Obama administration working toward mixed use

Posted on June 24, 2010 by David Leazenby

mixed-use-donovanYou may have seen the biggest endorsement of mixed use in the history of America last month when HUD secretary, Shaun Donovan, announced the federal government’s new policy to use “location efficiency” to score grant applications. Going forward HUD will consider LEED-ND and related factors such as proximity to transit and higher densities in its allocation of project funding (now projected at $3Billion for 2010). Never before has the federal government so clearly aligned the notion of efficient land use planning and allocation of money. The best part is that HUD is working on defining parameters for lenders based on certain urban metrics. We’re still figuring out the implications to the projects that we are planning, but we do know that this will have major implications for rebuilding neighborhoods and cities across America. It appears the public subsidies for sprawl have begun to shift in the opposite direction. A good summary of the announcement and related thoughts can be found in this Fast Company piece from May 21st. A full copy of Mr. Donovan’s remarks can be found at the Congress for the New Urbanism.

This entry was and tagged urban planning, HUD, new urbanism, Shaun Donovan, sprawl, urban development

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