Merger of two organizations: Coalition for Smarter Growth and Washington Regional Network for LIvable Communities

From a press release:

New organization expands operations, programs, and influence

Coalition for Smarter Growth and Washington Regional Network for Livable Communities (WRN) are proud to announce the completion of a merger. The merger of two of the region's most innovative and effective smart growth organizations creates a more powerful voice addressing the region's key issues of where and how to grow.

"This merger allows us to consolidate our long-time partnership with WRN and ensure that housing choices are fully addressed in local and regional decisions about how and where we grow," said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

The merged organization, under the name Coalition for Smarter Growth, will incorporate WRN's programs and its focus on equitable development into the Coalition's regional work to ensure that transportation and development decisions are made with genuine community participation and allow the region to accommodate growth while revitalizing communities, providing more housing and travel choices, and conserving our natural and historic areas.

"WRN's board of directors determined that our mission can best be achieved by combining efforts formally with our close partner, the Coalition for Smarter Growth," said Cheryl Cort, Executive Director of WRN. "I am excited about this change and look forward to being even more effective as we are able to marshal the substantial resources of the Coalition for Smarter Growth to achieve our joint goals and vision."

Created in 1991 by leaders on environmental, bicycle, pedestrian, transit and urban planning issues, WRN shared a similar mission with the Coalition, but served as the regional leader on equitable development, including affordable housing, transportation equity and helping urban communities capture the benefits of smart growth.

WRN's Affordable Housing Progress Report in 2004 spurred Northern Virginia jurisdictions to greatly increase their funding commitment to affordable housing. WRN has also been a key leader in DC's Affordable Housing Alliance and helped lead the successful effort to secure an inclusionary zoning policy in Washington, DC. WRN's focus on safe pedestrian access to Metro stations on the region's east side has led to policy, planning and investment changes. WRN has also clarified the connection between affordable housing, access to jobs, and lower transportation costs.

The region's leading environmental and community organizations founded the Coalition for Smarter Growth in 1997, to serve as a central coordinating agent, an advocate for community-oriented development, and voice of smart growth in Metropolitan Washington.

In ten years, the Coalition for Smarter Growth has shifted the regional debate to a point where voters across the region are supporting better management of the location, pace and design of growth. This vision isc aptured in the Coalition's Blueprint for a Better Region, a visual depiction of how transit oriented development and corridor redevelopment can provide more housing andt ransportation choices while also protecting neighborhood parks and our surrounding agricultural and rural landscape.

"As part of the merger, we are launching an Equitable Development Campaign to raise the visibility of WRN's ongoing programs in affordable housing, transit-oriented development and transportation equity. We will also expand our leadership in the District of Columbia and on smart growth and regional housing policy efforts. And together, we will proudly continue the Livable Communities Leadership Award started by WRN," noted Schwartz.

WRN's Executive Director, Cheryl Cort, has been named Policy Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

As part of the merger, a new website will be launched this Spring incorporating the programs and issues of both organizations.