Check back each day for a new post and read the full series of livability case studies as they’re posted. The intro can be found here.

Meridian, Mississippi

Meridian revitalized its downtown and became a transit hub for rural Mississippi and the southern U.S., improving quality of life for residents and visitors.

Meridian, Mississippi is a small city of 40,000 near the Alabama border. Under the leadership of former Mayor John Robert Smith, Meridian reversed the decline of its city center and historic buildings through investment in downtown and in the creation of a transportation hub.

Today, Meridian’s Union Station hosts 250events and services 300,000 passengers annually and has spurred revitalization in the area, with retail, restaurants and residential projects. A companion effort is currently underway to build new moderate-to-low income units on single-family lots.

The transit hub has turned Meridian into a destination and improved connectivity to rural Mississippi and the entire country. Investment in intercity transportation networks enabled leaders in Meridian to link public transit, passenger rail, high-speed rail, commercial air service and intercity buses. This greatly expanded the mobility of this largely rural pocket of the U.S.

Mayor Smith, who declined a bid for a fifth term to join Transportation for America in Washington D.C., says the kind of livability elements embraced by President Obama are welcomed in rural America.

“Some may think ‘livable communities’ is a phrase that refers only to urban areas,” Smith said. “I assure you, it is not. A safe, strong and efficient transportation system in our small towns and rural areas, in addition to our larger cities, is necessary if we are to continue to grow our economy and provide access to the American dream.”

Source: Transportation for America.

Check back each day for a new post and read the full series of livability case studies as they’re posted. The intro can be found here.

Cache Valley, Utah

Through a unique community planning process called Envision Cache Valley, residents in Cache Valley, Utah established strong benchmarks for preserving farmland, maintaining clean air and welcoming new development and housing.

Envision Cache Valley is modeled after Envision Utah, a similar statewide process widely praised in planning circles that operates under the banner “how we grow matters.”

Valley residents were motivated to take charge of their future in response to estimates that 2040 population levels would likely double to a quarter-million from present day 125,000. Air quality, a healthy economy and smart use of existing resources were identified as key priorities. The Cache Valley Regional Council, an agreement between Cache Valley jurisdictions and officials from both Cache County, Utah and neighboring Franklin County, Idaho, constituted the beginning of the visioning process.

According to the Envision Cache Valley website, “participants tackled such difficult issues as growth locations and patterns, private property rights, transportation, air quality, water quality, economic development, job growth, agriculture, land consumption, housing, environment, critical lands and recreation.”

Working off a baseline scenario that outlined the future of Cache Valley absent clear goals, residents asked themselves how they would preserve what was best about their community while embracing inevitable change.

During a 2009 Envision Utah meeting, Idaho State Representative Marc Gibbs, a Republican, said of the effort: “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

Participants found that many of their goals – preserving farmland and open space, promoting recreation and community and maintaining air quality – would be best achieved through a more connected transit system. To that end, the final vision statement calls for higher capacity development to reduce infrastructure costs, enhanced peak-time bus loops, a potential bus-rapid-transit line and streets that accommodate walking and biking.

Source: Envision Cache Valley

Tuesday’s briefing, titled “Planning for a Better Future: Lessons from the States on Regional Sustainability Planning” featured experts from three regional laboratories on transportation reform – Sacramento, CA; Salt Lake City, UT (right); and Minneapolis, MN.

The American Planning Association and LOCUS, an association of pro-reform real estate developers, co-hosted the event at the Capitol Visitors Center on Tuesday afternoon.

Regional blueprints, or plans, outline a long-term transportation vision for a region. Metropolitan Planning Organization, or MPOs, typically have jurisdiction over this process, alongside partners at the county and municipal level. One objective of these plans is to lower greenhouse gas emissions through measures like increased transit use and building new homes near jobs.

“Comprehensive, but bottom-up” is how LOCUS President Christopher Leinberger, the event’s moderator, describes a potential direction for federal policy. In essence, the federal government would provide the funding and set the benchmarks, while regional planning authorities make allocations and are expected to achieve significant reductions in emissions.

Panelists stressed that their primary focus is on increasing choices – in transportation and housing – for all Americans. The recent economic recession was fueled in part by an over-supply of single-family homes on large lots. And while ample demand exists for mixed-use development on smaller lots, a combination of lagging infrastructure and policy restrictions have prevented the private sector from moving to meet that demand.

That is why the engagement and support of the business community is so critical.

Natalie Gochnour is the Chief Operating Officer for the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce. Her group’s seat at the table and engagement with a strategic and sustainable vision for the Salt Lake City area led to championing a sales tax increase to pay for 70 miles of light-rail for seven years.

“My message is this: don’t underestimate business community support for new ways of seeing and new ways of doing,” Gochnour said.

Michael McKeever, Executive Director of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, cited a similar dynamic in his area, where the Sacramento Area Chamber of Commerce helped push the blueprint concept in its early stages and has hailed the region’s long-range plan as a signature accomplishment.

Both Sacramento and Salt Lake City have seen substantial increases in transit usage and decreases in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) since beginning to implement their blueprints.

Commissioner Peter McLaughlin of Hennepin County in Minnesota addressed successes in his region as well.

T4 America Director James Corless emphasized that there was no “silver bullet” in regional sustainability planning, but that providing benchmarks and the required funding would result in substantial leaps.

Communities should be asking, “what do we want to look like in 25 years?” Corless said. “That’s the fundamental question.”