Center for Planning Excellence held its 6th annual Smart Growth Summit, August 17 – 19, 2011 at the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center for the Arts in downtown Baton Rouge. The Smart Growth Summit has become the premier event for promoting quality planning and design in Louisiana, advancing our mission to make healthy, safe, sustainable communities that preserve our culture.
This year’s summit had over 800 in attendance including speakers, elected officials, developers, planners, engineers, design practitioners and community members. More than thirty parishes were represented, and we welcomed guests from Mississippi, Texas, South Carolina, Kansas, Washington, Ohio, Maryland, Vermont, Washington DC, and again Canada.
Media coverage also improved this year and so far we have counted over 30 stories in statewide press coverage, along with 5 radio stories and two TV spots. Thanks to a sponsorship from Louisiana Public Broadcasting, we look forward to continued television exposure in key statewide markets. We will be posting these edited videos on this site as they become available.
Many of the critical issues facing Louisiana today were addressed throughout the event, including: complete streets policy, alternative modes of transportation, gap financing, economic development, coastal living, healthy communities, sustainable design, code enforcement, and tools to address blighted property.
Need a reminder of the 2011 summit schedule?
Download the summit program with a full schedule here (1.9 Mbs)
For all of those who attended this year’s conference, please take a moment to fill out the survey in an effort to help us improve next year’s summit. Thank you again for making this such a successful event and we look forward to your input!
The 2011 Smart Growth Summit schedule is below. Links to speaker presentations can be downloaded by clicking on the individual speaker’s name. We will soon update this page with links to download videos of select sessions.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17
6:00 – 7:00 pm – Welcome by Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden, City of Baton Rouge – Parish of East Baton Rouge. Keynote speech by Tom Murphy, Senior Resident Fellow, ULI/Klingbeil Family Chair for Urban Development, Urban Land Institute and former Mayor of Pittsburgh in the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center for the Arts
7:00 – 8:00 pm – Reception in Jones Walker Foyer
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18
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Manship Theatre |
Hartley / Vey Studio
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Hartley / Vey Workshop
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LSU MOA, 3rd floor
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| 7:15-7:45 am | Registration & Breakfast | |||
| 7:45-8:00 | Welcome: Elizabeth “Boo” Thomas & Cordell Haymon Center For Planning Excellence |
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| 8:00-9:00 | How Do We Really Make Communities That Work? Chris Leinberger Brookings Institution Tom Murphy This session will take a look at where we are now and where we need to be, highlighting current market trends and the opportunities that are available from public and private perspectives. |
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| 9:05-10:25 | Retrofitting the American Dream
Thomas E. Low, AIA, CNU, LEED, AICP Dan Slone Susan Turner Suzanne Turner Associates Sponsored by Suzanne Turner Associates Is it possible to repair sprawling suburbs and create more livable, robust, and eco-sensitive communities where they currently do not exist? This session will show that it is, touching on creative approaches that can do just that. Attendees will learn about the Sprawl Repair Manual, a comprehensive guide for transforming fragmented, isolated, and car-dependent developments into “complete communities.”
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New Neighborhood Paradigm: Affordable Means Attainable
Kathy Laborde Andreanecia M. Morris Victor Smeltz Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corporation MODERATOR: This session will look at a number of projects that are mixed-income, offering mixed housing types, access to transportation and job centers, with high-quality designs and the role that they play in transforming communities and can be touched on by everyone where appropriate. The session can help to breakdown stereotypes that surround affordable housing, showing inspiring projects that show how certain designs can create better, stronger neighborhoods. |
Smart Growth 101: What is a Smart & Sustainable City? Elizabeth Schilling Michael K. Medick Elizabeth Teel Galante A great introduction for first-time attendees to the conference or those new to the practice of implementing smart growth solutions. The session will cover the 10 principles of smart growth, the difference between typical and efficient development, the basics of planning and zoning for smart growth, and what makes up a green and sustainable city. |
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| 10:25-10:40 | BREAK | BREAK | BREAK | BREAK |
| 10:40-11:55 | It IS Easy Being Green: A Look at Differing Perspectives on Green Building
Stephen Mouzon, AIA, CNU, LEED AP Thad Chambers Troy Von Otnott Shannon Stage USGBC Louisiana Chapter A look at differing perspectives on green building – how traditional building practices are green as well as the latest technology and products, including a discussion on Steve Mouzon’s book, Original Green. |
Spread Out, But Sticking Together: Rural Regionalism
Dr. Bridget Jones Lee A. Jones MODERATOR: This session will consider and discuss the future for small towns and rural communities in light of the many economic, environmental, and demographic challenges that they face, and consider innovative tools and methods that have instilled hope for their long-term sustainability. Looking at recent experiences in Louisiana and Tennessee, the session will touch on rural communities working together at the regional level. |
Water Works! Smart Ways to Work with Water
Z Smith, AIA, PhD, LEED AP Keith A. Scarmuzza, ASLA Jaime Ramiro Diaz, LEED AP In Louisiana we have a love-hate relationship with water. We can’t live with it, and we can’t live without it. We can be dealing with both drought and flooding in the same month. How can our buildings, roads and landscape help us handle water better and deal with it as not just a problem, but as a resource? This session will give specific examples of how leading projects across the state and across the country are using water in smart ways to avoid problems, save money, and increase value. |
Communities in Transition
Mark Juedeman Harold Schoeffler MODERATOR: The Transition Movement is a vibrant, grassroots movement that seeks to build community resilience in the face of such challenges as peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis. It represents one of the most promising ways of engaging people in strengthening their communities against the effects of these challenges, resulting in a life that is more abundant, fulfilling, equitable and socially connected. Using case studies from the United Kingdom, Houston and elsewhere, this panel presentation will provide an overview of the Transition movement. |
| 12:00-1:25 | Lunch (on your own) | How to Market & Grow Your Small Business Lunch
Lloyd “Benny” Alford Stafford Kendall Sarah Kracke Keith Tillage MODERATOR: Sponsored by Downtown Business Association This lunch panel will take a look at what tools Louisiana business owners have used to help market, sustain and grow their businesses, as well as their overall effect on the communities they work in. |
Health and the Environment Lunch
John W. Frece Eric Baumgartner, MD, MPH MODERATOR: Sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana This lunch session will take a at how working across sectors can address underlying community factors that lead to illness and injury in the first place, including access to healthy foods, parks, open space and safety. |
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| 1:30-3:00 | CONNECT With Us
Ashley Shelton Kara Renne Scott Bernstein MODERATOR: Sponsored by 89.3 WRKF This session will give an update on the CONNECT coalition, advocating for expanded mobility choices throughout the New Orleans to Baton Rouge region that offer improved access to affordable homes, job centers and equitable economic opportunity. |
Go With the Flow: Regional Stormwater Management
Ann Forte Trappey Dana Brown, ASLA, AICP, LEED Thomas E. Low, AIA, CNU, LEED, AICP MODERATOR: This panel will discuss soft engineering (stormwater management) vs. hard engineering (drainage pumps, concrete culverts) to reduce Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). |
Low Cost, High Impact: Creative, Unconventional Tools for Revitalization and Economic Development
George Marks Robert X. Fogarty Connie Uddo Alan Williams MODERATOR: This session will explore unconventional tools that can be used to help revitalize a community, including the role public art can play.
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Does Green Building Make Cents?
Karley Frankic Tony Mainsbridge John M. Anderson, AIA, LEED AP Jenny Pelc MODERATOR: Cities across America have been raising the bar on building performance by requiring LEED certification for their major projects. What have we learned from these projects about what works and what doesn’t to make cost-effective, high-performing buildings? How can we separate the ‘green bling’ from the measures that really pay off? This session will use case studies to review the measures being taken in new construction and renovation for both residential and commercial buildings, with a special focus on what works in Louisiana’s hot, humid climate. |
| 3:00-3:15 | BREAK | BREAK | BREAK | BREAK |
| 3:15-4:40 | Smart Growth, Smart Money: Why Smart Growth Can Be a Lucrative & Smart Business Decision
Chris Leinberger Chris Forinash Chris Ronayne MODERATOR: Sponsored by Baton Rouge Growth Coalition The focus of the session centers on the core proposition that investing in smart growth is a good business strategy. The session moves beyond the corporate “triple bottom line” mantra and examines the many business reasons why investing in smart growth should be pursued. The session will look at issues such as the current and future economic condition, home building trends, changing demographics and preferences, and cost comparisons of smart growth and conventional development, investment trends, and finance strategies. |
Campaigning for Successful Transit: Transit Advocacy
Jason Jordan Reverend Jennifer Jones-Bridgett Barbara Major MODERATOR: This session will discuss grassroots efforts in Louisiana advocating for improved transportation systems through developing campaigns and building ridership, as well as the national perspective on transit advocacy. |
The New Louisiana Coast
Camille Manning-Broome Bren Haase John Spain MODERATOR: Sponsored by Baton Rouge Area Foundation As the state is working on the Master Plan update, we have been creating a companion document which goes beyond the status quo approach for coastal development in LA. The manual is designed to be a timely, informative, easy-to-use platform where communities can access the latest practices and current trends for settlement and development in LA’s coastal regions at varying scales. The manual focuses on both the natural and built environments, and specifically the role communities and people can plan (buildings, neighborhood patterns, infrastructure investments and city and regional plans and designs) in creating sustainable long-term solutions. We researched how communities ‘live with water’ across the globe, and highlight those practices that could be used in Louisiana, as well as highlighting the historic settlement patters that worked for centuries in our own coastal communities. |
This Land is Our Land: Atchafalaya National Heritage Area
K. Lynn Berry National Park Service Debra Credeur Atchafalaya National Heritage Area, Office of Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne, Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism Joe Llewellyn Charles Caillouet MODERATOR: How to grow/move forward while preserving our communities and cultures we love? Most of the properties in a heritage area are in private ownership and remain in private ownership. As a concept, heritage areas are partnerships where residents, businesses, local governments, and state and federal agencies collaborate to create more livable and economically sustainable regions (preserving parks, open space, farms, wetlands, etc.). |
| 4:45-6:00 | Banking on Sustainability: Better Living Through Collaboration
Nancy Montoya Robert Schneckenburger Abe Farkas MODERATOR: This session will look at how to finance and insure mixed-use buildings, loan instruments for mixed-uses and housing, how to get banks to embrace ‘green’ real estate, underwrite and finance these buildings. |
Going to Seed: The Role of Community and School Gardens in Building Communities
Kiki Fontenot Jess Bloomer Marcelle Boudreaux Brian Goad, ASLA Beauregard Town MODERATOR: This session will look at how community and school gardens have been used to revitalize neighborhoods, offer healthy food options to underserved areas, and bring communities together. |
Aging in Urbanism
Charles Wayne Landry, PhD Warren Hebert Scott Ball MODERATOR: Sponsored by The Vinyl Institute This session will take a look at how communities can be designed to provide options for aging in place, so that as people age they can continue to live within their communities instead of having to move into a retirement community. Design criteria that will be addressed include a looking at a location’s site, walkability, and access to transportation.
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Green Buildings: Urban Energy & Neighborhood Hubs
Z Smith, AIA, PhD, LEED AP Corey Saft, RA, LEED AP MODERATOR: Urban planners have become used to thinking of buildings as objects that hold people and consume energy and resources. But some of the most interesting urban projects around the world treat buildings as active players in urban infrastructure – harvesting water energy from adjacent buildings or water pipes passing by, exporting rainwater or mining passing sewage pipes for bio-fuels. Buildings act as nodes in urban systems, both consumers and producers of resources. Other projects see buildings as mixed use not so much in space as in time: buildings that function as schools by day and neighborhood gyms & reading rooms by night. This talk will provide an overview of this trend with examples from around the globe and right here in our region. |
6:00-7:30 PM Great Places Awards Reception at the Shaw Center for the Arts sponsored by AARP. Honoring the 2011 Awardees: Beauregard Town Civic Association in Baton Rouge, Bastrop Historic High School in Bastrop, City-Brooks Community Park (BREC) in Baton Rouge, and West End Redevelopment Initiative as the Emerging Great Place.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 19
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Manship Theatre |
Hartley/Vey Studio
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Hartley/Vey Workshop
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LSU MOA, 3rd Floor
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| 7:15-7:45 AM | Registration & Breakfast | |||
| 7:45-8:55 | Smart Growth in the Era of Less: Economics of Smart Growth
Peter Katz MODERATOR: This session will look at the economics of smart growth, comparing tax revenues, market performance, and cost of infrastructure for mixed-use projects vs. comparable projects in sprawling, suburban sites. |
NOLA Rising: How Downtown New Orleans is Redesigning, Rebuilding & Rebranding Smarter Post-hurricane Katrina
James McNamara Zoey Devall MODERATOR: Session attendees will hear from three New Orleans organizations as to how the city has rebranded and marketed itself to improve its economic future. |
The University Town Chris Ronayne MODERATOR: This session will take a look at the two distinct communities of a university town – the “town” made up of the non-academic community and “gown” made up of the university community – and the ways these two can be leveraged, while working together to create an economically vibrant community with a high quality of life. |
Stand by Your Code: Code Enforcement (CLE approved) Mitchell J. Silver, AICP Carey Chauvin This session will look at the importance of code enforcement and how it affects every aspect of a project including a building’s design, site, stormwater management, etc. Attendees will learn how to account for code compliance in a plan, since code enforcement is critical in implementing any plan or policy. |
| 9:00-10:30 | We have a Plan…Now What? (CLE approved) Councilman Jeff Everson Janet Tharp Mitchell J. Silver, AICP MODERATOR: Sponsored by American Planning Association, Louisiana Chapter This session will look at how comprehensive plans can help cities become nationally and globally competitive, highlighting how to secure community buy in, improve interagency communication, and sustain measure progress and momentum to ensure implementation of a successful plan.
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Blight Busters: Redevelopment Tools (CLE approved) Daniel T. Kildee Mark Goodson Jeff Hebert MODERATOR: This session will look at the issue of vacant, blighted and abandoned properties that more and more communities are being faced with and what tools are out there to address these needs. |
Health at the Center
Zach Lamb LaToya Cantrell Leah Berger, MPH MODERATOR: This session will delve into a case study of a neighborhood, medical school, and developer coming together to redevelop a commercial district around a community health center in the heart of New Orleans. |
What is a Unified Development Code? (CLE approved) Thomas A. Pacello MODERATOR: This session will take a look at unified development codes, what they are and are not, what Louisiana state law currently allows us to do, and an example highlighting the Louisiana Land Use Toolkit and its elements. |
| 10:30-10:45 | BREAK | BREAK | BREAK | |
| 10:45-11:55 | Getting on Board With TOD (Transit Oriented Development)
John Renne Scott Bernstein Robert A. Martin MODERATOR: This session will give an outline of transit oriented developments, or TODs, which are mixed-use communities, centered around public transportation systems. Attendees will see TOD case studies in both Maine and New Orleans, learn about the steps taken to implement them, and their effects on the surrounding community. |
Community Improvement Plans in North Baton Rouge Dana Brown, ASLA, AICP, LEED Perry Franklin Karen Phillips MODERATOR: An examination of successful community revitalization plans for North Baton Rouge, with comparative commentary on plans from across the country. |
Law & Order: Legal Challenges to Smart Growth (CLE approved) Dan Slone Buck Abbey, ASLA MODERATOR: The audience will hear from a land use attorney about his experience with reforming zoning codes, representing developers and communities who have overcome land use impediments, and the steps to putting comprehensive plans into law. A landscape architecture professor will also speak on this panel, focusing on green laws and community development. |
Federal Role in Advancing Smart Growth Efforts
Elizabeth Schilling Chris Forinash A discussion on the role federal government and organizations play in promoting and advancing smart growth efforts, including a look at the sustainable communities partnership made up of the federal departments of HUD, DOT, and the EPA. |
| 12:00-1:25 | Lunch (on your own) | What’s Growth Got to Do With It? Media Lunch Panel
JR Ball Steve Beatty The Lens Lanny Keller Walter Pierce MODERATOR: Sponsored by 89.3 WRKF How does Louisiana media cover urban and rural planning and community growth issues? Find out what catches the media’s eye from this panel of state journalists, discussing what they see are the challenges in their respective communities. |
Tit for Tat: Tea vs. TIF Lunch Panel (CLE approved) Charles A. Landry Joyce Linde MODERATOR: Sponsored by Jones Walker This lunch session will take a look at Tax Increment Financing (TIF), a financing method which has been used as a subsidy for redevelopment and community improvement projects, from differing perspectives including those in opposition such as the Tea Party. |
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| 1:30-3:00 | Complete Streets
Mark Cole Matthew Rufo Councilmember Kristin Gisleson Palmer MODERATOR: This session will focus on complete streets, policy that ensures transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate roadways with all users in mind – including pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transportation users of all ages and abilities. Attendees will hear about projects implemented in Charlotte, NC that have led to increased safety, traffic calming, walkability and short-term cost benefits. Recommended projects in New Orleans and the funding available for them will also be discussed. |
Creative Community Approaches to Oil & Gas Development Caleb Wall, Ph.D ERM Dan Mistler Lori Marinovich Alicia Smith Todd Hall, PE ERM Councilman Rodney Geyen Lake Charles City Council (Invited) Patrick Moore MODERATOR: With the unprecedented opportunities in rural Louisiana for wealth creation and energy independence, this session will explore new approaches to the social and environmental impacts from the public; public/private and private side. |
Lowdown on LEED: Comparing & Contrasting Rating Systems
Charlotte Bellan Sarah Howell, AIA, LEED AP Corey Saft, RA, LEED AP MODERATOR: LEED? Green Globes? Living Building? Enterprise Green Communities? EnergyStar Homes? While LEED has emerged as the green building rating system with widest application across the US, there are a number of other systems in play. This session will demystify them, helping participants figure out what is right for them. |
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| 3:00-3:15 | BREAK | BREAK | BREAK | |
| 3:15-4:30 | Rethinking Growth Management: Lessons for the Future
Peter Katz MODERATOR: Sponsored by Louisiana Public Broadcasting This session will discuss how current development regulations make it difficult to do smart growth. A look at form-based codes, which focus on physical form rather than separation of land uses as their organizing principle, will be part of this discussion, showing how they can foster predictable results in the built environment and a high quality public realm. |
If They Build It, They Will Come
Sarah Kracke Councilwoman Ronnie Edwards Samuel Sanders Daniel Kahn MODERATOR: How do you develop, engage and deploy citizen-leaders to address complex community issues? This session will highlight a process intended to create citizen-led innovation in local communities. With a focus on the Better Baton Rouge initiative and its ‘collaborative innovation’ model, practical insights into success and challenge of effectively mobilizing people as change agents will be shared and discussed. |
Smarter Schools
Linda Morgano Bobbie Hill James G. Rogers, III The quick-start green schools program after Katrina set a goal of building high-performing healthy schools for kids. Key goals were good air quality, abundant but controlled natural light, excellent acoustics, and comfortable temperatures delivered at a reduced energy cost. This talk will show the first new products of this work. The emphasis is on what lessons learned can be applied across the region. |
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5:00 – 6:30 pm – Tour of the LEED-certified office of Grace & Hebert Architects at 501 Government Street, Suite 200
