Smart Growth Technical Assistance Programs

EPA offers the following technical assistance to help communities learn about and implement smart growth approaches:

• Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities – Two-day, targeted technical assistance to give communities tools to implement smart growth development approaches. Eligible applicants are tribal, county, and local governments, and nonprofit organizations that have the support of the local government on whose behalf they are applying.
• Cool & Connected – Helps rural communities use broadband service to revitalize main streets and promote economic development. Any community representative can apply.
• Governors' Institute on Community Design – Helps governors help their states develop in an environmentally and economically sound way. States are eligible to apply.
• Greening America's Communities – Helps cities and towns envision and implement design strategies for more sustainable communities. The program currently serves communities in partnership with the EPA Office of Water Stormwater Management Program. Formerly called Greening America's Capitals.
• Healthy Places for Healthy People – Helps communities create walkable, healthy, economically vibrant places by engaging with their health care facility partners such as community health centers (including Federally Qualified Health Centers), nonprofit hospitals, and other health care facilities. Eligible applicants include local government representatives, health care facilities, local health departments, nonprofit organizations, tribes, and others proposing to work in a neighborhood, town, or city anywhere in the United States.
• Story Map

  

  Read about how EPA's technical assistance programs have helped local leaders realize their community's vision in the "Community Stories" story map (link will open in a new window or tab).

  Local Foods, Local Places – Helps communities develop and implement action plans that promote local foods and downtown revitalization. Representatives of communities anywhere in the United States are eligible to apply. This program builds on the Livable Communities in Appalachia Program, which offered technical assistance to help small towns and rural communities in Appalachia revitalize their traditional downtowns to boost the local economy and improve quality of life.
• Recreation Economy for Rural Communities – Helps communities develop strategies and an action plan to revitalize their Main Street through outdoor recreation. Eligible applicants include local governments, Indian tribes, and nonprofit institutions and organizations representing any community in the United States.
• ​Smart Growth Implementation Assistance – Works with public-sector entities that want to incorporate smart growth techniques into their development. As of 2015, EPA's regional staff identified and selected communities to assist. Summaries and reports from past SGIA projects can be helpful to communities facing similar issues.
• Special Smart Growth Technical Assistance Projects – Additional technical assistance projects done in partnership with other entities.