Thousands of properties in first and second ring suburbs lie fallow, are abandoned, or are under-utilized, says Lynn Richards, the 2012-2013 Lincoln-Loeb Fellow. sit abandoned or under utilized. These spaces represent significant opportunity to leverage public infrastructure investments in transportation, schools, and utilities and to revitalize under performing suburban landscapes. In addition, there is increasingly growing demand to redevelop these properties as residents and local governments seeks economic value and vitality associated with placemaking. What strategies can local governments implement to transform their underperforming auto-dominated landscapes into vibrant, pedestrian-scaled, prosperous neighborhoods? Richards will draw from her current research to discuss the incremental transportation and policy strategies that local governments could put in place to facilitate and incentivize redevelopment of their suburban landscapes, in the next in the spring lecture series at the Lincoln Institute April 3. The lecture, Suburban Retrofit: Policies, Politics, and Designs, is free but registration is required.
Richards has been working on policy at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. , focusing on the role of density and development, as well as storm water management practice. She has played a major role in building path-breaking linkages and coordinating funding among EPA, The US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the US Department if Transportation, and other agencies that have impact on the built and natural environment. Currently at Harvard University as a Loeb Fellow at the Graduate School of Design, with the joint appointment at the Lincoln Institute, she is researching the design and policy approaches for retrofitting our suburban communities.
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