CNU shares grant to help revive aging LA suburbs

The Congress for the New Urbanism and the Local Government Commission jointly received a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June for a two-year demonstration project in five older suburban cities near Los Angeles. The grant will bring new urbanist planners and architects to these cities to explore ways to retrofit commercial strips and bring downtowns back to life. The funds will be matched partly by in-kind services from the CNU and the cities. The final list of cities has yet to be chosen, according to CNU executive director Shelley Poticha. These funds come from the Sustainable Development Challenge Grant program available in EPA’s Region 9, which includes California. The EPA received 900 proposals, of which 45 were chosen. The Los Angeles area was selected as the focus of the project because of the Local Government Commission’s familiarity with the region from previous work, and the dire need for new urbanist planning in sprawling Southern California, Poticha explains. At the end of the project, results will be disseminated nationally through publication of a booklet illustrating the planning efforts. The Local Government Commission, based in Sacramento, is a nonprofit membership organization of public officials. The CNU is based in San Francisco. The State of NU In other news, the Seaside Institute received $50,000 from the MacArthur Foundation to hold a conference examining the “the State of New Urbanism” in Florida. The site of Seaside and Celebration, the two best known traditional neighborhood developments, Florida probably has more built examples of the New Urbanism than any other state. The conference will be held at Seaside.