The Newton Booth Neighborhoods Association (NBNA) is honoring Mike McKeever, Executive Director of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), with the organization’s 2011 Growing Together Award for his role earlier this year as the volunteer mediator in a neighborhood development controversy. The NBNA represents the Poverty Ridge, Newton Booth, and Alhambra Triangle neighborhoods in Sacramento’s District 4. The award will be presented to McKeever Thursday, November 10th, at Newton’s Night Out, a neighborhood event to be held at Revolution Wines, 2831 S Street, from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm.  McKeever will be in attendance. The Growing Together Award, established in August 2011, is gi

Please join us on Wednesday evening, September 28th at 5:45pm at the AIA Central Valley Chapter office for this month’s 4th Wednesday Design Dialogue (4WDD). Encouraging community design excellence through the recognition of projects that exhibit Smart Growth principles in planning design and development actions. The Smart Growth Leadership Recognition Program seeks to encourage and promote those projects. How can this program be a benefit to your community and city? Find out at this month’s 4th Wednesday Design Dialogue presented by Bruce Monighan, AIA. For more information on the Smart Growth Leadership Program follow the link below. http://www.aiacv.org/resources/smart-growth/ Click he

City Planning commissioners gave the go-ahead Thursday to a residential building project at 24th and T streets that has been a source of contention between the developer and residents for months. The proposed two-building, five-unit residential apartment complex met opposition from neighbors almost as soon as it was proposed by developer Andrea Rosen last September, and the project has since undergone numerous changes in both concept and design. “It’s been over 10 months and staff put up with a lot of twists and turns on the route and destination,” Rosen said. “But I think this is an exciting, well-designed project, and it will add value to the neighborhood for decades to come.” Initial

Soil Born Farms and Mulvaney's B & L are among those being honored Friday when the Sacramento Area Council of Governments hosts a regional forum as the next step in the region's smart-growth plan. SACOG is hosting the Rural-Urban Connection Strategy to provide an update on best practices they've uncovered here and elsewhere for containing urban sprawl and protecting farmlands from being lost, partly through expanding local markets for local produce. This year, SACOG's Salutes! Awards have a rural focus after being incorporated into the forum. SACOG will present awards to 10 organizations, people and projects. More than 500 people are registered for the forum, set for 7:30 a.m. Friday at

The Sacramento region's "Blueprint" for a sustainable, thriving future must include communities connected through economic equality, mass transit investment and smart growth, experts said Friday. The area already is already helping to nudge the country away from an autocentric culture that's promoted sprawl for decades through its Blueprint Transportation and Land Use project. The Sacramento Area Council of Governments board adopted the Blueprint in December 2004 to help plan more compact growth, protect natural resources, and reduce traffic congestion and pollution over the next 50 years. Now, research shows that sprawl is caused in part by social distance and inequality. While intellec