By Staff Reports
(LĪHU’E) – Smart Growth America (SGA) today announced that the County of Kaua‘i was selected to receive free smart growth technical assistance through a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program.
The county is one of 18 communities out of 100 applicants and the only Hawai‘i community that will receive a 1- or 2-day training session with an expert from Smart Growth America.
Kaua‘i’s 2-day training will focus on parking audits, which will assist the county with assessing current and future parking demands as well as parking supply.
The workshop will also provide best practices on how to efficiently manage parking resources.
Once the date is set, county staff and interested community members will be invited to participate in the workshop.
“Applying Smart Growth principles throughout the county is integral to our Holo Holo 2020 Vision,” said Mayor Bernard Carvalho, Jr. “Working together with the County Council since approval of our state’s first local Complete Street’s ordinance, we have been moving forward on a number of smart growth/complete streets initiatives.”
Included on the list of initiatives are: multimodal land transportation plan; smart growth revisions to the comprehensive zoning ordinance; incorporation of smart growth principles in community development plans; and changing the process for designing streets to incorporate complete streets principles.
Roger Miller, vice president of SGA’s Leadership Institute is looking forward to partnering with the county.
“We are excited about working with the County of Kaua‘i to develop local solutions that support thriving places now and for generations to come,” said Miller. “Smart Growth America is committed to providing the tools and training to help community leaders keep their cities and towns livable, sustainable and vital places.”
Kaua‘i’s parking audit workshop will center on the Līhu‘e Town Core as the county has several initiatives in the area that will benefit from a better understanding of parking tools and solutions including, the Rice Street revitalization and streetscape plan and the greening of the Līhu‘e Civic Center.
“Understanding and applying best practice parking solutions is critical to the success of both of these projects and the transformation of our town core to become the pedestrian-friendly, economically-revitalized heart of our island,” said Mayor Carvalho. “Once we learn these tools, not only will they be applied to the Lihue Town Core, we will have the capacity to apply the same tools to other parts of our island.”
Bev Brody, director of Get Fit Kaua‘i, who led the charge for the county’s Complete Streets ordinance, said “Get Fit Kaua‘i is thrilled to participate in the parking audits training in order to further build capacity to partner with the county in implementing smart growth principles.”
Recently, Brody and several county employees were invited to participate in a panel discussion of Kaua‘i’s complete streets journey at the New Partners for Smart Growth national conference in Denver, CO.
According to the SGA, the 18 communities selected to receive technical assistance exhibited the strongest interest in and need for smart growth tools and clearly demonstrated a commitment from local business, community and political leaders to implement local smart growth solutions.
The other winning communities are: City of Emmett, ID; City of Green River, WY; City of Hot Springs, AR; City of Huntington, WV; City of Indianapolis, IN: City of Memphis, TN; City of Portsmouth, NH; City of Salisbury, MD; City of San Diego, CA; County of Kauai, HI; Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, IA; East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, FL; Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes of Poplar, MT; Kenosha County, WI; Person County, NC; North Central Texas Council of Governments, TX; Pasco County, FL; and the Town of Queensbury, NY.
Smart Growth America is the only national organization dedicated to researching, advocating for and leading coalitions to bring smart growth practices to more communities nationwide. From providing more sidewalks to ensuring more homes are built near public transportation or that productive farms remain a part of our communities, smart growth helps ensure people across the nation can live in great neighborhoods.
During his inaugural speech titled Holo Holo 2020, Mayor Carvalho spoke about his vision for Kaua’i in the year 2020, which includes incorporating Smart Growth and Complete Streets principles throughout the county.
This initiative is one of 38 projects that are part of the mayor’s Holo Holo 2020 vision for Kaua’i, which calls for all organizations, businesses, residents and visitors on Kaua’i to be part of creating an island that is sustainable, values the native culture, has a thriving and healthy economy, cares for all – keiki to kupuna – and has a responsible and user-friendly local government.
To see the complete list of Holo Holo 2020 projects, please go to the county website, www.kauai.gov<http://www.kauai.gov>.
For more information, visit www.smartgrowthamerica.org.