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Monday Mailing

Year 21 • Issue 41 06 July 2015 1. Every Single County in America Is Facing an Affordable Housing Crisis 2. Deschutes County to Review Two Proposed Solar Farms 3. TREC Webinar: Transit-Oriented Development and Equity in Latino Neighborhoods: A Comparative Case Study of Macarthur Park (Los Angeles) and Fruitvale (Oakland) 4. Easing Into Conservation: Farming Converts to Forest 5. Economic Development + Stormwater – What’s New? 6. Selecting Rural Data in American Factfinder 7. This 26-Story High-Rise Will Be The Biggest Passive Building In The World 8. 2015 HEAL Cities Small Grants Application Now Available! Oregon Could Loan $110 million to Federal Government if Transportation Funding Runs Out 9. Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program 10. New TGM resource: 40+ Sources of Funding for Walking and Biking Improvements 11. Rural Energy Leaders Selected 12.

Quote of the Week: “Family is not an important thing. It's everything.” ~Michael J. Fox Oregon Fast Fact: In 1905 the largest long cabin in the world was built in Portland to honor the Lewis and Clark expedition.

1. Every Single County in America Is Facing an Affordable Housing Crisis From Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine. From Jacksonville to Juneau. No matter where you look, there isn’t enough affordable housing.

Without exception, there is no county in the U.S. that has enough affordable housing. The crisis is national and it is growing. Since 2000, rents across the nation have increased. So has the number of of families who desperately need affordable housing.

New research from the Urban Institute shows that the supply of housing for extremely low-income families, which was already in short supply, is only declining. In 2013, just 28 of every 100 extremely lowincome families could afford their rental homes. Than figure is down from 37 of 100 in 2000—a 25 percent decline over a little more than a decade.

To access the full story, click here.

2. Deschutes County to Review Two Proposed Solar Farms The abundance of sunshine east of the Cascade Mountains makes Central Oregon a prime location for generating solar power.

Two adjoining solar facilities have been proposed east of Bend and others could soon follow. Installation costs have dropped in recent years, and requirements for Oregon utilities to use renewable energy increased this year.

But that doesn’t mean solar panels will stretch across every square inch of the High Desert. The purchase price for solar power and the effect Page 1 of 5

of competing energy sources could continue to dissuade some development companies.

A Deschutes County hearings officer will review the two proposed solar farms at a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Deschutes Services Center in Bend.

The proposed solar facilities would be installed on properties north and south of Neff Road next to the intersection with Erickson Road. The facilities would cover about 70 acres on land zoned for farming and produce a combined 20 megawatts of electricity a year, enough to power 3,000 homes annually.

To access the full story, click here.

3. TREC Webinar: Transit-Oriented Development and Equity in Latino Neighborhoods: A Comparative Case Study of Macarthur Park (Los Angeles) and Fruitvale (Oakland) Thursday, July 16, 2015 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PDT Instructor: Gerardo Sandoval, Assistant Professor, University of Oregon View more info | Register Transit-oriented development (TOD) projects in low-income neighborhoods have the potential to provide needed transportation access to a segment of the population that stands to benefit significantly from these large-scale transit infrastructure projects. This research project reveals that large-scale TOD projects have the potential of leading to neighborhood revitalization and equitable outcomes in low-income Latino communities. But these positive outcomes depend on both the process and context of these particular neighborhoods, and how transportation planners incorporate the various forms of political, financial and cultural capital that exist in these communities into the planning and implementation process of TOD projects. This comparative case study analyzed the Fruitvale Transit Village in Oakland and the MacArthur Park METRO TOD in Los Angeles.

To view more information about learning outcomes, instructor Gerardo Sandoval, and to register, visit the webinar webpage.

This 60-minute webinar is eligible for 1 hour of professional development credit. NITC applies to the AICP for Certification Maintenance credit for each webinar. We will provide an electronic attendance certificate for other types of certification maintenance.

4. Easing Into Conservation: Farming Converts to Forest Retired farmer and Stayton resident Bob Koenig has lived near the North Santiam River for most of his life and, by choice or coincidence, it taught him one of the greatest lessons of his life. As a result, he and a neighbor joined together in 2004 to enroll 331 acres in a wetlands reserve easement that included forested buffers, a first for Oregon.

As part of the Natural Resources Conservation Service Agricultural Conservation Easement Program the property will be returned to native habitat. For the past 12 years the conservation service, with the help of several agencies, has slowly worked toward restoring the easement.

It is now a different place; a place where wildlife gathers.

To access the full story, click here.

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5. Economic Development + Stormwater – What’s New? This booklet is a product of a 2014 American Planning Association national conference session titled “Shared Stormwater Systems as Economic Incentives.” The session, presented April 29, 2014 in Atlanta GA, outlines strategies for using shared stormwater systems to enhance the environment while attracting and retaining businesses.

Danielle Gallet of Center for Neighborhood Technology and Lisa Nisenson of the tech start-up GreaterPlaces wanted to go beyond the typical conference session and create a presentation that (1) gathered examples from green infrastructure practitioners, (2) provided the audience with the latest on “this is how you get green infrastructure done,” (3) leveraged the knowledge of the assembled audience, and (4) delivered a product community advocates and professionals can use long after the conference is over.

To access the full story, click here.

6. Selecting Rural Data in American Factfinder This step-by-step guide from the Rural Assistance Center shows 2 methods for selecting rural data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Factfinder tool, which provides access to a wide range of statistics describing the U.S. population. Learn how to use the Geographic Comparison Tables and direct selection of locations to easily identify data for use in rural health grant applications, community health needs assessments, and more.

To access the full story, click here.

7. This 26-Story High-Rise Will Be The Biggest Passive Building In The World Most buildings that meet the rigorous passive house standards are single-family homes. But a new passive house apartment building in New York City will be 26 stories high—the tallest and largest in the world.

Passive homes are ultra-low energy buildings that require little heating or cooling. To meet the requirements, a building must use 60% to 90% less energy than a normal efficient building of the same size, which means building an almost impenetrable envelope around the outside.

"It's been an exploratory process for us, partly because nobody has done anything of this scale," says Blake Middleton, partner at Handel Architects, the firm that designed the building for Cornell Tech's new campus on New York's Roosevelt Island. "There are a good number of low-rise passive house buildings in Europe and a lot of freestanding houses. But when you get into something that's 10, 20, or in this case almost 30 stories tall, it's a whole different ballgame in terms of how you put it all together."

To access the full story, click here.

8. 2015 HEAL Cities Small Grants Application Now Available!

The Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Cities Campaign Small Grants <http://ophi.us7.listmanage.com/track/click?u=a23dd09ac55f5ecffa5963b89&id=1060d90b59&e=8f5542e5e8> are now available to implement policies that create healthier communities. All cities that join the HEAL Cities Campaign by July 31, 2015 are eligible to apply.

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Applications for the small grants are due August 15, 2015 by 5:00 p.m. HEAL Cities Small Grants will make implementation grants to up to six (6) cities to implement HEAL policies, in amounts between $5,000 and $15,000. The grant pool is $35,000.

The HEAL Small Grants Program is funded through the generosity of Kaiser Permanente and is a component of the the HEAL Cities Campaign. The Campaign is managed by the Oregon Public Health Institute (OPHI) in partnership with the League of Oregon Cities (LOC).

The Campaign offers many tools to assist cities throughout Oregon to adopt and implement HEAL policies. Cities may consult with Campaign staff at OPHI for personalized technical assistance.

Campaign staff can help a city to join the Campaign, select an appropriate policy, identify Small Grant-eligible implementation projects, and develop a strategy to engage the community in project selection, and/or navigate unexpected hurdles in implementation.

How to apply for a Small Grant: * Submit a completed Application to Karli Thorstenson<mailto:%20Karli@ophi.org> by 5:00 pm on August 15, 2015. * Learn more about the Small Grants grant process in our FAQ document. * Learn more about important dates and Reporting Guidelines All materials can be found on the HEAL Cities website<http://ophi.us7.listmanage.com/track/click?u=a23dd09ac55f5ecffa5963b89&id=e6b76dd55a&e=8f5542e5e8>.

Contact Karli Thorstenson at karli@ophi.org<mailto:karli@ophi.org> or 503.227.5502 x223 for more information on the application process.

Only HEAL Cities are eligible to apply for Small Grants for HEAL Cities.

A city must join the HEAL Cities Campaign by July 31, 2015 to be eligible for a 2015 Small Grant.

9. Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program National Parks Service Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program is accepting applications through August 1 for help with a wide range of community-led projects.

National Park Service staff can help local leaders:      

Develop close-to-home parks and greenways Manage community-led visioning, planning, and design Facilitate public involvement Build sustainable partnerships Engage youth through outdoor recreation skill-building and conservation stewardship Plan for trails, landscape conservation, water trails, river restoration, green transportation, and tourism

Can we help your community? Find out by first reviewing the application process and exploring current projects in your state.

Then call or email a National Park Service staff member near you to discuss your idea, and let them know by July 15 if you intend to submit an application by the August 1 due date.

Do you still need help deciding whether the National Park Service might help you and your community? Check out this short video.

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10. New TGM resource: 40+ Sources of Funding for Walking and Biking Improvements As communities look to build networks of safe places for people to walk and bike, funding is a central question.

The Oregon Transportation and Growth Management program has compiled a resource page listing over 40 possible sources of local, state, federal and private funding for such projects, with links to much more information: http://www.oregon.gov/LCD/TGM/Pages/walkbikefunding.aspx The resource is also available as an eight-page PDF http://www.oregon.gov/LCD/TGM/docs/WalkBikeFund.pdf 11. Rural Energy Leaders Selected We had a robust response to our call for applications for Making Energy Work for Rural Oregon. Six communities have been chosen to participate in the workshop series: John Day, Dufur, and Hood River in eastern Oregon, and Douglas County, Talent, and Klamath Falls in southwest Oregon.

Each participating community has a unique need and interest in advancing clean energy, and sees investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency as an important way to diversify their economies. Local leaders agree that a clean energy economy will help reinvest dollars back into the community, while fostering energy independence, job creation, and a healthy environment.

Individual workshops will be tailored to each regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s available natural resources, local priorities, and the communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interest in utilizing energy assets to drive economic development. The workshops will provide participants with the connections and tools they need to bolster their economy with investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, while responding to the challenges of climate change.

To access the full story, click here.

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