Smart Growth

Ross & Associates has expertise in urban and land use planning, growth management, transportation planning, green building and design, and other related fields that support sustainable infrastructure and approaches to improve the quality of life. Ross & Associates works on projects that address smart growth needs and solutions from a variety of perspectives, including incorporation of climate change considerations in development of growth management policies as well as transportation planning, development of indicators for land use and state of environment reporting, supporting Web sites and competitions to identify improved approaches for green building and materials reuse, and addressing complex problems such as stormwater management.

Selected Projects in This Area

Assessing and Comparing Environmental Performance of Major Transit Investments

Ross & Associates supports research being conducted by the Transportation Research Board to identify potential measures and indicators for assessing environmental, health, and ecological impacts of transit development. Ross & Associates has conducted an extensive review of the literature and documented approaches and plans to assessing ecological impacts of transit development and has developed a matrix of measures to help evaluate environmental outcomes in considering population growth patterns and transit development.

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OTAQ Guide

As part of its ongoing support with the Transportation and Climate Division within EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, Ross & Associates developed several chapters for EPA’s “best practices” guide for local governments to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The chapters focused on strategies for implementing Transportation Control Measures, promoting clean fuels, and introducing high efficiency vehicles.

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