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Growing Communities ConferenceGrand Valley Metropolitan Council
GVMC’s 15th-Annual Growing Communities Conference a Huge SuccessThe votes are in and the post-event evaluations tell the story. Grand Valley Metro Council’s 15th annual Growing Communities Conference, held on June 12, 2008 at Calvin College’s Prince Conference Center, was a terrific success. Two hundred attendees from across the state participated in the discussions and listened to presentations on a wide range of topics that addressed the future of our regions and home towns. Special keynote presentations by Frey Foundation President Milt Rohwer, Michigan Municipal League Director Dan Gilmartin and University of Michigan Dean of Architecture and Urban Planning Douglas Kelbaugh provided conference participants with a review of where have been and thoughtful insight on emerging trends in regional planning and community design thus challenging all of us to recalibrate our approach to collaborative planning. Breakout sessions took up that challenge and zeroed-in on economic development and regional planning issues focusing attention on initiatives across the nation to create entrepreneurial opportunities in new urbanist settings; planning for transit-oriented developments in our communities; and developing strategies for reducing energy consumption. This year’s GVMC Metropolitan Development Blueprint Award was presented to the City of Grand Rapids for their success in developing and implementing the innovative and widely heralded update to the city’s 1963 master plan. With the adoption of this new zoning ordinance, which is based in part on the recent GVMC Form Based Code Study, the City of Grand Rapids again has demonstrated leadership in community design, enhancement of neighborhoods, supporting the principles of smart growth, and building the capacity of their citizens through a strong commitment to neighborhood involvement. Grand Rapids Planning Director Suzanne Schultz accepted the award on behalf of the city. The Grand Valley Metro Council extends a special thank you to our Partnering Sponsors the Michigan Municipal League and ITP-The Rapid. We also offer a sincere thank you to our contributing sponsors for this year’s conference, including: Calvin College; Fishbeck Thompson Carr & Huber; Founders Bank & Trust; Grand Rapids Community College; Macatawa Area Coordinating Council; Mica Meyers Beckett & Jones PLC; Moore & Bruggink, Inc; MSU Extension - West Region; Progressive AE; The Right Place, Inc; United Growth of Kent County; and Williams & Works, Inc. The GVMC also extends a hearty thank you to our many conference volunteers who donate their time and talents to the myriad details that make the Growing Communities Conference a success each year. We also acknowledge the efforts of that wonderful staff at Calvin’s Prince Conference Center who work tirelessly to ensure that all of the conference details are handled in a professional and expeditious manner. GVMC and its Public Information and Education Committee are truly grateful for such a good turn-out by so many dedicated officials and practitioners in our community. Your encouragement is what keeps us working on this program and planning is already underway for the 2009 Growing Communities Conference. We hope to see you there! 2008 Growing Communities Conference Presentations
2008 Growing Communities Conference Images
The Theme: Morning Keynote: "Sustainable Urbanism for Suburb and City" Douglas S. Kelbaugh, FAIA, Dean of Architecture and Urban Planning at University of Michigan Doug Kelbaugh will discuss the hidden and not-so-hidden costs of sprawl, focusing on alternatives that are more sustainable in environmental, social and economic terms. He will illustrate New Urbanist and other design principles with built and proposed projects that he and his colleagues have worked on since 1988, when he led a design charrette that gave birth to Transit Oriented Development (TOD). The talk will also cover some of the many charrettes that he has organized in the city of Detroit and its environs. Professor Kelbaugh has been Dean of Taubman College since 1998. During this time he has developed an urban design program, a real estate development program and a community design center and annual design charrette in Detroit; increased enrollment and expanded the faculty; and served on a number of university and state committees and boards. Kelbaugh has co-chaired eight national and international conferences on energy, urbanism, and design; spoken to hundreds of professional and community groups; appeared on numerous local and national radio and television programs; and served on more than a score of regional and national design juries. He chaired the AIA National Urban Design Awards jury and the 4th National Symposium on New Urbanism, and is a board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism. With Peter Calthorpe, he edited and co-authored in 1989 The Pedestrian Pocket Book, a national bestseller in urban design that documented their work in transit-oriented development and helped jump-start the New Urbanism and Smart Growth movements. Kelbaugh also authored COMMON PLACE: Toward Neighborhood and Regional Design, a book on theory, design and policy published by the UW Press in 1997, now in its second printing. Its sequel, Repairing the American Metropolis:Common Place Revisited, was published in 2002. The Michigan Debates on Urbanism, a three-book series he edited, was published in 2005. One of the first to popularize the modern design charrette, Kelbaugh has organized and participated as a team leader in some thirty of these community design workshops on urban and suburban design issues in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, many of which have resulted in publications and subsequent projects. He continues to speak and consult widely on private and public development projects here and abroad. Luncheon Keynotes: “Blueprint for Smart Growth” Milt Rohwer, President, Frey Foundation Early in the last decade, most land use planners and many public officials in the Grand Rapids metropolitan area knew something was wrong. They saw we were not growing in well managed ways and found that we were not developing in sustainable patterns of community. In 1992, a small working group of planners and community leaders assembled under the banner of a newly formed Grand Valley Metropolitan Council (GVMC) and with financial help from Michigan’s Department of Transportation and Department of Commerce, embarked on a new type of planning process. They conducted land use visioning for an entire metropolitan region and established for the first time anywhere in the state, (perhaps in the nation), a plan for smart growth. At that time, “Smart Growth” was not the well known brand it is today, and this new metro-area plan was deemed the Metropolitan Development Blueprint. It was adopted by GVMC two years later, and it has been paying smart growth dividends ever since. Milt Rohwer, currently President of the Frey Foundation, has extensive background in both the Blueprint and the history of planning and development throughout the metropolitan area. He served early in his career with the City of Grand Rapids planning department, and went on from there to serve as President of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce. Milt has been instrumental in the formation of countless important organizations throughout our state including GVMC, Right Place, Inc., West Michigan Strategic Alliance, Michigan Future, Inc.., the Center for Michigan and more. Be sure to join Milt at our conference lunch as he narrates a brief pictorial presentation showing a few of the many smart growth spin-offs which have emanated from the original GVMC Metropolitan Development Blueprint.
Breakout Sessions Please note: Sessions with double asterisks (**) will be repeated in the morning. Successful New Urbanist Developments** Making Transit Oriented Developments** Creating Entrepreneurial Towns** For Whom the Town Plans** Cities as Energy and Climate Change Solution** A Grand Vision for Grand Traverse Bay Region. Approaching Professional Unity Date & Time: June 12, 2008 , 8:00 AM – 3:30 PM Location: Calvin College Parking: Parking is available at the Prince Center. To register: Complete the registration form and send along with payment to: |
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