Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Offers Fourth Round of Technical Assistance to Communities

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program put a call out for its fourth round of Request for Letters of Interest (RFLI) to communities in need of tools to help them attain their development goals, improve quality of life in your community and become more economically and environmentally sustainable. Planners, community leaders, staff from utilities, state and local government, and municipal planning organizations and others interested are welcome to apply to receive technical assistance.

Each technical assistance project in a community will involve a team of EPA-led experts and will include:

• Public engagement through a one- to two-day workshop.
• Direct consultation with relevant decision-makers.
• A memo outlining specific steps the community could take to implement the ideas generated during the workshop.

Technical assistance will be delivered by EPA staff and EPA-hired consultant teams.

How to apply:
EPA requests a letter of interest from each community that would like to receive assistance. The letter of interest should contain the following information and must be no longer than two (2) pages.

• Identify the ONE tool for which you are seeking assistance. Select one (1) of the five (5) tools described on pages 5-9. If you would like to apply for multiple tools, you must submit a letter for each tool.
• Describe the nature of the smart growth or sustainable communities-related challenge(s) facing your community, including any relevant data to demonstrate the challenge. If applicable, describe how this challenge affects low-income, minority, tribal, and/or other communities facing disproportionate environmental or health risks. 
• Explain the relevance of the selected tool to the challenge(s), being as specific as possible

Letters of interest are due by November 20, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. EDT. For more information, visit the website.