The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded a $3.5 million grant to the New York-Connecticut metropolitan region, one of 45 grants awarded under the highly competitive Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant program. An unprecedented bi-state collaboration of nine cities, two counties and six regional planning organizations in New York City, coastal Connecticut, Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley submitted an application with Regional Plan Association as the lead applicant.

With support from the states of New York and Connecticut, the Consortium is designed to integrate housing, economic development, transportation and environmental planning in the metropolitan region. Working together, the Consortium will develop livable communities and growth centers around existing and planned transit to enhance affordable housing efforts, reduce congestion, improve the environment and continue to expand economic opportunities. A central goal is to link strategies, on a metropolitan scale, to develop mixed-income housing, employment and infrastructure in locations connected by the region’s two commuter rail networks — the MTA Metro-North Railroad and the MTA Long Island Rail Road.
Consortium members include four metropolitan planning organizations that are coordinating efforts in their jurisdictions — the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council in New York and the South Western Regional Metropolitan Planning Organization, Greater Bridgeport/Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization and South Central Regional Council of Governments in Connecticut. Municipal members include the cities of New York, New Rochelle, White Plans, Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport and New Haven, and the counties of Nassau and Suffolk. The Long Island Regional Planning Council will help coordinate efforts on Long Island.
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