In our work at NEOSCC, we are guided by six Livability Principles from The Partnership for Sustainable Communities (an interagency partnership between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)). One of the principles is to ‘support existing communities’. This principle is said to target federal funding toward existing communities—through strategies like transit-oriented, mixed-use development and land recycling—to increase community revitalization and the efficiency of public works investments and safeguard rural landscapes. The EPA recently released a report examining residential construction trends in America’s metropolitan regions. The report finds that nearly three out of four large metropolitan regions saw an increased share of new housing development in previously developed areas during 2005-2009 compared to 2000-2004. Known as infill housing, this type of development provides economic and public health benefits to metropolitan areas while protecting the local environment. Northeast Ohio’s three metropolitan areas identified in the report had a low percentage of infill housing and they remained stagnate throughout the decade – a trend NEOSCC hopes to change in the future.
Metropolitan Region |
2000-2004 % Infill |
2005-2009 % Infill |
Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor |
27.3% |
27.7% |
Akron |
18.9% |
18.2% |
Youngstown-Warren-Boardman |
20.8% |
21.% |
What Can I Do Today?