Creating Sustainable Places

APRIL 2011

Coordinating Committee Kickoff

The newly formed Creating Sustainable Places (CSP) Coordinating Committee held its first meeting on March 24, with special guests Ron Sims, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II. Sims formally announced the award of the $4.25 million Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant that will fund the CSP initiative, as well as a $250,000 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant for the Kansas City Housing Authority.

Sims and Cleaver congratulated the region on the broad partnerships, emphasis on housing and equity, and focus on transportation corridors that led to these grant awards. After the CSP meeting and a news conference, the two also met with area housing stakeholders at the Green Impact Zone offices.

About the Coordinating Committee

The CSP Coordinating Committee, co-chaired by Councilmember Jan Marcason, Kansas City, Mo., and Councilmember Curt Skoog, Overland Park, Kan., will provide oversight and policy guidance for the implementation of the Sustainable Communities grant.

Committee members, appointed by MARC's Board of Directors, represent a broad and diverse constituency of local government officials, social equity partners, nonprofit groups, university partners, and other community and business interests. 

The kickoff meeting presented an opportunity for committee members to get acquainted with the initiative and share early thoughts on regional sustainability and grant implementation. The committee will continue to meet monthly for the next several months.

 


The Regional Plan for Sustainable Development

On behalf of its regional partners, MARC recently published a guiding document for the Creating Sustainable Places initiative — the Regional Plan for Sustainable Development. Copies of the plan were distributed at the recent Coordinating Committee meeting and at various stakeholder meetings.

The plan summarizes the region's sustainable planning efforts to date, and how existing plans will be integrated into the Creating Sustainable Places initiative, including:

  • Common themes and sustainability goals
  • Sustainable communities planning grant summary
  • Anticipated work flow for grant implementation
  • A compendium of key regional plans and initiatives, along with potential benchmarks of success for each

As existing plans are updated and new ones developed within the framework of sustainability, the Regional Plan for Sustainable Development will continue to evolve.


Creating Sustainable Places Work Plan

MARC staff will work with the Coordinating Committee and other grant partners to implement a work plan that charts out tasks for the next six months. Early goals include setting out the guiding principles for the initiative and defining the process we will use to begin implementing the Regional Plan for Sustainable Development. Specifically, the six-month plan focuses on the following initial tasks:

  • Identify engagement strategies for an upcoming Partners Congress, with particular emphasis on social equity partners.
  • Establish project goals, deliverables, and benchmarks.
  • Develop a corridor planning guidebook.
  • Create a framework to ensure success for the next two-and-a-half years of the grant.

The Partners Congress, representing a broad consortium of more than 60 organizations, will meet once or twice in the next six months. This larger group includes social equity groups, housing organizations, local government officials, the development community, university representatives and other stakeholders.


Tool Development and Corridor Plans

A key element of our work plan is to kick off two simultaneous efforts in addition to community engagement: tool development and corridor planning.

MARC staff will work with the Coordinating Committee, the Partners Congress, and various work groups to develop a usable set of deliverables for each of these critical areas, helping regional organizations move from planning to action. 

  • Tool Development: We will develop a set of tools local governments can use to implement sustainable development policies and practices, beginning with an updated Natural Resources Inventory and economic feasibility and visualization tools. Future grant-related tool development projects include model complete streets policies, strategies for retail center reuse and revitalization, and a framework for sustainable development code changes. 
  • Corridor Planning: As part of the Creating Sustainable Places grant application, MARC identified six transportation corridors to develop a planning framework and implement demonstration projects. Each corridor has a diverse set of challenges and opportunities, and some are further along in existing planning efforts than others.