An excellent choice: John Frece to head EPA's smart growth office
- Kaid Benfield
- Director, Smart Growth Program, Washington, DC
- Blog | About
- Posted March 13, 2009 in Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
I'm biased, because he is a longtime professional friend, but I think the Obama administration made a great choice in appointing the University of Maryland's John Frece as the new head of the US EPA's Smart Growth Office.
For the past few years, John has been associate director of the University's National Smart Growth Center. Before that, he was former Maryland governor Parris Glendening's right-hand man on Glendening's signature issue, smart growth. He began his career as a journalist and is the author of Sprawl & Politics: The Inside Story of Smart Growth in Maryland and co-author of an autobiography of former Maryland Gov. Harry Hughes.
John intends to work to place smart growth within the climate change frame with the Obama administration. He will be terrific. For more, see Tim Wheeler's blog on the Baltimore Sun's website.
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Comments
Jim Noonan — Mar 16 2009 12:55 PM
I agree with your assessment of the appointment.
I don't mind attention being paid to climate change but I would also like to see some additional emphasis on capacity building (both technical and administrative) for good planning at the local government level along with a continued emphasis on supporting good development in appropriate locations. It is in those two critical areas that many Smart Growth approaches start to break down.
Kaid @ NRDC — Mar 16 2009 07:48 PM
It's hard to argue with that, Jim. Those things are absolutely essential. I know EPA will support both, but their budget for these issues is limited.