community. Here are five things to know:</p>
<h3><b>1. The basic structure of the grant program is the same</b></h3>
<p>The two types of grants available are Planning &amp; Demonstration and Implementation (we will focus mostly on Planning &amp; Demonstration here). Eligible activities are still: develop a new Action Plan, conduct supplemental planning to update an Action Plan, and inform an Action Plan with demonstration activities, all of which can be bundled together <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-center/supercharge-your-communitys-safety-demonstration-projects-with-safe-streets-for-all/">to best fit</a> <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-center/six-things-to-know-about-applying-for-the-next-round-of-safe-streets-for-all-funding/">your community’s needs</a>. As you can tell, the SS4A activities are all centered on the <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/grants/ss4a/comprehensive-safety-action-plans">Safety Action Plan</a>, which is meant to help your community implement the <a href="http://transportation.gov/NRSS/SafeSystem">Safe System Approach</a>. Merits of this wheel aside (we prefer the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198223001525">pyramid</a>!), Safe Systems continues to be at the core of SS4A.</p>
<h3><b>2. Priorities in the program have (unsurprisingly) changed</b></h3>
<p>With all the <a href="https://usa.streetsblog.org/2025/07/09/removing-rainbow-crosswalks-wont-make-americas-arterials-safer">anti-pedestrian</a>, <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/trump-administration-ready-to-kick-bicyclists-off-of-americas-front-yard/">anti-bike</a>, and <a href="https://t4america.org/2025/07/09/no-safety-and-no-speed-the-trump-administration-is-implementing-funds-for-safety-grants-to-towns-and-cities-at-about-ten-percent-of-the-speed-of-the-previous-administration/">anti-safety</a> moves from the current administration, it is no surprise that SS4A's priorities have changed this year. There’s a notable new priority of “Public Safety Infrastructure.” This nebulous category includes “hardware, software, systems, technologies, equipment, protocols, facilities, and coordination models” for medical services, fire, and law enforcement to “prevent, respond to, or reduce the severity of roadway crashes.” While adding these elements introduces a new layer of complexity, we strongly recommend obtaining letters of support from public safety partners—including EMS, fire services, law enforcement, trauma system partners, and first responder labor unions—to elevate this priority in your application. Prevention is key to safety, and we hope applicants can be creative in partnering with their emergency response teams to test road designs that support public safety by preventing dangerous crashes before they happen.</p>
<p>This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) also includes a list of “favorable considerations” and “less favorable considerations.” A few favorable considerations that stand out are:</p>
<ul>
<li><i>Letters of support, especially from relevant stakeholders and Public Safety Agencies and associated Labor Unions representing First Responders</i></li>
<li><i>Applicants in a rural area</i></li>
<li><i>Beautifying transportation infrastructure with context-appropriate design and/or child-friendly elements</i></li>
</ul>
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<p>Rural areas in particular should not overlook this opportunity for safety funding. Keep these considerations in mind when putting together your application: <b>work with many stakeholders and prioritize children's safety.</b> (For example: automated traffic enforcement is not favorable <i>unless</i> it’s within school zones, so focus on your school zones!).</p>
<p>The “less favorable considerations” in this year’s NOFO are similarly unsurprising. Any perception of taking away space from cars, impeding vehicular flow, or generally harshing on drivers’ vibe is not going to be well received. When you propose strategies that make roads safer by slowing down cars, be sure to emphasize the known safety benefits for <i>everyone</i> on the road. <i>Check back soon for more ideas to keep safety at the heart of your application.</i></p>
<h3><b>3. You should apply for a Planning &amp; Demonstration grant!</b></h3>
<p>USDOT anticipates awarding a little over $305 million in this category, which will be somewhere between 400 and 700 awards ranging from $100,000 to $5 million each. SS4A is unique in that federal funds go directly to cities and other local jurisdictions, bypassing state DOTs, which usually are in charge of funneling transportation money down from the feds. This is also the easiest federal grant application you will ever see: a two-page narrative if you’re requesting less than $1 million in Planning &amp; Demonstration funds, a three-page narrative if you’re requesting $1 million or more. Prior awardees in either category <i>are</i> eligible to apply for additional funds, even if an Action Plan is still in development. There is still a lot of funding available in this program, and the 20 percent local match can be made in cash or in-kind. Go for it!</p>
<h3><b>4. Quick-builds are still eligible demonstration projects</b></h3>
<p>Even with the less favorable considerations for projects that could be perceived as anti-car, quick-builds and temporary street installations were referenced in the NOFO and should still be included in your applications. We know that street design is the most effective strategy to improve safety for everyone, and quick-build projects are a way to get near-term improvements to your community through an SS4A Planning &amp; Demonstration grant. Your application doesn’t have to go into your demonstration project proposal in great detail—you can determine the specific sites and designs as part of the work if your project is awarded. Just be sure to frame your project in terms of the priorities described above and use the data you collect for your project to inform or update a Safety Action Plan.</p>
<h3><b>5. These are (still) not serious people</b></h3>
<p>USDOT is demonstrating once again that it is still clearly not serious about actual safety improvements that will result in fewer deaths and injuries. The way that safety improvements must take a back seat to preserving vehicle capacity at all costs is just yet another perfect example of how safety is a priority in words only, and regularly loses out when it has to compete with other “priorities.” The slow roll of grant agreements and the <a href="https://t4america.org/2026/03/26/the-trump-administration-tried-to-rip-out-a-bike-lane-in-dc-theyre-trying-to-do-the-same-nationwide/">threat</a> of existing grants being pulled show as much, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn't keep safety at the center of our applications. With “beautifying transportation infrastructure” and “child-friendly elements” listed as favorable SS4A considerations, you might expect they’d mean murals, street trees, narrow lanes, protected crosswalks, and separated bike lanes, but we see USDOT <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-center/the-economic-and-health-costs-of-cutting-funding-for-family-friendly-communities/">cutting funding for</a> and removing these truly wonderful parts of street design across the U.S.</p>
<p>We will see how the DOT’s incongruous priorities lead to actual safety improvements, but that won’t stop us from putting together great plans for <i>real</i> outcomes.</p>
<p>[alert type="info"] Smart Growth America has already helped communities secure over $8 million in SS4A funding and is now offering limited support to help more communities succeed in what may be the final round. <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/apply-now-get-sga-support-for-your-2026-ss4a-application/">Learn more about the opportunity here.</a>[/alert]</p>
<p><b>Applications are due Tuesday, May 26, 2026, at 5 pm EDT.</b></p>


Application Support

Safe Streets for All

What you need to know about Safe Streets and Roads for All grants in 2026

Chris Rall Presenting

<p>After 16 years with Smart Growth America and Transportation for America, we’re saying thank you to Chris Rall as he steps into his next chapter.</p>
<p>Chris has been central to building and energizing the T4America and LOCUS networks, helping connect partners across the country, keeping members engaged with what’s happening in DC, and making sure local voices are shaping the conversation. From his early days as an Oregon field organizer to his role as Outreach Director, he helped keep our work grounded in real communities.</p>
<p>Chris understands that this work only succeeds when people show up and push for change where they live. As he put it, “You make the movement.”</p>
<p>We’re grateful for everything he’s built and the role he’s played in strengthening the organization over the years.</p>
<p>[button type="primary" size="lg" link="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/what-i-learned-in-16-years-at-smart-growth-america/"] Read Chris's reflections on 16 years at SGA [/button]</p>


Thanking Chris Rall for 16 years at Smart Growth America

Steve and Chris R at Transportation Camp

<h2><b>After 16 years with Smart Growth America and Transportation for America, here are some things I’ve learned along the way.</b></h2>
<p>When SGA hired me as the Oregon field organizer for the Transportation for America campaign in 2010, I had some experience with local transportation and housing advocacy, but was brand-new to federal issues. This was the first time I had direct access to colleagues who were national experts on these topics. I had the opportunity to talk with local elected leaders, agency staff, and advocates in Oregon, and eventually, across the country as my responsibilities and turf expanded.</p>
<p>Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot in the last 16 years and want to take the opportunity to share a few. Here are three things that jumped out as the most important.</p>
<h3><b>1. Leaders need to catch up with the market</b></h3>
<p>More Americans want to live in vibrant, walkable, bikeable, transit-accessible communities than we have built. SGA has demonstrated this in a variety of ways, including our <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/signature-reports/foot-traffic-ahead/rankings/">Foot Traffic Ahead reports</a> and reports on the <a href="http://smartgrowthamerica.org/resources/evaluating-complete-streets-projects-a-guide-for-practitioners/">economic value of Complete Streets</a>. Not only this, but <a href="https://t4america.org/2023/06/29/new-survey-82-percent-of-voters-dont-believe-highway-expansions-are-the-best-solution-for-reducing-congestion/">polls also show</a> that Americans recognize the futility of widening highways to cure congestion.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, most leaders are out of touch with this reality, especially in Congress. Members of Congress are, on average, older, whiter, and wealthier than average Americans. U.S. Senators and other statewide elected officials are typically wildly out of touch with what their constituents want. One reason is that many of them consider what their state DOT says to be the only opinion worth listening to on transportation. That’s like asking Shaquille O’Neal for advice on how to play soccer.  While many state DOTs are evolving, they were originally tasked with building our now-completed highway system. Unfortunately, they are interminably slow to recognize the <a href="https://t4america.org/2020/03/05/the-congestion-con-youve-been-played/">diminishing returns and futility of continued highway widening</a>, even though most Americans do. Instead, they usually either fail to educate state-level decisionmakers on the downsides and wastefulness of widening highways, or worse, actively advocate for highway expansion.</p>
<p>Leadership really matters, and having elected leaders who “get it” makes a big difference. We’re starting to see more and more outstanding elected leaders, particularly at the local level. Just to name a few, I’ve had the chance to work with: Former Emeryville Mayor <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llAZpNd5v44">John Bauters</a>, who worked with his council member colleagues to staff the city with planners and engineers who are rapidly building out Dutch-quality complete streets and ample affordable housing. Cambridge, MA, City Council member <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/9/22/azeem-profile-2025/">Burhan Azeem</a> led a successful effort to end single-family zoning to build more housing. State Sen. <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2021/11/18/oregon-odot-portland-82nd-avenue-local-control/">Khanh Pham</a> helped transfer ownership of one of the most dangerous streets in Oregon from the state DOT to the City of Portland with funding for safety improvements, medians with trees to diminish heat island effects, and major progress toward the city's second bus rapid transit line. A few leaders whom I never had a chance to meet also come to mind: State Sen. <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/12077281/scott-wiener-passed-laws-making-it-easier-to-build-in-california-can-he-do-the-same-in-congress">Scott Weiner</a> has advanced countless bills substantially moving the needle on California’s housing crisis, and North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong spearheaded a <a href="https://www.commerce.nd.gov/community-services/community-development-rural-prosperity/about-cdrp/smart-efficient-infrastructure">fiscally conservative approach</a> to land-use development that reduces infrastructure costs.</p>
<h3><b>2. Understand the moment and act on it</b></h3>
<p>In endeavoring to explain the value that SGA’s transportation advocacy wing, Transportation for America, brings to its <a href="https://t4america.org/about/membership/">members</a>, I’ve come to describe it as cross-sector and vision-driven. This distinguishes T4America from the many other national associations that, by design, have to move at the speed of their slowest member. Because T4America is more nimble and bold, some of our most impactful actions came from understanding a unique moment and taking the lead to act on it.</p>
<p>The first example of this was something I like to call a “send us more Martians” moment. In Kurt Vonnegut’s 1959 novel <i>Sirens of Titan</i>, when Earth handily repels a failed invasion from Mars, easily shooting Martians in their backyards before they can even land, Boca Raton Mayor Ross L. McSwann says, “Send us more Martians.” While <i>Sirens</i> is more tragically layered, the axiom I wish to convey here is: When someone does something terrible and terribly unpopular, it’s an opportunity for those poised to stop it.</p>
<p>In 2012, the Republican majority passed a transportation bill out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that removed public transit from the Highway Trust Fund. T4America sprang into action and put together a sign-on letter that, in <a href="https://t4america.org/2012/02/03/house-committee-ignores-broad-opposition-decimates-transit-funding-anyway/">24 hours, garnered over 600 organizations and elected officials</a> opposing the move. Once members of Congress realized they all had public transit in their districts, House leadership couldn’t get enough votes to bring this horrible bill to the floor. While we managed to stop a harmful action that day, T4America also built its credibility as a nimble but powerful force. Send us more Martians, indeed!</p>
<p>T4America’s nimbleness and foresight haven’t always been about blocking bad actions. It has also helped us to force action. This happened twice during the first Trump administration—once to get transit grants moving, and again to spur Congress to rescue public transit at the start of the COVID pandemic. </p>
<p>A year or two into the first Trump administration, it started to become clear that the Federal Transit Administration was slow-walking transit project grants, using obfuscatory language to mislead the public and Congress about what they were up to. They mixed up terms like “awarded,” “advanced,” and “obligated”—terms with very different legal meanings when it comes to the status of grants. T4America once again stepped in, creating a tool we called “<a href="https://t4america.org/2018/08/13/trump-administration-has-effectively-halted-the-pipeline-of-new-transit-projects/">Stuck in the Station</a>,” which tracked how much funding was available for transit projects and what proportion was actually obligated to projects with signed grant agreements. The web page also included a great photo of a no-nonsense train commuter from a New York City suburb (relatable to this writer, originally from New Jersey), looking annoyed that his fricking train hasn’t arrived yet. Our work provided sunlight and accountability so that members of Congress could pressure the administration to sign full-funding grant agreements, get funding obligated to transit projects, and get transit projects built in their districts. (We’re going to need to replicate this campaign and transit grants moving once again: The Trump administration has yet to advance a single transit capital project in their tenure so far, a new record for slowness.)</p>
<figure id="attachment_113674" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-113674" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-113674 size-large" src="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/waiting-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="Group of people standing on an outdoor platform waiting for a train to arrive." width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/waiting-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/waiting-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/waiting-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/waiting-1.jpg 1500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-113674" class="wp-caption-text">Image from T4America’s Stuck in the Station tool.</figcaption></figure>
<div class="wp-block-spacer" style="height: 20px;" aria-hidden="true"> </div>
<p>When the COVID-19 pandemic started to dramatically impact lives in the early spring of 2020, we quickly realized that this would be a crisis for public transit. Most Americans were staying home in lockdown, and the whole economy was shutting down. Overnight, transit agencies lost almost all of their fare and sales tax revenue. But transit couldn’t shut down because essential workers still needed it to get to jobs that enabled us to eat, access the hospital, have drinking water and sewage, and other essential services until we flattened the infection curve enough to open back up. Transit agencies were about to go broke. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) made a tepid call for Congress to pony up $12.9 billion. We could clearly see that it was nowhere near enough. Eventually, our ask of <a href="https://t4america.org/2020/03/26/congress-heard-you-deal-struck-with-25-billion-in-emergency-funding-for-transit/">$25 billion</a> was included in the CARES Act, and Congress went on to pass two more tranches of aid, for a total of $69.5 billion. </p>
<h3><b>3. You won’t see the cracks until the wall breaks</b></h3>
<p>When I ponder how the smart growth movement can break through and radically change our built environment for the better, I look to the gay rights movement. In 2008, California passed Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage. Thanks to the hard work of many, less than five years later, the Supreme Court ruled the measure unconstitutional, and public opinion quickly shifted such that a gay marriage ban was almost unthinkable in most states by that point.</p>
<p>We won’t necessarily know when a rapid, sudden shift in the smart growth movement is coming. But there are signs it could be soon. I mentioned the market conditions, polling, and work of local leaders above. The housing reform movement, in particular, has passed powerful legislation at the state level that is changing the rules on the ground for delivering more housing where people need it. More than 5,000 places have <a href="https://parkingreform.org/resources/mandates-map/">reformed parking requirements</a>.</p>
<p>Underlying all these victories is a change in the way people see things. For example, SGA Senior Policy Advisor John Robert Smith and Chris Zimmerman (at the time SGA’s vice president of economic development) counseled Mayor Ronny Walker of Ruston, Louisiana, on the costly trade-offs of outward versus inward growth. After this, <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/we-have-a-wonderful-downtown-but-it-is-still-underutilized/">Mayor Walker made a “180” turn-around</a>, canceling outward annexation and focusing growth in existing neighborhoods and the downtown. He has become a champion of the movement. Once you see the wisdom of a smart growth approach, you can’t unsee it. Come to think of it, this is why I became an advocate years ago and have stayed at it. Once you see a better way of doing things, you just can't stand seeing the old ways continue!</p>
<p>I’m moving on to new opportunities, but I know that SGA is going to keep shining like a beacon of wisdom until the tired old ways of highway expansion and sprawl crawl away into the dark dustbin of history where they belong.</p>


Advocacy

congress

Federal advocacy

Local Leaders

public transit

What I learned in 16 years at Smart Growth America

our staff

Housing and Development team

<p>After more than a decade with Smart Growth America, we’re saying thank you to Miguel Rodríguez as he steps into a new role at Cushman &amp; Wakefield.</p>
<p>Miguel has been a driving force behind our research, from co-authoring Foot Traffic Ahead to helping dozens of communities understand the real fiscal and economic impacts of development and infrastructure decisions. His work brought clarity and a deep commitment to advancing smart growth in practice.</p>
<p>We’re grateful for his leadership as our Director of Research and for the many ways he strengthened our work over the years.</p>
<p>We’re excited to see him bring smart growth principles into the commercial real estate world, and we’re glad this isn’t goodbye. Miguel will continue to advise SGA as a visiting research fellow.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/image3.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-113669" src="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/image3-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="768" srcset="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/image3-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/image3-300x225.jpg 300w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/image3-768x576.jpg 768w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/image3-1536x1153.jpg 1536w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/image3.jpg 1999w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


Staff

Miguel Rodríguez departs SGA after more than a decade of impact on our work

Screenshot 2026-04-02 at 4.15.39 PM

<p>They say that “What gets measured, gets managed.” How about something that gets mis-measured, then shared out in a misleading press release 16 months after the counting is done…? That’s what happened with the 2024 <a href="https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813791">Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)</a> data released yesterday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The 2024 data was overshadowed in <a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/traffic-deaths-2025-early-estimates-2024-annual">a press release</a> with a bold headline claiming “Record-Low Traffic Deaths &amp; Fatality Rates in 2025.” In reality, that claim is only true if you use a dubious metric and look sideways with one eye closed.</p>
<p>To be clear, only the 2024 data is finalized. The 2025 data is an estimate. Although we are glad to see data being released, we are disappointed to note that there remains a huge delay (about 16 months since the end of the year). There has always been a delay, but <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/far-more-people-walking-were-struck-and-killed-in-2021-than-previously-predicted/#:~:text=Up%20until%20a,public%20to%20access.">it used to be less than a year</a>. In a world of increasingly sophisticated data collection and analysis, one would expect the gap to shrink, not grow.</p>
<h3><b>Let’s talk about the data (spoiler alert: the news isn’t as great as the headline suggests)</b></h3>
<p>First and foremost, the number of people dying on America’s roadways is still at historic highs, not lows. It is true that there is a small dip in the number of people killed from 2023 to 2024. If you only looked at these two years (the data release for overall deaths only includes two years), it might look like things are improving. And we are glad to see progress, but this is no time for a victory lap.</p>
<p>If we look at data from the last ten years (from the <a href="https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx">NHTSA website</a>), the actual story is less uplifting. Rather than hitting record lows, fatalities are actually back to the approximate 2019-2020 levels and far above 2014. There was a spike in road deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we may be coming down from that, but the numbers (representing people's lives) are still unacceptable.</p>
<div style="overflow-x: auto;">
<table style="width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 14px;">
<thead>
<tr>
<th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px; text-align: left; white-space: nowrap;">Year</th>
<th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">2024</th>
<th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">2023</th>
<th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">2022</th>
<th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">2021</th>
<th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">2020</th>
<th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">2019</th>
<th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">2018</th>
<th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">2017</th>
<th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">2016</th>
<th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">2015</th>
<th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">2014</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px; text-align: left; white-space: nowrap;">Total Occupants and Nonoccupants Killed in Traffic Crashes</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;"><b>39,254</b></td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">40,901</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">42,721</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">43,230</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;"><b>39,007</b></td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;"><b>36,355</b></td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">36,835</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">37,473</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">37,806</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">35,484</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 6px;">32,744</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="wp-block-spacer" style="height: 20px;" aria-hidden="true"> </div>
<p>Even with this latest decrease, the number of fatalities and rate per 100,000 people is still way above any country that we would consider a peer. We don’t have to live like this, people!</p>
<figure id="attachment_113611" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-113611" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.15.39-PM.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-113611 size-large" src="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.15.39-PM-1024x687.png" alt="" width="1024" height="687" srcset="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.15.39-PM-1024x687.png 1024w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.15.39-PM-300x201.png 300w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.15.39-PM-768x516.png 768w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.15.39-PM-1536x1031.png 1536w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.15.39-PM.png 2038w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-113611" class="wp-caption-text">Source: International Transport Forum Road Safety Annual Report 2025</figcaption></figure>
<div class="wp-block-spacer" style="height: 20px;" aria-hidden="true"> </div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Finally, the research note released by NHTSA indicates that they use Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) to calculate fatality rates, which is inappropriate and misleading. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-10/how-deadly-are-us-roads-it-depends-on-how-you-count-traffic-fatalities">David Zipper has brilliantly pointed out</a> the faults in this ludicrous metric (which he likens to “...trying to reduce the number of cancer deaths per cigarette smoked). We haven’t crunched the numbers to fact check yet, but it’s likely that much of the “decrease” that the press release brags about for 2025 data is actually due to an increase of miles being driven rather than lives being saved. Progress?</p>
<h3><b>Other ridiculous points from the press release</b></h3>
<figure id="attachment_113608" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-113608" style="width: 225px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Courtney-and-Dustin-in-front-of-a-big-car.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-113608" src="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Courtney-and-Dustin-in-front-of-a-big-car-225x300.png" alt="" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Courtney-and-Dustin-in-front-of-a-big-car-225x300.png 225w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Courtney-and-Dustin-in-front-of-a-big-car-768x1024.png 768w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Courtney-and-Dustin-in-front-of-a-big-car-1152x1536.png 1152w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Courtney-and-Dustin-in-front-of-a-big-car.png 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-113608" class="wp-caption-text">A colleague and I in front of a truck</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>To explain the supposed improvements in road safety, the press release points to crackdowns on “unqualified truckers” and “making newer and safer cars more affordable for American families.”</strong></p>
<p>Safer—for whom? The NHTSA press release doesn’t even mention people walking, biking, or rolling. At SGA, we constantly point out that America’s streets are <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/signature-reports/dangerous-by-design/">Dangerous by Design</a>, especially for people outside of cars. There are multiple reasons for this. For example, as you may have heard (or seen and felt), American vehicles are getting <a href="https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/02/12/suv-health-hazard">bigger and bigger</a>.</p>
<div class="wp-block-spacer" style="height: 20px;" aria-hidden="true"> </div>
<p>More affordable—Is that true? Looking at the latest numbers from <a href="https://www.kbb.com/car-news/average-new-car-price-drops-20k-car-likely-dead/">Kelly Blue Book</a>, they still look pretty high to me. And even if the purchase price is slightly lower, what about other costs (like the currently skyrocketing gas prices)?</p>
<p>And truckers?—I’m skeptical that efforts on large trucks (responsible for about 14% of overall deaths) made much of a difference, but I guess we will find out a year from now when last year's data gets released (confusing, I know).</p>
<figure id="attachment_113610" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-113610" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.16.24-PM.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-113610 size-large" src="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.16.24-PM-1024x531.png" alt="" width="1024" height="531" srcset="https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.16.24-PM-1024x531.png 1024w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.16.24-PM-300x156.png 300w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.16.24-PM-768x398.png 768w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.16.24-PM-1536x797.png 1536w, https://wordpress.smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-4.16.24-PM-2048x1062.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-113610" class="wp-caption-text">Caption: NHTSA’s own report shows that vehicles are getting safer for people inside them and more dangerous for people outside them.</figcaption></figure>
<h3><b>What happens now?</b></h3>
<p>Here at Smart Growth America, we will be digging into the data to really understand the trends and patterns. Our analysis and key findings will be released later this year in our Dangerous by Design report.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://highways.dot.gov/safety/proven-safety-countermeasures">federal government knows the solutions to making roads safer</a>. Unfortunately, the current <a href="https://t4america.org/2026/03/26/the-trump-administration-tried-to-rip-out-a-bike-lane-in-dc-theyre-trying-to-do-the-same-nationwide/">administration seems more interested in undermining safety efforts</a>. NHTSA and the federal government should take safety seriously. Focus on doing things that make people safe, not score political points with divisive actions like <a href="https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hub/news/trump-administration-ready-to-kick-bicyclists-off-of-americas-front-yard/">removing a popular bike lane on the National Mall</a> that has reduced fatal crashes.</p>
<p>Everyone else—keep pressure up. Pay attention to these numbers: even if there’s a dip, they are still far higher than any of our peer countries. We don’t have to live like this!</p>


Dangerous by Design

NHTSA

Pedestrian safety

USDOT claims record low traffic deaths. Job done? Really? 

samuel-schroth-L8lbuhnSPD8-unsplash

<p><strong>People across the country are facing a widespread affordability crisis, especially when it comes to housing and transportation. Right now, Congress has a real opportunity to take meaningful action.</strong></p>
<p>The House is actively negotiating a sweeping bipartisan housing package—the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act—that includes key provisions to reduce barriers to housing production, support zoning reform, and better connect housing to jobs, services, and transportation.</p>
<p>But decisions are being made now about whether this bill moves forward. <strong>We need your voice to ensure this legislation is signed into law.</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://smartgrowthamerica.salsalabs.org/21st_century_road_to_housing_2026">Take two minutes to contact your members of Congress and urge them to pass this important legislation</a>. This is the most significant housing bill in generations, and, if passed, it would help communities build more affordable homes that are better connected to jobs and services and that meet people’s needs at every stage of life.</p>
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