Land Use as a Solution for Equitable Mobility and Access

The push to rethink land use policies always needs to be able to meet communities where they are. Also, the perfect cannot be the enemy of the good, or the enemy of the better. Sometimes progress requires a fundamental rethinking of the problem that is trying to being solved. It also can involve more fundamental conversations about shared goals and shared values. Victories for better land use policy are not necessarily won in the legal text of a zoning code, but in the outcomes of thousands of broader community and statewide conversations about the kinds of places we want our metropolitan areas and other smaller communities to be. In the context of the Biden Administration’s renewed focus on equity, housing and sustainability, we will discuss how all levels of government can work together — to improve land use policy, design safer streets, promote more sustainable transportation options and provide abundant housing for all. With reference to on-the-ground examples, we’ll hear how communities are leveraging federal funding to achieve these goals.

Moderator: Harriet Tregoning, AICP, Senior Advisor for Land Use, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, DC
Jordan Riesenberg, Economist, US Department of Transportation, Office of the Secretary, Washington, DC
Kevin Vonck, Director of the Department of Planning and Development Review, City of Richmond, Richmond, VA
Thatcher Imboden, Director, Community Development, Sound Transit, Seattle, WA