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Special Features
Networking Reception
Thursday, February 7th — 8:45-10:00pm
The first full day of sessions and tours will be capped off with a dynamic evening
plenary and a hosted networking reception. This social event is designed to
get our multi-disciplinary audience talking and networking with each other
early in the conference.
Designing for Pedestrian Safety
Tuesday, February 5th — 9:00am - 5:00pm
Wednesday, February 6th — 9:00am - 4:00pm
This 2-day course was developed for the Federal Highway Administration
to help states and cities that are dealing with a higher than average
rate of pedestrian crashes. The course is taught by some of the nation's
experts in planning and designing "complete streets" and is aimed at a
broad audience including traffic engineers, transportation planners and
pedestrian advocates with a basic knowledge of the issues. The course provides detailed discussion of how to design streets, sidewalks, crossings, intersections, transit stops, freeway interchanges, and roundabouts to accommodate pedestrians. It also includes a module on road diets and how they can be used to help pedestrians. The second day
of the course includes a field exercise in which students apply what
they have learned to an actual set of streets and intersections.
Instructors are:
- Michael M. Moule, PE, PTOE, President, Livable Streets, Inc.; and
- Paul Zykofsky, AICP, Director, Land Use and Transportation Programs,
Local Government Commission
Preregistration and a $250 fee is required.
Fee includes coffee and refreshments each day, but does not include lunch. You can register for this course on the conference registration page. If you are not registering for the conference as well, you will need to print out the form and send it in to the Local Government Commission.
Promoting Healthy Eating and Active Living through Improvements in
the Built Environment; What Health Professionals Need to Know and What They Can Do
Thursday, 8:30am - 4:30pm
This day-long session will explore how health professionals can influence community
design to help create health-promoting live, work and play environments, and focus
on practical skills and knowledge for contributing to environmental and policy changes.
Lunch and refreshments are included.
Pre-registration and $55 fee required.
Optional Tours of Local Model Projects
All tours carry a nominal fee to cover transportation costs and refreshments.
It is possible to sign up for more than one tour. Space on each tour is limited,
and pre-registration is required.
| Thursday, 2/7 — 8:30am-4:30pm |
Tour #1 – Smart Growth Meets Smart Food
Like local food sheds throughout the country, the Washington,
DC metro-area is full of opportunities (and challenges) for linking
farmers to urban and suburban consumers. Join this tour of scenic Loudoun
County, Virginia, to see how land use policy, planning and economic
development practices influence farming and food systems. Traditionally
rural and agricultural, Loudoun is now one of the nation's top 10 fastest
growing counties. Comparisons will be made with neighboring Montgomery
County, MD — a national model for farmland preservation. We'll stop at
farms, a planning office and local restaurant; meeting people whose
creativity and persistence have helped to grow the region's food-to-community network.
A gourmet, locally grown lunch and snacks will be provided, complements of
the tour organizers (American Farmland Trust and Coalition for Smarter Growth). Transportation includes bus and walking.
Light refreshments and lunch will be provided.
Cost: $55 |
| Thursday, 2/7 — 8:30am-12:30pm |
Tour #2 – DC Neighborhood Transformations:
Lessons in Equity and Community Development
Since the completion of the U St and Columbia Heights metro stations in 1994
and 1999, respectively, the surrounding neighborhoods have seen a significant response
in terms of development. Private, non-profit, and public-private partnerships have fueled
the transformation, and issues of affordable housing and displacement have risen to the
forefront. An in-depth discussion surrounding the urban scale of these issues and more
will be held while touring the neighborhoods with neighborhood advocates, designers, and
developers. The tour will begin at the U Street Metro station and include a 1-2 mile
walking tour of the neighborhood. Weather permitting, we will walk up the hill to the
Columbia Heights Metro station to see the transition between the two neighborhoods and
continue with a short walking tour of the Columbia Heights neighborhood. In case of
inclement weather, we will use Metro to get between the two neighborhoods and spend
more time at indoor locations. An optional lunch (not included in the cost of the tour)
will be organized for interested participants. Transportation includes the Metro line
and walking. Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $15 |
Tour #3 – A new Look at Traditional Neighborhood
Development: Kentlands and King Farm
The DC area boasts over a half a dozen Traditional Neighborhood Developments
(TNDs) in various stages of development, with more in the approval process. Come see two
nationally recognized projects and learn how they have grown. Kentlands is the first TND
in the nation and considered one of the best examples in the country. Located in Gaithersburg, Maryland,
Kentlands has a new plaza, office building and housing complex wrapped around a structured parking
garage. King Farm, located across the street from Rockville, Maryland's Shady Grove Metro Station
also qualifies as an example of Transit Oriented Development (TOD). King Farm's office building
construction continues to keep pace with the region. If you have visited these TNDs before, this
tour is an excellent opportunity to see how good planning, time and age have improved these projects
into places. Transportation includes bus and walking.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $38 |
Tour #4 – Successful Non-Rail Transit
Development Projects in Arlington County
Arlington, Virginia has been recognized nationally for its integrated approach
to transportation and land use planning around its Metrorail Stations. Arlington was the
recipient of EPA's first national Smart Growth Award for its 30 years of work on the
Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor. Come learn how Arlington is applying the lessons learned from
this 30-year experience to redevelopment in two non-Metrorail station locations: Columbia
Pike and Shirlington. Columbia Pike is a 3-mile auto-oriented arterial street that is
being transformed into a series of mixed use districts supported by ongoing investments
in surface transit and streetscape. Over one million square feet of mixed use development
is underway in this corridor guided by a form-based code and plans are being advanced for
the introduction of streetcar line. In Shirlington, an aging stand-alone shopping center
adjacent to an interstate highway has been transformed into a high-amenity mixed use village
with the addition of over 600 housing units, 200,000 square feet of office, 60,000 square
feet of street-front retail including a grocery store, a public library and a new theater.
Transportation investments are focused on improving the pedestrian environment, expanding local
and regional bicycle facilities and enhancing transit service. Two signature transportation
projects are a new bus transfer facility for local and regional bus service, and a regional trail
connection that links Shirlington to neighborhoods east of the interstate.
Participants will experience the transformation of two auto-oriented places: an arterial corridor, and an aging
shopping center into mixed use districts that expand the range of travel choices for residents,
workers and visitors. Both locations are works in progress. You will hear the perspectives of local elected
officials, county staff, developers and residents that have been involved in remaking these places. Transportation includes bus and walking.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $38 |
Tour #5 – Fairfax County Signature Projects:
Tysons Corner and Reston Town Center
Fairfax County, Virginia has been long recognized as one of the richest communities in the country. Recently it is being viewed as one of the most diverse as well. This tour will highlight two of the most significant developments in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, both of which contribute to the diversity and economic engine of Fairfax. First, the tour will stop at Tyson’s Corner – a quintessential edge city with more than 25 million square feet of office space and over 4 million square feet of retail, making it the second largest concentration on the east coast. Over the next 20 years, Tyson’s Corner will be transformed by the addition of the Metrorail system’s Silver Line – heavy rail linking from the existing rail to Dulles Airport. The second stop, also on the projected Silver Line, is Reston Town Center. Reston, named for its developer Robert E. Simon, is a new town, developed with a notion of creating a vibrant, walkable community with a mixture of residential, office and retail. The Town Center combines elements of an ideal downtown: wide sidewalks, easy to access stores and vibrant venues for recreational activities. This tour will focus on the history of these county anchors, specifically in how Reston and Tyson’s have developed into “downtowns” for Fairfax County.
Transportation includes bus and walking.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $38 |
Tour #6 – Revitalizing a Corridor
Through the Arts: Lessons Learned from Mt. Rainer
and Hyattsville, Prince George’s County, MD
Come experience how the arts can play an integral role in economic development. Along a two-mile
stretch of Route 1 in Prince George's County, an arts district is under
formation and is poised to turn around communities that have historically been overlooked
by new development. New projects include a live-work loft building providing affordable
housing to the arts community. Other recent developments providing residences and studio
space for artists include a 44-unit apartment building for low and moderate income artists
developed by a local nonprofit organization. A museum, other gallery spaces, a performing
arts center, and public art are also in the works along the corridor. Much of the work of
the local CDCs has been made possible through a partnership with the Minneapolis-based
Artspace Project, which pioneered the arts district movement. The arts development has
attracted other development as well, most notably, a project that will include 350 rowhouses,
100-200 condominiums, and 13 "live-work" units in Hyattsville. The walkable and compact
design will complement the existing urban fabric and will include the adaptive reuse of
a 1950s car dealership building as a gallery and gathering spot for the entire community.
Participants will experience firsthand highlights of completed arts projects and residences
and will include tours of projects under construction. Transportation includes bus and walking.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $38
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| Thursday, 2/7 — 1:00-5:00pm |
Tour #7 – Green DC: Innovations in Stormwater,
Green Roofs and Low Impact Development
See the demonstration and pilot projects that were instrumental in starting the
Low Impact Development (LID) movement. This includes projects at the US Navy Yard,
USEPA Headquarters, and the City of Mt. Rainier, Maryland. The tour will
include information on monitoring, costs, and new codes and ordinances that evolved
from these projects. The tour will also include presentations on new state of the art
approaches to stormwater management that are being applied in the District of Columbia
and Maryland. Learn about the Green Roof at the headquarters of the American Society
of Landscape Architects. The ASLA Green Roof was built as a demonstration project in
2006 and is being thoroughly studied. The report on the roof's first year stated that
the roof retained thousands of gallons of stormwater, reduced building energy costs by
hundreds of dollars a month, and significantly lowered outdoor air temperature.
Transportation includes bus and walking.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $38 |
Tour #8 – Arlington’s 30 Years of Smart
Growth in the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor
This is your chance to get a first hand look at Arlington Virginia's Rosslyn-Ballston
Corridor, the winner of the first HUD Award for Smart Growth Achievement and a prototype for
creative, cutting-edge, transit oriented planning and development, and the experienced staff
that has been involved in the planning and development of this corridor. This corridor has
seen the development of 15 million square feet of office, over 19,000 units and 4,460,000
sq. ft. of retail, all within about ¼ mile from a Metro station entrance, since 1970. This
session will be a 3 hour tour with a presentation on Arlington County's experience with
smart growth in one of its two transit corridors (the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor) followed
by a walking tour to see first hand how Arlington created these walkable, mixed-use
neighborhoods well served by public transportation. Transportation includes Metro and
walking. Transportation includes bus and walking.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $38 |
Tour #9 – Master Plans at the Banks of the Potomac: The Carlyle
Development and National Harbor
The Washington, DC metropolitan area has a wealth of large scale, high impact mixed-use projects that bring a sense of place and vitality to the local landscape. This tour features two exciting and scene-changing developments near the southern point of the District of Columbia and the Potomac River. The first project is the Carlyle; a 6.9 million square foot mixed use, new urbanist, transit oriented development in Alexandria, Virginia. 18 years ago it was approved based on a design by Cooper Robertson Architects for a former City landfill and railroad-switching yard. It is now almost completely built. Find out what has been successful and what could have been done better. Our visit will review the Design Guidelines, Transportation Management Plan and the pedestrian friendly park system linking this new downtown to the Metro and Old Town. The Maryland example is National Harbor; a 300-acre mixed-use development that will include five hotels (including the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center), thousands of residential units, tree-lined promenades with scores of shops and offices, a marina and much more. Created by Washington, D.C.-area developer, The Peterson Companies, the project will command a mile and a quarter of the Potomac. While in the beginning stages of construction, we will see the site, learn about the opportunities and challenges and hear about the progress on Prince George's County's foray into placemaking. Transportation includes bus and walking. Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $38 |
Tour #10 – Scoring for Smart Growth at
Gallery Place/Penn Quarter
Ten years ago, this area around the current Verizon Center was underutilized
and unwelcoming. Now, it is one of the main attractions in the city, with thousands of
condo units as well as rentals, a perpetually crowded cinema, and dozens of restaurants
and retail stores. Its identity over the last century has ranged from the home of German
immigrants to the current odd mix of national retailers like Bed, Bath & Beyond with small
local Chinese restaurants. We will discuss the nature of the revitalization that can
emerge from enormous anchoring projects like the Verizon Center, particularly in infill
areas. The stadium's effects on the surrounding neighborhood and transit use are quite
distinct from those provided by, for example, FedEx Field. We will also discuss urban
design positives and negatives, from the unsuccessful pedestrian mall to the hotly
contested proposed development at the Old Convention Center site to the attempt to
preserve historic facades.
Transportation includes the Metro
line and walking. Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $15 |
Tour #11 – Turning Downtown Rockville from
a Greyfield into a Thriving Mixed-Use Town Center
Rockville Town Square embodies the power of redevelopment to transform an underutilized mall – a greyfield – into a vibrant, mixed use walkable community. A group of stakeholders, namely the city of Rockville, staff from Montgomery County, Federated Realty Investment Trust, ROSS Development and Investment and others came together to forge a new Rockville with a stunning mix of office, residential and retail. One of the most exciting aspects of the Town Square is the housing product types, featuring rental and ownership opportunities. This new development is only two short blocks from Metro, with easy access to the rest of metropolitan Washington, DC via transit. This 12.5 acre site of a 60-acre Town Center Master Plan cost approximately $370 million (2/3 of which were private funds). This phase includes 644 housing units, 15% are moderately priced per Montgomery County requirements. This project has already been designated a “Best Mixed Use Project” by the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. During this tour, hear from leading partners of how this deal was put together and marketed. Furthermore, staff from the city of Rockville and partners from Federal Realty will discuss the challenges and successes of this transformation.
Transportation includes the Metro line and walking.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $15 |
| Sunday, 2/10 — 8:30-12:30pm |
Tour #12 – Arlington’s Approach to
Affordable Housing in the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor
Arlington, Virginia has been recognized by the EPA and other organizations for its integrated approach to land use planning and providing a wide range of community benefits, including affordable housing around its Metrorail stations, over the last 30 years. Arlington will share its lessons learned from providing affordable housing in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor using a variety of financing and planning tools. The mobile tour will view a range of affordable housing developments, both completed and under construction. The tour will emphasize three major topic areas: the tools that the County employed to develop the affordable housing units, the partnerships that produce the housing and the County's housing goals and targets that guide what kind of affordable housing is provided. The mobile tour will begin with a short overview presentation at Arlington's government center. Participants will also visit several of the projects in the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor and tour units. Transportation includes bus and walking. Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $38 |
Tour #13 – Creating the
Climate for Revitalization of Downtown Silver Spring
This is a walking tour of Downtown Silver Spring and the
neighborhoods surrounding downtown. In the mid-1990s, Montgomery County,
Maryland worked to create the appropriate climate for private sector
redevelopment in the core downtown of one of Washington, DC's first
suburbs. Participants will learn about the strategies Montgomery County
used to get the type of development community members said they wanted
and investors believed would meet market demand. Participants will hear
from local officials who have managed the redevelopment as well as some
local community members who have been in the area through the entire
process. Participants will see the new Downtown, redevelopment
pre-existing buildings, see how the new development has impacted adjacent
neighborhoods and local businesses, and see the how the new Downtown is
impacting current and ongoing development activity. The tour will require
approximately 3 miles of walking and include the new Downtown Silver
Spring, portions of Georgia Avenue, Colesville Road, and East West Highway.
Participants will be able to stay in the Downtown Silver Spring area after
the tour concludes at approximately 11:45 a.m. and continue to explore. Transportation includes the Metro
line and walking. Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $15 |
Tour #14 – Congress Heights: A Study in
Neighborhood Stabilization, Investment and Diversity.
*CANCELLED*
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Tour #15 – L’Enfant’s DC: Grand
Civic and Public Space in Our Nation’s Capital
The District of Columbia is a Monumental City; it is also a master planned city. Conference attendees
may wish to combine their fascination of the nation's capital with their
interest in the design techniques used by planner Pierre Charles L'Enfant,
to create a city of civic spaces and buildings. Tour attendees can learn how the squares,
parks and street design relate to placement of buildings, monuments, statues, and other features
that give order to the city's plan, as well as display how the relationship between the buildings and
open spaces create great public places.
Transportation includes bus and walking. Light refreshments will be provided.
Cost: $38 |
Be sure to visit our on-line agenda for
a full listing of conference sessions!
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