The U.S. EPA is soliciting applications, due next week, for their free Smart Growth Implementation Assistance program. Read former SGIA Director Ilana Preuss’s article on the use of NCI Dynamic Planning in the program on our website, here.

Request for Applications: Smart Growth Implementation Assistance

Are you trying to encourage specific smart growth techniques like transit-oriented development? Or direct your state department of transportation investments to better support smart growth? Do you need to retrofit a commercial corridor? Or coordinate your community’s smart growth design with an active aging program?

The U.S. EPA’s Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation is responding to this need by issuing a request for applications for the Smart Growth Implementation Assistance program. Through this program, a team of multidisciplinary experts will provide free technical assistance to communities, regions, or states that want to develop in ways that meet environmental and other local or regional goals.

We are soliciting applications from communities that want help with either policy analysis or public participatory processes. Selected communities will receive assistance in the form of a multi-day visit from a team of experts organized by EPA and other national partners to work with local leaders. Applications will be accepted until May 8, 2008.

For more information and application materials, visit the EPA’s Smart Growth Implementation Assistance website.

The NCI Charrette RFP Template is being utilized in at least four RFPs this spring. The template is a free resource from NCI providing a complete framework for specifying a NCI charrette process in a RFP. The template has been used in RFPs issued by Boone, NC, Peekskill, NY, Freeport, NY and Wellington, New Zealand.

Download the template for free here.

Just knowing how to plan a charrette and design a great plan may not be enough to assure a successful charrette. At the NCI Public Meeting Facilitator™ certificate trainings, you will gain the lessons learned from some of the toughest charrettes and learn how so many potential problems can be defused by knowing how to properly set up and facilitate public meetings. You will finally be able to relax while conducting a large meeting, knowing that you have the most effective tools and preventions in place.

Trainings are held in downtown Portland, near the new streetcar and convenient to Powell’s Books and the Pearl District.
Visit this page for more information and to register.

The Request For Qualifications, distributed by Anthony Ruggiero of the City of Peekskill, NY, utilizes the NCI Charrette RFP Template, which is free for download on our site.

Here is an excerpt from the City of Peekskill, NY RFQ:

“The City of Peekskill is seeking an experienced professional planning consultant(s) to submit qualification statements to perform a public charrette process on development projects that come before the City. The City of Peekskill is considering redeveloping four (4) general areas of the City:

1. The City’s Downtown Business District;
2. The Central Avenue Corridor;
3. Lower South Street at the intersection of Louisa Street;
4. The City’s Waterfront Redevelopment Area (from Main Street to Requa Street);

At this time, the City is inviting proposals from consultant(s) to:

1. Plan and manage a public charrette process to produce a ‘Tool Box’ of guidelines for responsible planning and development within the City;
2. Demonstrate, during the charrette process, how such tools may be applied to model scenarios to represent a range of development options and growth management challenges.”

To obtain the full RFQ packet, contact Mr. Ruggiero at aruggiero@cityofpeekskill.com

Severyn Aszkenazy of Aszkenazy Development Inc. wrote us with the following request:

“We are developers in San Fernando, CA, and have a traditional main street in need of planning for future development. We have had numerous unsuccessful attempts and would like to seek consultation with a highly qualified charrette facilitator.”

Please contact Severyn Aszkenazy with recommendations at s@aszkenazy.com or (818) 270 - 9072.

One of the case studies in The Charrette Handbook takes place in Hercules, California. It chronicles a charrette that took place in 2000 to plan an urban center for the suburban town. Dover, Kohl and Partners created a form-based code that has successfully guided development under the charrette vision of a traditional town center. Since 2000, elected officials, planning commissioners and community members have come and gone but the effect of the charrette is still being felt today. A dramatic example of this continuity occurred recently when an auto-oriented multi-modal station was proposed for the designated mixed-use town center area in the Hercules Waterfront District. The community quickly organized to oppose the plan and showed strong support for an alternative New Urbanist plan that integrated the multi-modal station into a walkable, mixed-use environment. This was reinforced in several community meetings where both plans were presented and unanimous support was shown for the New Urbanist plan.

How is it possible that after over 8 years the community continues to understand and support the outcome of a charrette? The charrette successfully engaged the community in what is now a historic transformational event, the creation of the town center. The story and images of this charrette have been told and retold over the years both through the efforts of city staff and through community organizations. To this day, the persuasive photo transformation images by Urban Advantage serve as an inspiration to community members, both new and old. The auto-oriented proposal was a stark contradiction to the charrette images: images that had become institutionalized as a community vision. It never stood a chance.

NCI will again present an AICP Professional Development Workshop at the American Planning Association’s annual National Planning Conference. The conference takes place this year April 27-May 1st in Las Vegas, Nevada. NCI Executive Director, Bill Lennertz, and NCI Board Member, Steve Coyle, will lead the workshop.

“Charrettes for Planning”
Sunday, April 25
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm

The NCI Dynamic Planning framework is an accelerated, collaborative planning process using charrettes. Learn how to set up a charrette studio and how to incorporate various useful tools, techniques, measures, schedules, and public meeting planning and development standards into your projects.

For more information on the 2008 APA conference, and to register, please visit the APA website.

All NCI certificate trainings are available in-house for your organization. Depending on the number of people you would like to train, this can be a significant cost savings in training fees and travel expenses for your team (generally 15+). In addition, an in-house training saves time lost to travel.

During an in-house training, up to four of your projects will be used as exercise case studies so you can leave with your projects planned. You can also choose to include a variety of project team members and even clients in the training and pay for the training with your project budget, a great advantage when training budgets are dwindling.

Continuing NCI Dynamic Planning, NCI Charrette Management, and NCI Public Meeting Facilitation are offered for up to 32 participants, and the half-day Introduction to Dynamic Planning is available for an unlimited audience, making this a great educational and marketing opportunity for your project stakeholders. Contact us for details.

A few weeks ago, NCI Executive Director Bill Lennertz was featured on the Smart City Radio program. Bill discussed the maturing role that charrettes are playing in the planning and design of communities. To hear the archived show, visit this link.

This is not the first time Bill has been featured on Smart City. In July of 2003, Bill was interviewed for a Smart City Radio show entitled, “Citizen Decision Makers.” For more information on that program, visit this link.

Smart City™ is a weekly, hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life, the people, places, ideas and trends shaping cities. Host Carol Coletta talks with national and international public policy experts, elected officials, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others for a penetrating discussion of urban issues. The program airs online every Saturday and can be heard on public radio stations across the U.S. and Canada.

For more information on Smart City, please visit their website.

The uncertainties of our current economy call for smarter ways to plan. Today, project resources and budgets are being cut, resulting in less work for everyone. How can a project sponsor carry on project work with a reduced budget? How can a consultant sharpen their competitive advantage in a shrinking market? One answer is to use charrettes. When conducted properly, charrettes have been proven to reduce project costs by accelerating timelines and reducing rework.

The NCI Dynamic Planning process is a three-phased project management process that includes a charrette. One important goal of Dynamic Planning is to reduce costly project rework. This is accomplished through the ongoing collaboration between a multi-disciplinary project team and key stakeholders. In a project using NCI Dynamic Planning, and particularly during the charrette phase, the design evolves with the frequent input of all relevant specialties and any person or group who might approve, use, promote or block the project. By including these viewpoints early and often, the design moves forward without the usual backtracking that occurs when unexpected information emerges and/or when someone throws a wrench in the works late in the game. The groundwork for this process is laid during Dynamic Planning phase one, Research, Education and Charrette preparation. It is in this phase that the project team creates a strategy for when and how to integrate the information and people resources critical to running a smooth project. The result is a process that costs less money, takes less time and results in a plan that has a better chance for implementation.