Smart Growth
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Smart Growth and Colleges and Universities

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Background


Colleges and universities influence the built environment in many ways:

  • As developers, institutions affect land use both on and off campus.
  • As teachers and researchers, colleges and universities are educating citizens who will be involved in determining development patterns, professionally or as community members, and are producing pure and applied research on the built environment.
  • As part of the community, most institutions provide technical assistance to communities, community groups, and decision-makers.

EPA works with institutions of higher learning on smart growth development approaches and sees these institutions as resources on the built environment.

Publications

Visit our publications page for a list of publications about smart growth for colleges and universities.

The Institution as Developer


Colleges and universities are economic engines, and their impact extends beyond traditional campus boundaries. As institutions serving students, faculty, and staff, they need to maintain and expand their facilities. They are typically responsible for providing classrooms, offices, research space, laboratories, administrative offices, and housing, as well as transportation facilities that include parking lots, buses, bike racks, and bikes. Their expansion affects surrounding neighborhoods and often the larger region.

This section lists some resources about the university as developer and its influence on local economies.

Resources

Some of the materials below have been archived. To find them, click on the "Search EPA Archive" button behind the resource name and type or copy and paste the title of the resource into the search box on the EPA Archive home page.

Collaborating on Greensboro's Future: The University Roundtable and Next Steps Search EPA Archive (2008): Report, produced through EPA's Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program, that discusses the development challenges facing Greensboro, North Carolina, and its vision for future growth. The report outlines strategic directions the city and its colleges and universities could pursue by working collaboratively.

Spokane's University District: Policy Options for a New Urban Center  Search EPA Archive(2007): Report from a Smart Growth Implementation Assistance project with Spokane, Washington, to address growth and development-related challenges on and near university campuses.

Communities of Opportunity: SG Colleges PDF Cover

Communities of Opportunity: Smart Growth Strategies for Colleges and Universities(48 pp, 39 M, About PDF), National Association of College and University Business Officers and Ayers Saint Gross Architects, (2007): Discusses using limited resources more effectively, getting the most out of investments, improving relations between the campus and the community, and demonstrating that institutions are and can be good environmental stewards. Includes contributions from EPA staff.

Leveraging Colleges and Universities for Urban Economic Revitalization: An Action Agenda  CEOs for Cities Conversations and the Institute for a Competitive Inner City (2002): Discusses the importance of colleges and universities in urban redevelopment and revitalization. It describes how community leaders, elected officials, and college and university administrators have worked together to achieve common goals.

Teaching and Research


Through their teaching, research, and service missions, colleges and universities teach best practices, provide professional training, and analyze land use policies and practice. Much of this educational effort comes from traditional courses in programs dealing with the built environment, including planning, architecture, policy, law, engineering, and public health. However, colleges and universities also host and provide land use practice training to local officials such as municipal legislators, planning commissioners, and staff.

Resources

Some of the materials below have been archived. To find them, click on the "Search EPA Archive" button behind the resource name and type or copy and paste the title of the resource into the search box on the EPA Archive home page.

Partnerships for Smart Growth: University-Community Collaboration for Better Public Spaces Search EPA Archive, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning and Lincoln Institute for Land Policy (2005): Profiles 13 university-led collaborations on smart growth initiatives. Written under a cooperative agreement with EPA.

Federal Highway Administration, University Course on Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation (2006): Covers planning and engineering issues, design and engineering techniques, and implementation.

University Real Estate Development: Campus Expansion in Urban Settings, University of Baltimore with research assistance from the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy (2007): Working paper that explores how institutions of higher education expand outside their campus boundaries.

Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) : Transparent, self-reporting framework created by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance.

Service and Technical Assistance


Many colleges and universities provide technical assistance and services to local governments, nonprofits, and other organizations interested in better growth and development outcomes. Some assistance involves training elected officials, staff, and community groups. Other projects include applied research and direct technical assistance through contracts or class projects or a combination of both.

The following links exit the site

Research and Service Centers

Smart Growth University Training

These courses are intended for elected officials, professional staff, developers, and citizens.

Community Partnerships: University Service and Applied Research Programs

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