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Performance Measures for Sustainable Community Approaches

Matthew Dalbey, US EPA Office of Sustainable Communities

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FEDERAL POLICIES AND INVESTMENTS SHAPE LOCAL SUSTAINABILITY OUTCOMES

2Buena Park, CA© Ron Chapple/Corbis

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FEDERAL POLICIES, LOCAL OUTCOMES• Are HUD housing investments targeted to locations near jobs centers or well served by transit?

• Are EPA investments – water SRF, brownfields assessments/clean ups, etc… – serving existing communities or promoting new greenfield development?

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HUD DOT EPA PARTNERSHIP FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES (PSC)

• Formed: June 2009• Mission: To help American families in all communities — rural, suburban and urban — gain better access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs. • Method: Coordinate investments and align policies

PSC Livability Principles

• Provide more transportation choices• Promote equitable, affordable housing• Enhance economic competitiveness• Support existing communities• Coordinate and leverage federal policies

and investment• Value communities and neighborhoods

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Are outcomes consistent with the Livability Principles?

Principle #1 –More Transportation Choices

Develop more convenient reliable, safe and economical transportation alternatives

% of commute trips by

bicycle or foot

Key strategies… Indicators of progress…

Broad goals…

Improved Public Health

Reduced Oil Dependence

Improved Air Quality

Reduced GHG

Emissions

Lower HH Transportatio

n Costs

Expand transit services Transit trips

per capita

Increase % of new homes built near

employment/activity centers

VMT per capita

Improve transit performance

Increase % of new homes built near

transit

Unique to this Principle

Shared by another principle

PSC and Performance Measures

• Focus attention• Promote accountability• Promote informed decision making• Transform discourse• Make funding contingent upon continued

progress• Rural and urban difference• Pilot the use of performance measures in

a subset of the communities receiving assistance