The Ohio River Bridges Project of Kentucky and Indiana

The "Bridging Boundaries - Building Great Communities" Regional Smart Growth Conference hosted by the Ohio River Bridges Project was held Sept. 18-20, 2006 at the Downtown Louisville Marriott. Conference officials and participants agree the event means long-term planning and community success for not only Louisville and Southern Indiana, but for communities from various parts of the country represented.

The Smart Growth Conference was sponsored by the Ohio River Bridges Project to offer educational opportunities and promote discussion on issues relating to regional growth, transportation and historic preservation. The conference was a commitment made in the Section 106 Memorandum of Agreement executed as part of the Record of Decision for the project in 2003.

The three-day event gave the over 170 attendees the opportunity to interact with leaders from across the country and participate in the evolving study of Smart Growth. Three nationally recognized experts and over 30 local and regional speakers presented and discussed a wide variety of topics related to urban and transportation planning, land use and historic and environmental preservation.

Participants were treated to walking/trolley tours of the Butchertown and Phoenix Hill Historic Districts near downtown Louisville and the Old Jeffersonville Historic District in Indiana, along with a driving tour of the Country Estates of River Road Historic District in Eastern Jefferson County, Ky. The conference also included a dinner cruise that allowed guests to see the Ohio River Bridges Project's Downtown and East End Bridge sites from the river and receive a brief overview of the project from Bridges Project officials.

To learn more about the conference's speakers, read about them on our Speakers page For Adobe Acrobat PDF documents of each presentation, visit the Presentations page. A roster of conference attendees is available.

For more information, contact Christa Turner at .