About Us

1619664_555307364584151_16737826_n Community leaders launched RenewLV in 2005, in response to a landmark Brookings Institution study, Back to Prosperity: A Competitive Agenda for Renewing Pennsylvania and the disturbing trends it revealed.

This study highlighted two challenges facing the Lehigh Valley and regions across the Commonwealth: (1) the “hollowing out” of core communities, resulting in disinvestment in cities and boroughs and the loss of precious farmland and open space; and (2) a highly fragmented system of municipal governance, which severely impedes planning for growth in a proactive, coordinated way.

RenewLV addresses these challenges — a declining urban core, disappearing open space, fragmented local governance — by bringing together a broad range of perspectives and expertise. RenewLV’s Board of Directors, representing a variety of sectors, provides strategic guidance for the organization. This collaborative leadership structure has enabled RenewLV to develop an ambitious agenda focused on revitalizing cities and boroughs and promoting regional approaches to addressing the most pressing issues facing the Lehigh Valley.

RenewLV’s mission is to promote smart growth and efficient governance in the Lehigh Valley in order to revitalize its core communities, preserve open space, and create an economically and environmentally sustainable foundation for the region’s future growth.

RenewLV’s regional initiatives include:10151939_555306284584259_2140152276_n

  • Food Sustainability;
  • Farmland Preservation;
  • Smart Transportation;
  • Smart Growth Education and Outreach;

In all of our initiatives, we support regional collaboration and cooperation, shared services and multi-municipal land use planning and permitting. We engage in state policy discussions to advocate for state-level policy changes that enable effective regional governance.

We advance these initiatives through a set of strategies that engage a broad cross-section of the Lehigh Valley community.

If you would like to find out how you can be plugged into efforts to improve the region.

To learn more about our initiatives, visit our Action and Multimedia pages. If you are interested in becoming a part of a network of advocates working toward regional collaboration and urban revitalization, sign up for our e-mail list at our Join Us page.

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Contact Us!

Restarting the Sustainability Book Club

Come talk about cool books with us on Saturday, March 12 at the Coffee House Without Limits in Allentown!

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Make friends, discuss civic activism, new urbanism, smart growth, making a difference, and anything on your mind about your neighborhood or regional growth. We will be discussing What To Do When It's Your Turn (and It's Always Your Turn)  by Seth Godin (we have copies, so come even if you don't have this book).

The chat will start at 2:00 pm at The Coffee House Without Limits in Allentown!

In future weeks, we will read Becoming Jane Jacobs  by Peter Laurence, which you can order for $34.95 by calling Allentown's Moravian Book Store at 610-351-0849.

Hope to see you there!

Moving Ideas to Action

3rd Annual Summit for Smart Growth and Sustainable Communities "Our Towns, Our Farms, Our Future"

On 12/4/15, almost 200 community leaders and concerned citizens gathered at the Renaissance Hotel in Allentown for RenewLV's third annual Summit for Smart Growth and Sustainable Communities to discuss strategies for land preservation, community revitalization and municipal cooperation.

At the Summit, we asked the questions:

•How can we preserve open space while supporting job creation and economic development?

•How does a municipality strike a balance between paying its bills, preserving its individual appeal and supporting the local economy?

•Given the increasing market demand for locally grown and organic food, how can the region better grow a vibrant local food economy?

•How do we capitalize on our central location through an interconnected mass transit system rather than continuing to focus on widening our highways?

A big thank-you to all of the Summit for Smart Growth sponsors who contributed! You made this event possible.

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Report Highlights Fiscal Benefits of Smart Growth Renew Lehigh Valley has often noted the benefits of smart growth development for municipalities, including cost savings. A new report by Smart Growth America details the benefits for municipalities realized through smart growth development. Read the full report here.

Watch the Envision Lehigh Valley Virtual Meeting

RenewLV and our partners at the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, the City of Allentown, the City of Bethlehem, and the City of Easton held a one-of-a-kind virtual public meeting for Envision Lehigh Valley. 100 participants logged in through a live video feed, Facebook, Twitter, and live chat. Missed the meeting? View the full recording on YouTube here

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