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The event provides the opportunity for mayors from Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey to present a climate challenge case study from their municipality to each other and a group of climate action professionals. Working together in a design brainstorming session, they will consider a wide variety of planning and design solutions to each community's case study. Mayor Malloy will speak about "Transit Oriented Development" (TOD), which refers to a mixed-use residential or commercial area designed to maximize access to public transport and to reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled. While the term only came about within the last 15 years, Stamford was an early pioneer of the practice. The 1970s Master Plana commercial growth in the downtown core, and a 1984 Master Plan amendment sought to create a vibrant downtown with commercial and residential development in close proximity to the 'Transportation Center. During the last 30+ years, therefore, most large-scale development in Stamford has been clustered within a 10-15 minute walking distance from mass transportation. Mayor Malloy has aggressively pursued TOD as a strategy to: create an active and pedestrian-friendly environment in the City's core business center; expand the City's walkable and lively historic center; build new residential neighborhoods around Stamford's branch line train stations (Glenbrook and Springdale); increase density on East Main Street; and promote the rehabilitation and redevelopment of Stamford's South End neighborhood (an underused industrial area with brownfields), including a feasibility study for a light rail line connecting the South End to the north side of downtown. In short, the pursuit of TOD is one of the main components of Mayor Malloy's effort to make Stamford a national leader in sustainability. From the public's perspective, however. redeveloping downtown has been perceived mainly as an economic strategy. Mayor Malloy would like to change that perception, and frame the development of downtown near the City's Transportation Center as an essential component of Stamford's sustainability efforts and climate change planning. Stamford's sustainability program is broad and well received. In 2004, the City adopted a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2018. Since then, the City has implemented more than 50 energy efficiency projects, saved over $2.4 million in avoided energy costs, and reduced its municipal carbon emissions by over 5,000 tons a year. In 2007, Mayor Malloy initiated Stamford Cool & Green 2020, a comprehensive initiative to tie together all of the City's carbon emissions reduction efforts. For these accomplishments, Governor Rell recently awarded Stamford the Connecticut Climate Change Leadership Award. Stamford Problem Statement Mayor Malloy is seeking to discuss the most effective ways to frame TOD as a sustainability issue. What public programs and additional land use measures should we pursue to most effectively support TOD - to address bicycle riding, pedestrian access, vehicle/pedestrian conflicts, traffic flow, parking, and to reduce driving? How do we discourage the use of single occupancy cars to get to the Transportation Center? What planning and implementation options are available for upgrading the facility, which is almost at capacity, to meet demand as TOD becomes dominant? What are the best messages and statistics to convey the importance of TOD? Can the carbon-reduction impact of TOD be quantified? How long does it take-for TOD to cause an appreciable reduction in driving? © Copyright by StamfordPlus.com. Some articles and pictures posted on our website, as indicated by their bylines, were submitted as press releases and do not necessarily reflect the position and opinion of StamfordPlus.com, Stamford Plus magazine, Canaiden LLC or any of its associated entities. Articles may have been edited for brevity and grammar. [an error occurred while processing this directive] CURRENT HEADLINES: [an error occurred while processing this directive] Top of Page
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