Smart Growth Conference Impact Felt Near and Far
October 2006 -- The “Bridging Boundaries – Building Great Communities” Regional
Smart Growth Conference hosted by the Ohio River Bridges Project wrapped up on Wednesday,
Sept. 20, at the Downtown Louisville Marriott. The impact of the event, however,
is only beginning to take hold. Conference officials and participants agree the
event means long-term planning and community success for not only Louisville and
Southern Indiana, but for outlying communities represented.
“Our hope in planning and presenting this conference was for it to open a discussion
and understanding of Smart Growth and how these principles can be applied to community
and transportation planning now and in the future,” said conference emcee Pete Fritz
of Community Transportation Solutions, the General Engineering Consultant for the
Bridges Project. “The hope was that leaders, planners, architects and designers
from many different communities would attend and the conference would then be beneficial
well beyond the boundaries of Louisville and Southern Indiana. It turned out that
39 percent of our attendees were from outside Jefferson County, Ky., and Clark and
Floyd Counties in Indiana. We really feel like the conference accomplished those
objectives.”
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.
“I think the conference was very beneficial,” said Scott Campbell, Director of Parks
and Recreation for the City of Nicholasville, Ky. “I will use much of the information
I learned to try and convince our elected officials to incorporate better planning
and zoning practices in an effort to preserve some of our county’s natural beauty,
make it more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly and make our community more livable
and sustainable.”
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 featured speakers list included
Randall Arendt, an internationally recognized author, lecturer and site designer
specializing in conserving interconnected networks of open space through conservation
subdivision; Donovan Rypkema, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate and economic
development consultant specializing in services to public and non-profit sector
clients and Walter Kulash, a veteran of traffic and transit planning projects specializing
in “livable traffic” design.
“Having the opportunity to hear Randall Arendt and Donovan Rypkema speak was an
opportunity I simply could not pass up,” Campbell said. “I am an admirer of their
work. The information presented was not only informative but relevant to counties
like Jessamine that are experiencing rapid, sprawling growth.”
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.
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 and transportation. 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.