Learn tools and strategies for community wealth-building and preventing displacement at the Equitable Brownfields Redevelopment event, part of continued programming of Smart Growth America’s Equity Summit.

Equity Forum

Environmental Justice

Equity Summit

Events

National Brownfields Coalition

Equity Forum: Equitable Brownfields Redevelopment (April 5, 2022)

Keynote with Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson

Panel Discussion | Equity Forum: Upending Cultural Displacement

Our Equity Forum: Upending Cultural Displacement featured key thought leaders and practitioners who discussed the complex relationship between smart growth and cultural displacement, as well as shared innovative strategies for preserving and protecting neighborhood culture during change.

Browse the Video Hub

Advancing Racial Equity

Arts and Culture

creative placemaking

Cultural displacement

Cultural Preservation

Equity Forum Recap: Protecting and preserving culture during change

Welcome and Framing Presentation

In this presentation, get a firsthand look at the housing issues facing the DC region, as well as the opportunities presented by ETOD.

Panel - Creative Approaches to Funding Equitable TOD

In the last few years, funding for affordable housing and transportation in our region has surged. What can we learn from this?

Panel - Replicable Policies to Advance Equitable TOD

The DC region is currently in the midst of a major transit expansion. How can we ensure that everyone has the chance to benefit from these projects?

Calvin Gladney Keynote

To open the conversation Liz Price, Vice President of Real Estate &amp; Parking at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, highlighted how important teamwork between private sector partners and creative leaders is to building and completing complex projects. Price also uplifted WMATA’s partnership with Amazon Housing Equity Fund which has resulted in 1,000 units of affordable housing near transit stations. Finally, Price mentioned that including local partners is critical to building housing in the right locations and avoiding housing in the wrong locations.
Following Liz was Vice-Chair of the Arlington County Board, Christian Dorsey, who also spoke on affordable housing and regionally-focused planning. In his presentation, Dorsey detailed the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments’ Region United: Washington Metro Planning Framework for 2030, which includes a list of priorities around smart growth principles, such as equity, transit, land use and housing, and climate change.
“Regional thinking is necessary to bring scale to solving the problems of today,” Dorsey said.

SGA President and CEO Calvin Gladney gave the event’s keynote speech, uplifting equity and access as key priorities so that communities can thrive. Gladney emphasized that inequity is institutionalized and its impacts can be clearly seen in issues around housing access, environmental racism, and quality of life for Black and Brown communities.
Gladney concluded his presentation with a call to action, asking leaders and communities to use every tool at their disposal to make cities and towns more equitable for every person who lives there.
“We have to partner, we have to collaborate, and as leaders, we have to put a thumb on the scale.” – Calvin Gladney, President and CEO, Smart Growth America

Decision-makers in the public, private, philanthropic, and nonprofit sectors gathered to share replicable policies and funding strategies to advance ETOD in our region and across the country.

Transit-oriented development

Equity Forum: Advancing equitable transit-oriented development

Dangerous by Design Champion Testimonies

At Smart Growth America, we know that equity is at the heart of our work to create healthy, prosperous, and resilient communities. But how do we ensure that economic opportunities and the benefits of community revitalization are shared by all—including residents of rural communities and smaller cities and those who have been historically disadvantaged—especially in the face of a shifting political landscape?

Equity Summit 2025

<ul>
<li>Review and discuss the role of transportation electrification in the context of broader mobility ecosystems and smart growth.</li>
<li>Understand fundamental concepts of smart growth that can be applied to maximize climate, equity, mobility, quality of life, and sustainability benefits.</li>
<li>Explore how featured smart growth strategies work to amplify and reinforce transportation electrification and other new innovative technologies and processes</li>
</ul>

On Tuesday, May 14 from 2 – 3 p.m., we’re partnering with the International Parking &amp; Mobility Institute to offer a free webinar exploring smart growth strategies.

Webinar

Climate Change

Electric Vehicles

Transportation

Webinar: Transportation electrification and smart growth in the U.S.

We’re so thankful to have had nearly 300 people gather in Washington, DC at our first in-person Equity Summit. We spent two days unpacking how we can work together to advance equity in our transportation, housing, and land use decisions nationwide and are excited to carry all the insights that came from our speakers, panelists, and attendees into our work.

2024 Equity Summit

Racial Equity

Social Equity

Meeting the moment: The 2024 Equity Summit

In the practical implementation of Complete Streets, not every streets has to have a bike lane—or turn lanes or bus lanes. Some great street designs like the woonerf—Dutch for “living street”— have no lanes at all! Point is, the design of the street should reflect the context it’s in.

Complete Streets

Complete Streets Webinar Series

NelsonNygaard

Register for our webinar: “Implementing Context Sensitive Design”

The National Complete Streets Coalition continues our <a href="https://smartgrowthamerica.org/tag/complete-streets-webinar-series/">webinar series</a> on implementation and equity this month with two stories of small towns doing big, innovative work to implement equitable transportation. Join us each month for a new topic related to creating safer, healthier, more equitable communities.

Bikeshare

Last Mile

Uber

Register for “Small Places, Smart Mobility” webinar

The National Complete Streets Coalition continues our <a href="https://smartgrowthamerica.org/tag/complete-streets-webinar-series/">webinar series</a> on implementation and equity this month with local officials discussing their innovative approaches to implementing Complete Streets. Join us each month for a new topic related to creating safer, healthier, more equitable streets.

Advocacy

Register for “Innovation in Complete Streets Infrastructure” webinar

The selected applicant will need to coordinate their own travel to and from Washington, DC for the event on May 21 and include all travel costs in their budget. Budget is a consideration in the review of proposals.

SGA will work with the selected contractor to identify contacts and a schedule for interviews, develop scripted questions, and prepare a list of key shots for photography. Creative direction in the design and overall product of the videos and photographs will be the responsibility of the contractor with input and feedback provided by staff at Smart Growth America.

Up to $15,000 is budgeted for both the videography and photography services described. Cost will be considered as part of the assessment of proposals. A proposal that includes a $15,000 budget for only one of the services described will not be considered, however a proposal for one of the services that would allow for the selection of a second vendor will be considered. The budget must cover staff time, flights, ground transportation, lodging, and any other expenses related to creating the final deliverables. Budget should note the number of rounds of reviews of the video and number of edited photographs included with the cost.

Please send a succinct proposal to Dustin Robertson (drobertson@smartgrowthamerica.org) by April 29, 2024 which includes: 
A short one- or half-page letter describing your approach and interest in the project 
A draft budget and timeline for the project 
Some samples of recent work relevant to the project’s scope

Proposals are due on Monday, April 29 2024 by 11:59pm ET. SGA will make a selection by May 6, 2024. The project will kick off soon afterward. A timeline including review stages for the video and final delivery of both photographs and video is required as part of the proposal.

Smart Growth America (SGA) is a national non-profit organization that is dedicated to advancing equitable, sustainable land use, development, and transportation. The organization empowers communities through technical assistance, advocacy, and thought leadership to create livable places, healthy people, and shared prosperity. We work with elected officials at all levels, real estate developers, chambers of commerce, transportation, and urban planning professionals, and residents to improve everyday life for people across the country through better development.

The National Complete Streets Coalition, a program of Smart Growth America, is a non-profit, non-partisan alliance of public organizations, professionals, and advocates committed to the development and implementation of Complete Streets policies and practices.

Smart Growth America is seeking an experienced professional or team of professionals to use photography and videography to capture an upcoming event on May 21-22.

Champions Institute

Request for proposals: Event Videography & Photography

On October 24, 2018, real estate developers, investors, and local elected officials from across New England will meet in Boston to share ideas, create new business deals, discuss smart growth issues, and prepare for the future of smart growth development across the region at the <a href="https://whova.com/portal/registration/locus_201810/">2018 LOCUS New England Leadership Summit</a>.

2018 LOCUS New England Summit

Dealmaking

LOCUS

LOCUS Featured

LOCUS Massachusetts

LOCUS Summit

Networking

Opportunity Zones

Registration now open for the 2018 LOCUS New England Summit

Smart Growth America’s Community Connectors program supports a group of 15 small and mid-sized communities to repair the damage of divisive infrastructure, like highways built through the middle of neighborhoods. SGA will bring together representatives from these communities for a two-day convening in October 2024 to share about their projects, build their skills in anti-displacement and community engagement, and learn from one another. As part of this, SGA is seeking an individual or a small company that has experience in photography and videography to capture event footage b-roll, and group activities, as well as to conduct short interviews with representatives from the 15 teams. 
The selected contractor must demonstrate experience in capturing events through photographs and video, as well as producing short narrative videos and other edited assets from the content captured. The final product will be a short (5-6 mins max) narrative video about the event and the topics, which will incorporate short interviews with selected team members.

The selected applicant will need to coordinate their own travel to and from Washington, DC for the event on October 17-18 and include all travel costs in their budget. Budget is a consideration in the review of proposals.
&nbsp;

SGA will work with the selected contractor to identify contacts and a schedule for interviews, develop scripted questions, and prepare a list of key shots for photography. Creative direction in the design and overall product of the videos and photographs will be the responsibility of the contractor with input and feedback provided by staff at Smart Growth America.
&nbsp;

Up to $10,000 is budgeted for both the videography and photography services described. Cost will be considered as part of the assessment of proposals. The budget must cover staff time, flights, ground transportation, lodging, and any other expenses related to creating the final deliverables. The proposal should note the number of rounds of reviews of the video and the number of edited photographs included with the cost.
&nbsp;

<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Please send a succinct proposal to Elisa Ramirez (elisa.ramirez@t4america.org) by September 20, 2024 which includes:</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A short one- or half-page letter describing your approach and interest in the project</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A draft budget and timeline for the project</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Project scope</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">List of team members who would participate</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">References</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Some samples of recent work relevant to the project’s scope</li>
</ul>
Proposals are due on September 20, 2024, by 11:59 p.m. ET. SGA will make a selection by September 27. The project will kick off soon afterward.

Smart Growth America (SGA) is seeking an experienced professional or team of professionals to use photography and videography to capture an upcoming event on October 17-18 in Washington, DC and produce a short narrative video afterward.

Community Connectors

Request for Proposals

Technical assistance

Request for proposals: Event photographer and videographer

The Brownfields Utilization, Investment and Local Development, or BUILD Act was signed into law in March 2018 and is the first major legislative change to brownfields law since passage of the original statute in 2002. Specific changes include: increased funding for cleanup, program eligibility expanded to include non-profit organizations, additional liability protections, and changes to grant programs.

Build Act

Register for the BUILDing on brownfields progress webinar

The National Complete Streets Coalition is excited to continue our monthly webinar series designed to help professionals from a variety of disciplines put Complete Streets principles into action.

Canada

Quebec City

Stantec

Toronto

Register now for “Complete Streets in Canada: Designing for change”

The National Complete Streets Coalition is excited to continue our monthly webinar series designed to help professionals from a variety of disciplines put Complete Streets principles into action. <a href="https://smartgrowthamerica.org/tag/complete-streets-webinar-series/">Implementation &amp; Equity 201: The Path Forward to Complete Streets</a> is exploring a new issue each month related to creating safer, healthier, more equitable streets.

San Diego

Register now for “Promoting equitable change through creative placemaking & Complete Streets”

Register now for “Public/Private Partnerships: Complete Streets & Large-Scale Development”

Many transit-oriented development projects are made possible with the help of financing from federal government programs. The details of those programs, however, are tougher to understand. What programs might your development project be eligible for? What time of year do applications open, and when are awards announced? And what do some of the most popular programs look for in applications?

Economic development

Federal Financing

Federal Financing Toolkit

Tod Peer Network

Todresources.org

Usdot

Join us for a crash course on federal TOD financing programs

Rural communities face unique challenges when it comes to growth and development. At the recent Smart Growth Network meeting hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts, experts came together to discuss how smart growth principles can be applied effectively in rural settings.

Smart Growth Network (SGN)

Rural

Smart Growth Network

Smart growth in rural communities: Key takeaways from the latest Smart Growth Network convening

<a href="/services/grants/overview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Community Connectors</a> is SGA’s program to help equip leaders in 15 small and mid-sized communities to repair the damage of divisive infrastructure.

How to avoid displacement and four other lessons from our 15 Community Connectors

During this presentation and panel discussion, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the types of displacement and what causes displacement, learn which actions best address displacement risk for residents and businesses in different community contexts, and discuss how to build effective partnerships to address these risks. This session will highlight HUD TCTA’s upcoming anti-displacement tool, designed to help local governments facing displacement pressures on their residents and small businesses.

This panel will explore the challenges and importance in ensuring that community voice and vision remain central to anti-displacement development projects (such as Reconnecting Communities), even when large federal grants and government interests are at play. It will highlight the critical role of arts and culture as tools for empowering residents to share their stories, amplify their voices, and shape the future of their communities.
The panel features <a href="/knowledge-center/meet-the-healing-our-highways-grant-recipients/">Healing Our Highways</a> and <a href="/services/grants/overview/">Community Connectors</a> participants as they discuss strategies to ensure that residents’ needs are prioritized in order to foster more equitable and inclusive outcomes, exploring how creative strategies can foster a sense of identity, belonging, and resilience while building collective power to address displacement and inequity.

Join us on Thursday, December 12 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. for our Equity Forum: Centering community to prevent displacement. The event will feature Sheila Somashekhar from the Purple Line Corridor Coalition, participants from SGA’s Community Connectors and Healing our Highways programs, and partners with ICF and Partnership for Southern Equity, who will present a new resource for practitioners working to prevent displacement. Join us to explore community-centered efforts to prevent displacement in the face of massive investments in community development.

Anti Displacement

Equity Forum: Centering community to prevent displacement

Equitable infrastructure to bridge divides

Harnessing data and lived experiences for safe streets

The 2024 Equity Summit Recap Video

Cultural organizing as reclamation and resistance

Building momentum: Lessons from frontline advocates &amp; government leaders

Moving within this moment: Strategies for overcoming structural barriers | Equity Summit 2024

Charles T. Brown | Equity Summit 2024

April De Simone | 2024 Equity Summit

The 2024 Equity Summit was a huge success! We’re so thankful to have spent two days with thought leaders, advocates, and practitioners learning more about how they’re working to create more equitable transportation, housing, and land use outcomes in their communities.

Equity Summit 2024

The Equity Summit will gather housing, transportation, and community development advocates and leaders from the local area and from across the country. This opportunity to build connections with movement leaders is one of the main reasons we look forward to hosting the Summit every year. 
“I’m looking forward to gathering in community with like-minded advocates and practitioners who want to advance equity through their work.” —Calvin Gladney, President and CEO 
“I’m excited to meet and hear from everyone at the Summit. This means the fantastic speakers, but also the attendees from across the country who are doing crucial work day in and day out.” —Dustin Robertson, Program Manager for Thriving Communities

The Equity Summit can be a valuable source of inspiration for anyone working to advance racial equity through smart growth at this crucial moment. By building community and exchanging ideas, practitioners can find a source of mutual support and encouragement, despite resistance to meaningful progress. 
“Attending the Equity Summit is extremely important to me because this is my life’s work, and it can be hard. The Summit gives me the inspiration, tools, and community to continue doing the hard work when it gets extra hard!” —Toccarra Nicole Thomas, Director of Land Use and Development 
“I’m so excited to see community-based organizations that we’ve worked with for the past year come together in one space, to share lessons learned, to find solutions for overcoming barriers, and to be inspired by others doing really important work.” —Jamie Zouras, Senior Program Manager for Land Use and Development 
“The Equity Summit is a great opportunity for people working on all of the different angles of smart growth to learn from each other and collaborate on what to do next. There is so much important work happening, and so much still to be done. I’m excited to be a part of it!” —Raveena John, Senior Program Associate for Thriving Communities

This year’s Equity Summit will provide opportunities to explore equity from multiple angles. Keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops, and tours will all deliver valuable information and key insights on how to advance equity through our work in the year ahead. 
“I’m excited to dive into the strategies and interventions that can move the needle on disparities we see in Dangerous by Design.” —Heidi Simon, Director of Thriving Communities 
“I’m really excited for the panel discussion on using data and lived experiences to advance safe streets. As a storyteller, I believe in advocacy and personal narratives as powerful tools to not only raise awareness but inspire action.” —Rachel Ellis, Communications Associate 
“I’m looking forward to the ‘Building momentum’ panel, in particular, to hear from multiple generations of environmental, equity, and climate activists, and to learn about how their efforts interact with one another. I’m excited to hear from Dr. Jacqueline Echols, whose tireless efforts to address environmental justice issues along the South River in Atlanta are inspiring.” —Megan Wright, Senior Associate for Economic Development

Our staff has been working around the clock to prepare for the 2024 Equity Summit: Meeting the Moment, which is only seven days away! As we gear up for the event, we took a moment to reflect on why it matters to us and what will make this year’s Summit particularly special.

Why we’re excited about the 2024 Equity Summit

Cultural organizing as reclamation and resistance

Harnessing data and lived experiences for safe streets

Collective care for moving through this moment

Structural racism in land use, infrastructure, and lending policies have physically divided and damaged communities of color and denied generations opportunities for wealth-building.

Building momentum: Lessons from frontline advocates & government leaders

Moving within this moment: Strategies for overcoming structural barriers

The Equity Summit brings together advocates, planners, and experts from all different backgrounds so that everyone can work together to share best practices and experiences. While networking has always been a major element of the Equity Summit, we hope to see even more connections made this year as we collaborate in person for the first. With opportunities to mingle throughout the event and a happy hour at the conclusion of day one, there will be many opportunities to meet other changemakers in the field.

We’re excited to have two exemplary keynotes who will bring their knowledge and energy to set the tone for the two days. Founder and managing principal of Practice of Democracy, April De Simone, will kick things off on the first day by exploring the pivotal moment we face and the urgent need to integrate intentional strategies to advance racial equity in housing, transportation, and community development practices. On day two, founder and CEO of Equitable Cities LLC, Charles T. Brown, will give his opening remarks, sharing his viewpoint as a leader working at the intersection of mobility, equity, health, and the environment.

Our Equity Summit panelists will represent a range of fields, including transportation, housing, and the civic sector, and each of them will reflect on how they are continuing to center equity in the face of today’s challenges. Panel topics will include how to use data and lived experience to advocate for change, how to combat policies and practices that stymie Black- and Brown-owned businesses, and how to harness the power of cultural organizing.

Attendees will have the opportunity to explore the DC area with tours of local sites, where they’ll observe real world examples of best practices and missed opportunities for equitable development. Participants have the chance to select a tour from a range of options, including nearby business improvement districts (BIDs), 11th Street Bridge Park, and the Eden Center.

The Equity Summit is more than a conference. It’s a time to connect movement leaders, identify key needs within the field, and build a community of mutual support and encouragement among practitioners who may be discouraged by resistance to meaningful progress. Here’s what you can expect.

What to expect at the 2024 Equity Summit

From the very first question, our two panelists from MnDOT made it clear that there are two things their agency has in abundance: plans and processes. A statewide multimodal transportation plan, state transit investment plan, and Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan are just a few members of what Dave described as their “family of plans.” And Nissa described on multiple occasions the layers of internal working groups and external feedback that undergird and complement these plans. 
As advocates, we know that documents are not destiny. We’ve all seen DOTs point to documents and meetings as a sign that they’re taking traffic safety seriously, only to let promises wither away on the page or in the process. 
During our conversation, though, Dave and Nissa showed that while traffic safety can die by a thousand paper cuts, these same processes can breathe life back into a project. A statewide Safe Routes to School tool, case study of a Complete Streets project, or decades-long relationships for individual projects may seem innocuous or insufficient given the crisis we’re facing on our streets right now. But our MnDOT guests made clear that documents and processes are inextricably linked to a vision for Complete Streets. And without a vision that receives sustained support from leadership in elected office and state agencies, there’s no way to write the plans, stand-up the processes, and build the staff expertise that makes achieving a vision possible.

Every strong Complete Streets Policy starts with a clear vision and commitment. But, as our panelists explained, that vision can’t be unidirectional. Establishing a durable, achievable vision for Complete Streets requires looking at the past as much as it does the future and the present. 
On that note, José shared one critical tactic for Complete Streets advocacy: showing the neighborhoods and transportation systems that were swallowed up by high-volume, high-speed roadways. We’ve seen this tactic used compellingly before, whether that’s bird’s eye visualizations or text-level explanations, and historical research from Our Streets is a rich addition to this list of tactics. 
Looking backwards like this can also be a grounding source of humility and hope. Our current transportation system, epitomized by divisive infrastructure like I-94 and Olson Memorial Highway, was not the result of a single project or historical fluke. It is the outcome of federal and state programs, layers of systems that were not just established once but reauthorized and reaffirmed over and over again for decades. 
This is why we talk about Complete Streets not as just a product or particular type of street, but as a process and approach. No infrastructure project is permanent. The intersections, streets, and neighborhoods we call home will change again for reasons as small as underground utility work and as significant as complete redesigns. When that change does occur, do we want to ignore history and reuse the same old systems that have scarred our communities, our environment, and our bodies? Or do we want to learn from the past and ask what policies, processes, and personnel are necessary to repair the harm that has been done and prevent it from occurring again in the future?

Instead of promising citizens an occasional chance at token participation, a good Complete Streets policy promises regular, verifiable power. 
Nissa described the importance of meeting people where they are and working with public health authorities especially. Dave detailed the importance of ensuring that Safe Routes to School information is available to school districts across employee turnover. These actions may seem overly bureaucratic and even innocuous, but they actually reflect an effort to restore a key pillar of any transportation system: trust. 
This may be, above all else, what makes Complete Streets—in the forms of policies, plans, and processes—most useful. The vision outlined in a policy isn’t just a policy vision, but a vision for the community more broadly that needs to be owned by the community. As José stated towards the very end of our conversation, Our Streets Minneapolis “would love to enter a world where the visioning and the design and the study around projects starts with community input rather than the sort of usual where we get ideas from the department that the community responds to.” 
That’s a world we can get on board with, and one that we’ll keep trying to build during our Complete Streets Power Hours. We hope you’ll join us.

At our first Power Hour, we spoke with two implementers and one advocate from Minnesota about how they’ve gone about establishing a north star for Complete Streets in the North Star State. As it turns out, it’s all about the process.

Advocates

complete streets policy framework

National Pedestrian Safety Month

Vision is a verb: Looking back at our first Complete Streets Power Hour

&#8220;The quote, &#8216;Injustice is not the outcome of the climate crisis, it&#8217;s the cause,&#8217; from Paulo Nunes- Ueno, because it reframes a basic belief of why we have a climate crisis. 
Because when you understand that injustice is the cause, not the outcome, it makes you think different about operating and acting going forward.&#8221; Calvin Gladney, President and CEO, Smart Growth America

“Adah Crandall is a high schooler and anti-freeway activist in my city. When I suggested to the team that we invite her, I was worried about thrusting such a young person onto a national stage. My fear was misplaced and she made a big impact on the event, challenging us all to do better in steering our communities, nation, and world so that high schoolers can be kids again instead of having to clean up the mess we’ve left behind.” — Chris Rall, Transportation Outreach Director
“The Day 2 panel discussion, ‘Notes from the Front Lines of Reconnecting Communities,’ was a breath of fresh air in the fight against highways that divide communities. I left feeling hopeful and encouraged by the grassroots advocacy efforts of the panelists. They made me feel like anyone can be a freeway fighter.” — Stephen Coleman Kenny, Transportation Policy Associate
“Kizzy Charles-Guzmán’s closing remarks about staying grounded in your passion for pursuing this type of challenging work, and striving to make positive changes to a complex and bureaucratic system, resonated with me and inspired me. Hearing her speak about her passion for nature and the joy it brings her helped me remember my passion to change how our cities exist with nature. She was very honest and vulnerable about herself and it was very relatable and inspiring.” — Grant DuVall, Assistant Policy Analyst
“The presentation from Black Cotton was incredible. It was exciting to hear from an entrepreneur who has not only built their own business but is creating space where other Black business owners can thrive. They work to build generational wealth that will have a lasting impact and combat economic inequity now and in the future.” — Courtney Cole, Thriving Communities Program Associate
“The local activists pushing back on highway projects on day 2. They are doing so much and showing an incredible amount of creativity in their approach with little-to-no funding or technical help.” — Beth Osborne, VP of Transportation and Thriving Communities

&#8220;Adah Crandall made a big impact on the event, challenging us all to do better in steering our communities, nation, and world, so that high schoolers can be kids again instead of having to clean up the mess we&#8217;ve left behind.&#8221; Chris Rall, Outreach Director, Transportation for America

“I will continue to help serve and support social capital in local communities; strong resident leaders help equip community members with the knowledge and resources that make neighborhoods more affordable, healthy, and climate-prepared.” — Jamie Zouras, Land Use and Development Program Manager
“Including local organizations led by Black and brown community members in the cities we work with, seeking feedback from marginalized communities, and looking for ways to give opportunities to businesses owned by people of color when contracting.” — Courtney Cole, Thriving Communities Program Associate
“Asking more questions. Listening is important, but educating myself on different lived experiences is just as vital. Productive, collaborative conversations are indispensable when it comes to this work.” — Megan Wright, Economic Development Associate

&#8220;I will continue to help serve and support social capital in local communities. Strong resident leaders help equip community members with the knowledge and resources that make neighborhoods more affordable, healthy, and climate-prepared.&#8221; Jamie Zouras, Program Manager, Land Use and Development, Smart Growth America

“The quote, ‘Injustice is not the outcome of the climate crisis, it’s the cause,’ from Paulo Nunes-Ueno, because it reframes a basic belief of why we have a climate crisis. Because when you understand that injustice is the cause—not the outcome—it makes you think differently about how we should respond to the inequities of climate impacts going forward.” — Calvin Gladney, President and CEO of Smart Growth America
“There are advocates standing ready to advance equity in our built environment. But they need support to connect across industries and exchange ideas. The Equity Summit plays an important role in building these connections.” — Abigail Grimminger, Communications Associate
“America’s youth are energized and engaged in the fight against inequitable transportation infrastructure that disconnects communities. This should make us all feel hopeful, but also spur us on to action so they are not alone.” — Stephen Coleman Kenny, Transportation Policy Associate
“Even in the face of extreme pushback on discussing racism—especially in the context of land use decisions—hundreds of people had the courage and curiosity to attend and participate in the Equity Summit. It’s courageous and gives me the strength to continue this important work.” — Toccarra Nicole Thomas, AICP, Director of Land Use and Development
“It was so inspiring to see a diverse group of practitioners talk about equity in each of their fields. It really shows our audience that there’s room to implement an equitable and inclusionary lens anywhere. Whether it’s in the federal government, local advocacy level, or in the private sector — we can all work together to make the world a more just place for all.” — Iman Mekonen, Communications Associate

&#8220;Even in the face of extreme pushback on discussing racism-especially in the context of land use decisions-hundreds of people had the courage and curiosity to attend and participate in the Equity Summit. It&#8217;s courageous and gives me the strength to continue this important work.&#8221; Tocarra Nicole Thomas, AICP, Director, Land Use and Development, Smart Growth America

“Fund Underserved Communities.” — Jamie Zouras, Land Use and Development Program Manager
“Truth, Insight, Inspiration.” — Chris Rall, Outreach Director, Transportation for America
“Inspiring and Empowering.” — Abigail Grimminger, Communications Associate, Transportation for America
“Informative, Energizing, Thought-provoking.” — Beth Osborne, VP of Transportation and Thriving Communities
“Illuminating, Powerful, Motivating.” — Courtney Cole, Program Associate, Thriving Communities
“Illuminating, Inspiring, Invigorating.” — Megan Wright, Economic Development Associate
“Powerful, Impactful, Life-changing” — Toccarra Nicole Thomas, AICP, Director of Land Use and Development

Last month, Smart Growth America hosted our third annual Equity Summit. The three days of virtual programming held space for thought leaders and practitioners in the planning space to gather and ensure that racial equity is a key priority in any smart growth approach.

2023 Equity Summit

Sga Staff

Smart Growth America

Staff takeaways from the 2023 Equity Summit

Keynote presentation with Joy Bailey Bryant

Advocacy &amp; Community Leadership for Zoning Reform Panel

Strategies for Wealth-building Panel

Mitigating Displacement in Projects that Reconnect Communities

Notes from the Front Lines of Reconnecting Communities: a Conversation with Community Advocates

Implementing Urban Climate Justice with Kizzy Charles-Guzman

Developing the Built Environment for a Low-Carbon Future

Empowering communities by dismantling exclusionary zoning, supporting wealth-building among historically disenfranchised communities, and prioritizing attainable housing.

Rethinking transportation to support and repair communities that continue to be harmed by divisive infrastructure and car-dependent design.

Ensuring that the benefits and costs of cutting emissions in the transportation and building sectors are equitably distributed across society.

The Equity Summit is a virtual gathering of thought leaders and practitioners who come together to discuss insights and strategies to ensure that racial equity is a key priority in any smart growth approach. The Equity Summit took place virtually, February 7-9, 2023.

Equity Summit 2023

The keynote was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Kristen Jeffers, Founder, and Editor-in-Chief of The Black Urbanist, with Jupiter Peraza, Director of Social Justice &amp; Empowerment Initiatives at The Transgender District, and Benny Starr, Hip-hop artist and Artist-in-Residence with the US Water Alliance, who discussed their work advocating for community preservation and sharing unique examples of ways to mitigate displacement and cultivate culture.

The event also featured first-of-its-kind live technical assistance workshops with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Community of Royal, Florida, who were selected to receive expert advice from our panelists and selected SGA staff members. The participants shared their community’s challenges and asked our staff and panelists for advice on their specific projects.

Courtney Cole

DEJC

Disability Economic Justice Collaborative (DEJC)

Thriving Communities

Transportation and Thriving Communities

Smart Growth Means Accessibility: SGA Attends Disability Economic Justice Collaborative Anniversary Celebration

The community of Royal is one of Florida’s oldest African-American agricultural communities and is facing the threat of being displaced, losing farmland, and rich history to proposed development and highway expansion plans. Royal is a vibrant community, rich with the deep history of our country’s first black freedmen, which continues to draw community descendants and local tourists regularly. 
The participants from Royal joined our panelists, Kristen Jeffers and Benny Starr alongside SGA staff members Katherine Burgess, and Ebony Venson, to seek guidance on how to protect and preserve the community’s rich history and continue to create cultural experiences that enrich the lives of future generations. The Royal team discussed their community’s current challenges and shared their current strategies for embedding critical language and policy that protect their community and land. 
Panelists emphasized the community’s significant power with its tours and oral history, and Royal has already established a strong base of annual visitors that could help bring more light to the community’s rich history and even attract more interest. Panelists also suggested building partnerships to help bring national attention to the situation and to help the community build legal protection to protect their farms and community members.

Concurrently, representatives of the state of California, including Caltrans and the California State Transportation Agency, were joined by panelist Jupiter Peraza, and SGA-ers Chris McCahill, Ben Stone, and Anuska Thakkar for their workshop. Caltrans and their partner agencies are currently working to implement the Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure strategy 7, which directs the California State Transportation Agency to work with state agency partners to explore potential statutory changes that would allow transportation programs to incentivize anti-displacement strategies within their funding frameworks. To achieve this, Caltrans recently developed an anti-displacement committee and working group to conduct research and seek guidance on incorporating anti-displacement criteria changes to their funding programs. The team sent a survey to various transportation programs and partners and is currently developing a memo for the state agencies to be completed by the end of the year. 
The group discussed the complexities of anti-displacement strategies since displacement had not yet been clearly defined. To create these strategies, California must decide if it is most concerned with transportation investments that cause displacement by increasing surrounding property values, investments that literally displace people by demolishing homes where future infrastructure is sited, or maintenance work that displaces unhoused people sheltering in tents adjacent to infrastructure, or possibly a combination of these challenges. The Caltrans team acknowledged that the state had not specified which form of displacement it was most concerned with, and therefore all three forms were fair game. The group also discussed the importance of partnering with external organizations to take on some of the more intractable problems, including providing social services to unhoused communities.

The Equity Forum: Upending Cultural Displacement held on July 13th also included the first-of-its-kind live technical assistance workshops with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the community of Royal, Florida, who were selected to receive expert advice from our panelists and selected SGA staff members.

Equity Forum Recap: Technical Assistance Workshops

Smart Growth America’s Equity Forum: Upending Cultural Displacement is a continuation of our year-round equity programming—anchored by the Equity Summit programming focused on advancing racial equity through smart growth. Our speakers will share their unique stories and key strategies to assist advocates, planners, developers, and elected officials in better understanding and mitigating the various forms of cultural displacement affecting communities across the country.

Equity

Neighborhood Development

Neighborhoods

Revitalization Without Displacement

Smart Growth America’s Equity Forum: Upending Cultural Displacement

As of March 2022, there are 21 nuclear power reactors currently undergoing decommissioning under the supervision of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Due to a wide range of factors including national security and energy policy, the majority of the nuclear power plants in America may close in the next few decades. In fact, all nuclear power reactors are designed to have an operational life cycle of 20-40 years due to standard safety regulations, which means that most currently operating nuclear power plants will likely have ceased operations by 2050. 
In September 2020, the Smart Growth America (SGA) team and three other organizations partnered with the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) to connect with nuclear host communities and support their resilience and adaptation strategies in face of a local facility’s shutdown. One of these efforts consists of a Community of Practice (CoP) that has been gathering local leaders, practitioners, and other community stakeholders to establish a common identity and identify mechanisms to harness available tools and resources that contribute to the long-term economic, social, and environmental prosperity of the communities and regions that host nuclear facilities. While each nuclear host community has its own unique set of circumstances, there is immense value in creating a space to talk and think through these issues with other folks who might understand them more than anyone else.

To frame the issue of nuclear decommissioning in the context of the national energy transition, Chris Zimmerman, vice president of economic development at SGA, reinforces that “there is a limited design life for each of these plants, meaning that all will close at some point–representing a substantial loss of income and revenue in the local community.” These complex situations present communities with an uphill battle as they consider how to respond to the loss of so much tax revenue and a skilled workforce that may retire or leave town after the power facility’s closure. 
Community leaders are finding it difficult to follow existing funding opportunities and are thus discouraged from submitting applications to receive supportive resources, especially given the prevalence of insufficient local capacity to anticipate and make a plan for these impacts. Another common challenge is that, given the deep connections between a community and the nuclear facility it hosts, engaging stakeholders and community members in a conversation around planning for a future without the plant can be a barrier in itself. Without a clear understanding of the technical aspects of the decommissioning process, available resources and funding opportunities, or the long-term impacts on their community, many nuclear host communities are having a difficult time dealing with the prospect of closure and planning for the future. 
“Net fiscal impact of new development is far more likely to be positive if that development is based on smart growth principles. These principles apply to every scale of human community – whether in a major metropolitan area or a small town in a rural setting.”Chris Zimmerman 
If we have learned anything throughout the time we’ve been working on these projects, it is that it is never too early to plan for economic resilience and diversification. Regardless of industry, the departure of a dominant local employer doesn’t just represent a blow to the corporation—it often imposes a series of significant economic challenges on the local community. As we’ve reported in the past, these plants don’t typically account for the majority of the local workforce but they often contribute a significantly larger portion of the local revenue through property taxes, payroll and income taxes, and other sources that support the local budget. 
“Communities need to think about what other assets they have and how they can leverage them to create more opportunities for the plant, before, during, and after nuclear plant closure.” Chris Zimmerman 
There’s no easy answer, but communities can exponentially increase their chance of long-term success by developing a strategy for economic and fiscal sustainability—including opportunities for diversification and expansion—and an efficient plan for deploying any relief aid they can get from the federal or state government. “Every community is better off if they have a diverse economic portfolio,” Chris explained. “You don’t want to have all your eggs in one basket. Communities need to think about what other assets they have and how they can leverage them to create more opportunities for the plant, before, during, and after nuclear plant closure.” Smart growth principles can be the route to ensuring a post-nuclear facility closure future is sustainable environmentally, economically, and fiscally. But the first thing that has to happen is preparation. 
Confronting the reality of the eventual closure of a plant creates an opportunity for a community to plan for a more sustainable future. It is a chance to correct past mistakes, or avoid those made in other places. Ensuring a post-closure future that is sustainable in every sense—environmentally, economically, fiscally, etc. – requires applying smart growth principles. It means recognizing the market realities of the 21st century, including the growing value of walkable communities with a mix of uses and the demand for a greater variety of housing choice. And recognizing that these realities apply in small towns as well as big cities.

A program of Smart Growth America (SGA), the <a href="/programs-and-coalitions/nuclear-communities/economic-diversification-roadmap/">Nuclear Communities team</a> supports nuclear host communities through building capacity and developing resiliency plans, gathering a wealth of information and perspectives along the way. While each host community has its own unique set of circumstances, they all have one thing in common: preparation is needed to be resilient in the face of closures. This blog post is part of a series documenting the Nuclear Communities Technical Assistance team’s lessons learned throughout the project and highlights many of the issues that will be addressed in the Nuclear Communities Forum.

Get involved

What is smart growth?

About us

Our work

Impact

Events

Knowledge hub

Webinar

Moving within this moment: Strategies for overcoming structural barriers

Subscribe to our newsletter

Livable places. Healthy people. Shared prosperity.