Consolidated Plan Improvement Initiative

Information by State  Print version   What's New Sustainable Communities This new initiative outlines six new guiding “livability principles” that will be used to coordinate federal housing, transportation, and environmental protection investments. HUD, DOT, and EPA plan to make planning grants available to metropolitan areas, and create mechanisms to ensure those plans are carried out through localities. more... Allocation of Transit Funding This website provides information on projects included in the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts and Small Starts programs that are part of the Major Capital Investment Grant Program, the Federal government’s primary financial resource for supporting locally planned, implemented, and operated major transit capital projects. more… Housing and Transportation Affordability Index This innovative tool measures the true affordability of housing based on location. more...

The Consolidated Plan Improvement Initiative encouraged jurisdictions to use existing data and cross-reference local and regional documents when updating Consolidated Plans. Many communities have developed plans that contain integrated approaches to the challenges that are faced at the state, local, neighborhood, and regional level.

Today, across the country, planners are exploring new ways to coordinate housing, transportation, community, economic, and workforce development in an effort to promote more livable communities. State and local governments are encouraged to develop comprehensive regional partnerships to facilitate this alignment. Local jurisdictions are urged to partner with each other regionally and across political jurisdictions as necessary. Coordinating CPD funding with the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants, Weatherization Assistance program, and the Department of Labor’s Workforce Investment Act programs provides opportunities for unemployed, lower-skilled, and low-income women and men to advance along a middle class career track of increasing skills and wages.

HUD has taken a number of actions to encourage the use of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly designs and conservation measures in the development of housing assisted with HUD funds, including a memorandum of understanding with the Environmental Protection Administration and the Department of Energy to promote ENERGY STAR compliant housing. In addition, HUD recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Energy to coordinate energy retrofit programs in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

HUD also entered into an agreement with the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Administration to facilitate integrated housing, transportation, and land use planning. Coordinating housing, transportation, energy, in concert with closely related issues such as economic development, environmental quality, education, and workforce development, can create more sustainable communities.

HUD encourages jurisdictions to align their consolidated plan activities with state and regional economic recovery plans as they are developed, particularly with those connected with the Recovery Act. HUD also requires jurisdictions to describe the means of cooperation and coordination among the state and any units of general local government in the metropolitan are in the implementation of the consolidated plan.

The following examples illustrate some promising regional and integrated planning practices that jurisdictions should consider as they update their plans.

Cross-Referencing

Elk Grove, CA
The CDBG website identifies additional resources used in the preparation of the Consolidated Plan documents, such as the Elk Grove Transportation Improvement Plan. The Consolidated Plan funds improvements for transit riders in target areas by providing bus benches, bus shelters, ADA compliant pads and lighted bus stop signals.
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Gwinnett County, GA
Because land use and development issues impact and relate to housing and community development issues Gwinnet County combined the Consolidated Plan and the Comprehensive Plan into the Unified Plan - an integrated and innovative plan that evaluates the County's current conditions, depicts alternative futures, and determines the best way to achieve the desired future.
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Housing and Transportation

Denver, CO
Denver’s consolidated plan delineates a holistic approach to transit oriented development, including targeted investment in affordable housing development and preservation, business development and job creation, and public housing preservation in areas surrounding transit corridors. Its strategic plan identifies clear objectives in these areas and specifies the funding mechanisms the City intends to utilize to foster development according to these goals.
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Somerville, MA
The Somerville, MA consolidated plan clearly identifies the linkages between housing, transportation, and economic development. The plan includes a section dealing with transportation and long range planning that identifies potential development along transit lines and underutilized rail yards in the Albany Square district, Inner Belt district, North Point, and the Union Square Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area.
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Workforce and Economic Development

Puget Sound Regional Economic Strategy
Regional strategy prepared by Prosperity Partnership, a coalition of government, business, labor and community organizations from King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties in State of Washington dedicated to developing and implementing a common economic strategy. The region is taking steps to ensure a high quality of life, good schools, affordable housing and supportive government policies in order to attract new businesses, or keep and grow existing firms.
Prosperity Partnership | Affordable housing

St. Louis, MO
The chapter on economic growth in the St. Louis consolidated plan includes a discussion of economic development programs and the city’s employment development and training services. Workforce development initiatives and activities are tied to the city’s economic growth strategy, yielding results that address both economic growth and antipoverty strategies. The plan also explains the coordination of a variety of programs, like the Regional Jobs Initiative, that provide a comprehensive regional approach to expanding employment opportunities that utilizes a number of different funding sources.
Economic Development | Employment Training

WIRED Initiative
The Workforce Innovation and Regional Economic Development (WIRED) Initiative supports the development of a regional, integrated approach to workforce and economic development and education. The Initiative will provide regions with funding, ongoing technical assistance and support from a group of experts to implement a transformational approach to their workforce and economic development systems at the regional level.
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