Why Smart Growth?

[Continued]

An upcoming conference promotes smart growth in a big way. It's called the New Partners for Smart Growth conference, a national, multi-disciplinary gathering. The 11th annual conference will be held in San Diego, Calif., on Feb. 2-4, 2012.

Today more than ever, the United States faces environmental and economic challenges that will define this generation, shape the future, and test the resilience of cities, regions, states and the nation. The conference will identify innovative ways to finance smart growth, explore creative techniques for reducing infrastructure and service costs, and provide concrete ideas for employing smart growth as a tool for community economic vitality.

The three-day program includes 100 sessions and 400 local, regional and national experts and practitioners discussing more than a dozen topic tracks. More than 1,600 people are expected to attend. The conference is designed for a wide range of disciplines, including government, architecture, engineering, planning, transportation, public health, banking, education, labor, housing and environment.

HDR, the largest corporate sponsor and long-time project partner, is the sustainability advisor for the event and is calculating the event's estimated carbon footprint and support related to incorporating sustainable considerations into meeting planning and delivery.

Five HDR national experts will be presenting. The titles and the speakers are:

"Sustainable Return on Investment (SROI) An Interactive Demonstration."

• Christopher Behr, LEED AP, principal economist
• Robin Kirschbaum, PE, LEED AP, stormwater lead, HDR Engineering
• John F. Williams, national director, Sustainable Development

"Emerging Practices and Policies in Transit-oriented Development"

• Moderator: David Taylor, CNU, national director, Sustainable Transportation Solutions

"Development-Oriented Transit: Innovative Economic Tools and Models"

• Daniel Hodge, principal economist

The New Partners for Smart Growth Conference has made a primary goal of bringing participants with multiple disciplines together to explore how multi-disciplinary, non-traditional partnerships can achieve even greater success together in creating more livable communities.

In addition to the presentations, there are also special conference features like pre-conference sessions, tours that feature local model projects and interactive learning experiences, like HDR's SROI interactive demonstration, and networking opportunities.

Learn more about HDR's Smart Growth Presentations