"National Center for Smart Growth"
Gerrit-Jan Knaap
Urban Studies & Planning
The National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education is a non-partisan center for research and leadership training on smart growth and related land use issues in Maryland, in metropolitan regions around the nation, and in Asia and Europe. Located at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD., just eight miles from Washington, D.C., the National Center for Smart Growth was founded in 2000 as a cooperative venture of four University of Maryland schools: Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Public Policy, Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Engineering.
The mission of the Center is to bring the diverse resources of the University of Maryland and a network of national experts to bear on issues related to land use and the environment, transportation and public health, housing and community development, and international urban development. The Center accomplishes this through independent, objective, interdisciplinary research, outreach and education.
In addition to its research efforts, the Center also is partners with Smart Growth America in the Governors' Institute on Community Design, a program designed to assist governors throughout the United States who are interested in issues of land use, development land conservation, community design, or related issues. This project is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Upon request, the Center also offers smart growth leadership training to federal, state and local government officials as well as to private sector decision-makers. The Center staff and its affiliate faculty offer specialized education and training programs as well as smart growth study tours and workshops. Center staff invites suggestions or ideas for tours, training or workshop programs and is interested in establishing partnership arrangements.
