Learn and Act: Sustainable Planning and Zoning in Stark County

AMATS, the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study, is one of the four Metropolitan Planning Organizations involved in Vibrant NEO 2040 that we discussed in our post last week.  One of their many initiatives is the Connecting Communities program which “is designed to provide communities with funding to develop transportation plans that will lead to the identification of projects eligible for AMATS funds.” The Connecting Communities grant program was a recommendation from  AMATS’s Connecting Communities Planning Initiative (link is to a large pdf file) in 2010.   The purpose of Connecting Communities – A Guide to Integrating Land Use and Transportation is to promote a region that balances environmental, social and economic concerns by improving coordination between land use and transportation. Connecting Communities utilizes a regional planning process to explore strategies to increase transportation choices and accessibility, help communities make collaborative, informed decisions to coordinate development, reduce environmental impacts and improve regional connectivity….

As two of the most significant expenses in our personal lives, housing and transportation cost can play a key role in our quality of life and where we choose to live.  Over the last few years a new tool has been developed by the Center for Neighborhood Technology to analyze some of these costs relative to income and geography. To integrate this way of thinking into the choices and decisions made by home buyers, renters, urban and transportation planners, and developers, CNT and our collaborative partner, the Center for Transit Oriented Development (CTOD), developed a groundbreaking tool, the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, that measures the true affordability of housing choice-by factoring in both housing and transportation costs in a neighborhood. The cost of getting around takes a significant bite out of household budgets. The average family in the United States spends about 18% of after-tax income on transportation, but…

NEOSCC Consortium Member, the Green City Blue Lake Institute has launched a wonderful new website:   The new site is based on a three-step process: Explore: Until you experience Northeast Ohio and the natural systems that support life here the soils, the water, the plants and animals, the climate it’s hard to know how to take care of this place. So the first step is to explore the bioregion, root yourself here, learn to love your home territory. Live: Empowered with the intimate knowledge of place, you can begin to improve your own life. You can lead a healthier, more fulfilling life that has less environmental impact. Transform: Beyond the changes you can make in your own life, we all need to work together on big, complicated things like the design of more sustainable cities, buildings, and transportation systems. We need a sustainability policy agenda and projects that transform the region.   What…

The spreading out of Northeast Ohio’s population has occurred in tandem with an increase in lower density development. The options for meeting the transit needs of residents from areas of low-density development are different from residents from high-density areas. Public transit is most effective and efficient when serving high-density areas. Transit in low-density areas requires more routes to reach fewer riders. As a result, lower density development leads to an increased dependence on private automobiles. Daily Vehicle Miles Traveled, 2000-2010 These maps show by county how the daily vehicle miles traveled (DVMT) by Northeast Ohio’s residents have changed from 2000 to 2010. DVMT increased sufficiently to move four counties – Medina, Wayne, Summit, and Stark counties – into higher categories of miles. In 2000, only Cuyahoga County experienced more than 15 million daily vehicle miles traveled.  By 2010, Summit County had joined Cuyahoga County in the highest category of DVMT. Only Geauga…

Translating sustainability and the triple bottom line  into accessible concepts and actions has long been a difficult aspect of broadening the audience and stakeholders for sustainability initiatives.  This has been particularly true in how everyone can take action. At its recent Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Summit, The City of Cleveland launched its new dashboard.  The new tool includes performance measures that will help to capture progress made along the 10 year initiative: Measuring progress is essential to the success of Sustainable Cleveland. The performance indicators measure results, inform strategy, shine a light on what is working and they educate and inspire us through stories and metrics. The framework focuses on sustainability initiatives in the areas of business, personal/social, built and natural.  Most importantly, the site highlights how you can affect these areas at home, work and in your community.   While some of the measurements have yet to be published, it is definitely worth…

In developing our Conditions and Trends Platform, NEOSCC staff, Consortium members and over 150 subject-matter experts distilled information from public policy plans, planning initiatives and other resources from across the region into a comprehensive set of findings about our region. These findings are the heart of this Conditions and Trends Platform. They are not a definitive list; instead, they are a starting point for understanding our region. And there are no solutions or recommendations within these findings; any recommendations resulting from NEOSCC’s work will be developed in collaboration with Northeast Ohio’s leaders and residents. This information included 100’s of planning efforts completed and underway throughout Northeast Ohio. NEOSCC has compiled pre-existing policy plans and initiatives that are available across the Ohio region into a searchable database.  Our question to you is… what is missing?  Visit our Vibrant NEO 2040 Library and let us know.   What Can I Do Today? Learn: Discover our…

Northeast Ohio has a story. Help us tell it. You are an expert on your piece of Northeast Ohio. No one else knows your experiences better than you. As part of the Vibrant NEO 2040 initiative, we want to tell stories about what makes Northeast Ohio such an extraordinary place to call home. Through these stories we can all have a better sense of what we need to create a more vibrant, resilient and sustainable present and future Northeast Ohio. MyVibrantNEO wants you! In fact, it IS you! What do you love about our region? What needs work? We started the MyVibrantNEO campaign to help connect Northeast Ohioans as part of a conversation about what makes each community great, and what could make each community better. Visit MyVibrantNEO to learn more.

Across the state of Ohio, communities are utilizing shared services to improve their operations and reduce costs. Learn more about these opportunities at the upcoming  Shared Services Expo on November 27 at Ideastream from 8:00 to 2:30. The program will highlight successful shared services programs and provide practical advice to those interested in collaborative shared service projects. Keynote speakers include Former U.S. Senator George Voinovich, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald and Controlling Board President and Policy Advisor Randy Cole. Interested in finding out what shared service collaborations are already underway in the region before the Expo? Check out EfficientGovNetwork, a sponsor of the Expo, for details. Preregistration required due to limited capacity. Registration is $50, and includes a continental breakfast, box lunch and conference materials. For more information What Can I Do Today? Act: Register to attend Countryside Conservancy’s Exploring the small farm dream Event on November 19 Act: Attend the Cleveland…

With Thanksgiving just a few days away, we wanted to share a recent post from the Good website proposing a 100 mile Thanksgiving challenge.  Happy Thanksgiving! In the spirit of using less fuel and supporting local farms and food artisans, we challenge you to try a 100-mile Thanksgiving. A 100-mile Thanksgiving uses ingredients sourced from within 100 miles of your dinner table. Think of it as an opportunity to celebrate local food, rather than an obligation to source every last ingredient from within 100 miles. Food miles, or the amount of miles a certain product has traveled to its final destination, are an important consideration when trying to reduce your carbon footprint and the amount of oil and gasoline used in making a meal. What Can I Do Today? Learn: Visit NEO Food Web for information on Local Food Act: Visit the Local Food Network to get involved Share your thoughts on our…

Eastgate Council of Regional Governments, a NEOSCC Board Member, and the Western Reserve Independent Living Center (WRILC) are working together to help improve the delivery of transportation services and options for older adults, and persons with disabilities. The WRILC is a non-profit community based non-residential center dedicated to empowering individuals with disabilities. The two surveys below will help with the four-county coordinated transportation network. Download the surveys for a chance to win a drawing that is sponsored by the WRILC. To take the transportation provider survey, please click here. To take the transportation services survey, please click here. Interested in more information on Eastgate, access their newsletter here.   What Can I do Today? Learn: Discover our Digi-NEO Gallery of Facts about NEO Act: Become a member of the Conditions and Trends Platform and let us know what you think about our findings Act: Attend our Board Meeting in Summit County

In The Plain Dealer yesterday, Hunter Morrison, NEOSCC Executive Director and Jason Segedy, NEOSCC Board Chair contributed a guest column, “Finding the tools to keep Northeast Ohio’s future bright”,  to the Forum section discussing NEOSCC, the Conditions and Trends Platform and Vibrant NEO 2040.  Here is an excerpt from the piece: Admit it: You love Northeast Ohio. You love the people, or the history, the museums, the food, or the parks and the sports. For all of us, there are aspects of our region about which we are proud, unique qualities that make it a great place to live. We all want to see the things that we love about Northeast Ohio thrive and grow, just as we would like to see the challenges facing our region addressed and put behind us. The Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium works to help residents preserve and build upon what we value, and to fix…

If you live in the Greater Akron and are interested in joining a growing sustainability network, you might want to check out the upcoming Greater Akron Innovation Network for Sustainability (GAINS) meeting. GAINS was launched over the last year.  The first meeting was inspired by a handful of people who are active and passionate local business owners and community members that knew each other through an organization called Entrepreneurs for Sustainability (E4S). From the organization’s Facebook page, membership is for… Anyone who wants to be part of a growing network of people who care about what happens in regards to our environment and healthy community living. We want to help our Greater Akron area grow sustainably and to make smart decisions moving into the future. We are people who want to contribute, lend a hand, offer experienced insight, and have a good time while we do it. To find out more about this growing sustainability network attend its upcoming meeting…

“iNaturalist is a place where you can record what you see in nature, meet other nature lovers, and learn about the natural world.” iNaturalist (http://www.inaturalist.org/) is a smartphone and web-based data gathering program designed to provide an ecological learning and teaching platform for amateur and professional naturalists alike. The world is full of naturalists and many hikers, hunters, birders, and beachcombers record their observations of the environment around them. If the record of observations is comprehensive enough, it may be possible for scientists and land managers to monitor changes in biodiversity, and allow anyone to use the comprehensive record of life to learn more about nature. A comprehensive record of nature is the primary purpose of iNaturalist. According to its website, iNaturalist began as the Master’s final project of Nate Agrin, Jessica Kline, and Ken-ichi Ueda at the University of California-Berkeley’s School of Information in 2008. Nate and Ken-ichi continued…

The Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium is only one of a number of Sustainable Communities grantees. Recently, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development published profiles describing some of the work other recipients are doing.   “Every now and then you’ve got to ask the hard questions.  The one we choose to ask is: How will the Southeast Florida Region evolve over time to ensure that the development of the knowledge-based economy of the 21st   century provides opportunity for the inclusive participation of all of the region’s residents?”  – Dr. Mark B. Rosenberg, President, Florida International University. Flint, MI is using a HUD Community Challenge grant to complete its first master plan since 1960, charting a new course for the community’s future. The Tomorrow Plan, Des Moines, IA’s three-year planning effort funded by a HUD Regional Planning grant, fulfills Central Iowa’s need for a unifying vision that addresses how future growth will affect the region….

Are you interested in learning more about sustainability and what is going on in Stark County? The Stark County Education Network for Environmental Sustainability (SCENES) “facilitates the sharing of information, and takes advantage of  the combination of strengths, and opportunities in effort to raise community awareness and advance sustainable development and a healthy environment.” The project, led by Stark State College,  is supported by a consortium of colleges, universities and environmental groups in and around Stark County. Funding for this effort is provided by the Herbert W. Hoover Foundation. The SCENES website highlights eight focus areas: Advocacy, Building and Construction, Ecosystems, Energy, Green Business, Green Tips, Transportation, and Waste.  It also features ways to get involved and best practices occurring throughout Stark County. Visit the site at http://www.starkscenes.org/ or read their most recent newsletter by clicking here! What Can I Do Today? Act: Participate in the NEOSCC Fair Housing Survey Act: Drive to 500, only 85 to go…Like Vibrant NEO…