Smart growth veteran tapped to lead innovative federal program at US EPA
March 16th, 2009By Sara Wolfson
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| John Frece, left, with former Maryland Gov. Harry Hughes in 2006. Photo by Jed Kirschbaum / Baltimore Sun. |
The EPA Smart Growth office, featured here regularly over the years, has been a valuable ally in the movement for better growth and development across the country. Over the last ten years, they’ve helped countless communities strengthen their economies, protect their environment, and improve public health through their program. Their highly sought-after technical assistance program has provided hands-on help to over 170 communities across the country desperate for smart and sustainable ways to accommodate the rapid growth occurring in their communities.
Since its inception, the Smart Growth office has provided communities with grants, site visits, and technical assistance, advocated smart growth at a state level, and conducted high-quality original research into development issues. Today they begin work under a new director: John W. Frece, a long-time friend of Smart Growth America and the smart growth movement.
Frece, who spent more than two decades on the political beat with the Baltimore Sun, United Press International and other news organizations, wet his feet in growth and development matters in 1996 when he was appointed press officer for former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening the same year Maryland adopted its statewide smart growth program. Frece worked on the program from its inception and eventually became the primary spokesman and coordinator for the State’s smart growth initiatives.
“John was one of the individuals who helped make smart growth part of the average citizen’s vocabulary,” said Governor Glendening. “We’ve had a partnership for over 15 years, and I welcome his new position as an opportunity to continue that partnership.”
For the last five and a half years, Frece has been involved with the research side of smart growth as the Associate Director of the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education, a land use research center affiliated with four schools at University of Maryland. He also served as an adjunct professor in Urban Studies and Planning. He says that as he has become more involved, his passion for smart growth has only grown.
“Like many Americans I look around and see these problems in the landscape,” said Frece. “There’s the loss of natural beauty, the encroachment on farmland, traffic congestion that stems from sprawling development patterns, as well as the environmental damage that poor planning can incur. Smart growth is an aspirational movement—that we think we can do a better job of creating orderly, attractive and environmentally friendly development than we have been doing these last 50 or 60 years.”
He will come into the EPA Smart Growth office at a fortuitous time, with a new Administration that seems to understand the fact that how we choose to grow and develop will have deep impacts on climate change, energy security, and our overall quality of life. He plans to work closely with other EPA offices–but also with other federal agencies–to make sure the government’s activities are all working in harmony to achieve the same purposes.
“There has been a tradition of very strong leadership in this office,” said Frece. “If I can do half as well as Lynn Richards, Tim Torma, and Geoff Anderson, I think I’ll be doing alright.”
Baltimore Sun coverage of the announcement.
