Flexible Street Designs in the Fire Code October 24-26, 2009
In recent years, new urbanists and firefighters have discovered both common interests and shared challenges in neighborhood street design.
The Emergency Response and Street Design Initiative, a collaboration between the CNU, fire marshals from across the United States, and the U.S. EPA's Smart Growth program, found solid common ground for ongoing efforts to reconcile narrower streets and good emergency access: Street connectivity - specifically, well-connected networks of traditional street grids - is essential to good urbanism, shortens emergency response times, and improves overall community life safety.
From that foundation, CNU is cooperatively working to change the International Fire Code with proposed amendments empowering local fire code officials to be flexible on street designs. Fire marshals Carl Wren, of the Austin, Texas, Fire Department, and Rick Merck, of Montgomery County (Maryland) Fire & Rescue, wrote new language for Section 503 of the code - the passage that mandates designated fire access roads have at least 20 feet of clear space. CNU members Patrick Siegman, a transportation planner with Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates in San Francisco, and Peter Swift, a civil and traffic engineer and owner of Swift & Associates in Longmont, Colo., wrote a new appendix that could be adopted by local jurisdictions.
These changes will be presented before the International Code Council in Baltimore, Md. The amendments will be debated on the weekend of Oct. 24-26 at the ICC's Code Development Hearings. The sessions are open to nonmembers and are free. Registration is required. Click here for registration information.
CNU Membership Vote on LEED-ND August 19, 2009 - September 17, 2009
CNU members will vote on the LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system this summer. To encourge informed participation, the CNU DC Chapter has released An Introduction to LEED-ND for CNU Members.
This six-page article covers the essential points that CNU members should know as they consider their ballot. Topics include the background of LEED, how the system is administered, credits of special interest to new urbanism, what the system does and does not do, and the purpose and meaning of the vote. The article is written by Laurence Aurbach, CNU DC Chapter secretary and member of the LEED Location and Planning Technical Advisory Group.
CNU's member ballot is open for 30 days, from August 19 through September 17, 2009. The vote will be conducted online at at the CNU web site. In order to take part in this electronic ballot, members must be a current CNU member and will need their CNU.org login.
Also, a Letter of Support makes a recommendation to CNU members about the LEED-ND ballot, signed by the new urbanist representatives on the LEED-ND core committee and LEED Location and Planning Technical Advisory Group, as well as the CNU Board.
CNU has partnered with the U.S. Green Building Council and
the Natural Resource Defense Council to create the LEED-ND rating system.
Tregoning Leads Tour of Columbia Heights (Video)
CNU DC members took a tour of Columbia Heights in the summer of 2008. Now watch D.C. Office of Planning Director Harriet Tregoning lead a
tour of the Columbia Heights neighborhood to explore how
transit and mixed-use facilities help make for greener neighborhoods.
This is the third installment of Great Green Places.
The Columbia Heights redevelopment plan was a CNU Charter Award winner in 2009, recognized as the "gold standard" for urban design and development. It was one of four DC-area plans to be so honored at the CNU Congress in Denver. The other three award winners were the South Capitol Area Plan in DC, Rockville Town Square in Maryland, and the Crystal City Vision Plan 2050 in Virginia. Congratulations to all!
CNU DC Scholarship Opportunity for CNU XVII / Denver
The Congress for the New Urbanism DC Chapter is pleased to announce it will select two scholarship recipients in 2009. The scholarships will be awarded to local students or young professionals, to attend the Congress for the New Urbanism XVII in Denver, Colorado, June 10-14, 2009.
The scholarship covers the registration costs of the Congress. The amount of the scholarship will be paid directly to the Congress for the New Urbanism on behalf of the scholarship recipient. Any travel and lodging expenses will be the scholarship recipient's sole responsibility.
Eligibility
Those eligible for scholarship application will be graduate-level students of architecture, planning, or related fields such as real estate development or zoning law, and young professionals (in those same fields) within the first three years of completion of a graduate degree and now working in the DC metropolitan area. Previous scholarship winners are ineligible to receive a second scholarship.
Essay Requirement
Interested candidates are required to submit a one-page essay. This year's topic, determined by the CNU DC board of directors and scholarship committee, is a discussion of DC's most pressing transportation challenges in the face of an ever-growing region, and how Chapter members can work together and with the community to influence local governments to meet these challenges.
The recipient will be required to attend the Chapter meeting during the Congress and briefly meet with the CNU DC's board of directors.
Submittals, questions and comments
Eligible candidates will submit their one-page essay to CNU DC no later than 9:00 pm, Friday, June 5, 2009. Submittals, questions and comments should be sent to Laurence Aurbach, CNU DC secretary, via email at
Winning candidates will be notified on Monday, June 8, 2009.
Along with the one-page essay, candidates shall provide their email address, phone number, and local mailing address or business address. Student candidates must provide verification of current standing by their academic institution. Young professionals must provide verification of their date of completion from graduate school and their local employer.
12th floor conference room
National Association of REALTORS®
500 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
Refreshments will be provided courtesy of Joe Molinaro and the National Association of REALTORS®
All CNU members in the Washington DC / Baltimore region are automatically members of the CNU DC Chapter. As a member, you are invited to our annual members' meeting, where you'll hear updates on CNU DC activities and have the opportunity to bring up new business. Following the business meeting, architect and town planner Léon Krier will read from his new book, The Architecture of Community and will sign copies. Don't miss the drawing for a free copy of Mr. Krier's book!
Please RSVP to
Also, let Sarah know if you want to purchase a book, so Island Press can bring the right amount to the event.
Agenda
6:00 - 7:00 pm - Business Meeting:
Treasurer's Report, Chapter Leadership Report and Meet-up Report, CNU 17 Denver Update, Scholarships for CNU/Denver, LEED ND Status Report, Lecture Events, Tours: Greenbelt, National Harbor, and Reston, T4 America, New Business.
Door Prize: Drawing for one copy of
Léon Krier's The Architecture of Community
7:00 pm - 7:30 pm - Léon Krier Book Reading. Léon Krier will be available to sign copies of his new book The Architecture of Community, available May 1, 2009. Copies of the book will be available for sale at the venue.
How New Transportation Policies Can Shape Great Communities
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
6:00 pm refreshments, 6:30 pm program
National Capital Planning Commission
401 9th Street NW, 5th Floor
Guest Speakers: Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Congress for the New Urbanism and Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company
and Geoff Anderson, Smart Growth America and Transportation For America
Our speakers will discuss the federal Transportation Reauthorization Act and what it means for us and the Washington region.
About the Forum:
Our national transportation policy has barely changed since the 1950s, when gas was 20 cents a gallon and President Eisenhower launched the interstate highway system. Today, we live in a very different world. The interstates have been built. Americans are feeling stuck with costly commutes and congestion. Bridges are crumbling. Our climate is threatened. Too many older, younger and rural Americans are stranded. Volatile areas of the world literally have us over a barrel — millions of barrels a day, in fact. As our country considers a more sustainable future, learn how a different approach to national transportation policy, and how we design our communities, can help.
Americans need options that are cheaper, faster, and cleaner. And the nation needs a healthy transportation system that is ready for the rapidly changing economy of the 21st century. Transportation for America (T4America) has formed a broad coalition of housing, environmental, public health, architecture and urban planning, transportation, equitable development, and other organizations. The effort seeks to integrate national, state, and local transportation policies with issues from climate change to community development. The Washington Metropolitan region has a chance to set a national example.
Please join us to learn about how federal policy affects you, your practice and your community.
Sponsored by:
Congress for the New Urbanism DC Chapter
Coalition for Smarter GrowthÂ
Event Partners:
Smart Growth America/T4 America campaign
Washington Area Bicyclist Association
National Capital Area Chapter of the American Planning Association
Volunteer Tree Planting Event at Triangle Park
Friday, March 27, 2009
9:00 am - 1:00 pm
"We dedicate ourselves to reclaiming our homes, blocks, streets, parks, neighborhoods, districts, towns, cities, regions, and environment."
- Charter of the New Urbanism
CNU DC is lucky to be based in an established urban community where our members and our neighbors are able to experience CNU's principles on a daily basis. And it's time we as concerned citizens start to give back and make a difference. The Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District and DC Department of Parks & Recreation have partnered with Casey Trees to plant 39 trees in Triangle Park, at the intersection of 2nd Street, H Street and Massachusetts Avenue, NW above the I-395 underpass. This is the first step in a long-term plan to make this park a better place for residents, workers, and visitors.
On Friday March 27, from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, we would like to ask you to donate your time to help plant the 39 trees. Even in this tough economy, we hope that you can spare a few hours to make our city a better place. Our goal is for 25 of our gracious friends and members to step up and help us clean our city. Don't be afraid to ask your boss if you can bill this time to civic involvement. Intern architects, don't forget you need community service to complete your IDP hours, and this counts!
Please email for more information and to let her know if you would like to volunteer.
Integrating Transit, Walking and Biking With Land Use: The European City Experience
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Stuart Sirota, principal, TND Planning Group, discusses a recent exploratory tour of transit, pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, transit-oriented developments and urban form in European cities. Covering eight cities in five countries, Sirota met with transport agency officials and urban planners, and observed advanced examples of design, operations and policy. The discussion will also look at how best practices can be applied in the U.S.
The brilliance of how European cities have for the last few decades retrofitted a seamless hierarchy of rail, public transport, bicycle, and pedestrian infrastructure into their built environments can hardly be overstated. Systems engineering, operations, and customer information systems are far ahead of most of those in the U.S. The new low-floor, unibody trams are incredibly comfortable and efficient; the quality and amount of service on the street is staggering.
These new investments have paid off with an increasing transit share of all trips, and municipalities are aggressively moving ahead with further expansion plans because of their success. This was no easy feat to accomplish, but what was most striking was the political will and the popular support that largely made it possible.
Stuart Sirota is the founding principal of TND Planning Group, a national consulting practice based in Baltimore, Maryland, focused on sustainable transportation and land use planning, design, and policy. Prior to forming his consulting practice, Sirota was a professional associate with Parsons Brinckerhoff specializing in the integration of transportation and land use and multi-modal planning, and was a senior planner with the Maryland Transit Administration.
Location: First floor conference room at 800 Eye Street N.W. (American Public Health Association Building). Nearest Metro stop is Gallery Place/Chinatown.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
The new low-floor, unibody trams are incredibly comfortable and efficient; the quality and amount of service on the street is staggering. 
These new investments have paid off with an increasing transit share of all trips, and municipalities are aggressively moving ahead with further expansion plans because of their success. This was no easy feat to accomplish, but what was most striking was the political will and the popular support that largely made it possible.