The Institute has functioned since 1992 under the guidance of its president, Douglas R. Porter, with the collaborative participation of its board members. It has engaged in the following activities:

-- Newsletter: Issuing a quarterly newsletter about current growth management practices and issues that reaches hundreds of readers.

-- Information: Responding to requests for information about current issues from practitioners, researchers, and the media.

-- Board Forums: Convening periodic meetings of the boards as forums for discussing current growth management issues. The most recent, in 1995, occurred in connection with a Duke University symposium and in cooperation with the Sustainable Use of Land Project; Institute boardmember expenses were underwritten in part by Island Press.

-- Educational/Dialogue Projects:

-- GMI/EPA Cooperative Agreement, 1996 - 1998: A $700,000 EPA grant is funding a three-year program in which GMI will assist EPA in working with other federal agencies, state and regional agencies, local governments, and other groups to organize a series of workshops, focus group meetings, and other activities. The program is designed to broaden knowledge of collaborative approaches to revitalizing urban areas as an antidote to sprawl. Initial activities are focused in South Florida and the Chicago region. The South Florida program is assisting the Florida Department of Community Affairs and the Governor's Commission for a Sustainable South Florida in stimulating revitalization of the "Eastward Ho!" corridor in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. GMI is facilitating state, regional, and local efforts to shape a strategic plan, initiate revitalization in transit-station areas, and promote brownfields redevelopment.

GMI activities to date (September, 1998) include:

• Background paper and workshop on measuring costs and benefits of alternative development scenarios, for the Governor's Commission;

• Workshop to develop Eastward Ho! strategies for regional urban restoration and constituency building;

• Preparation of recommendations for building a "compelling case" for urban restoration in the Eastward Ho! corridor;

• Workshop to develop information and local experience on transit-focused development around the region's rail stations;

• Forum of local and regional transportation professionals to evaluate the benefits of developing a regional transportation projection model;

• Workshop to exchange information on GIS data needs and issues as part of a regional brownfields assessment process.

Programmed activities include:

• A scoping study to determine potential needs and existing resources for developing a regional transportation model capable of evaluating alternative multimodal transportation networks and land use scenarios;

• Workshops for regional and local planners to provide information on planning approaches for transit-focused development;

• Forum to formulate approaches to regional decision making frameworks for brownfields restoration and reuse;

• Workshops to more fully develop the overall strategic framework for Eastward Ho! restoration.

-- Shared Governance Project, 1997, continuing: exploring ways in which public and private interests can work together to improve collaborative processes for reconciling development and environmental objectives in sustainable development. Efforts to date have included a Federal Interagency Dialogue, organized and facilitated by GMI and hosted by the President's Council on Environmental Quality in Washington; and a Santa Ana River Roundtable, focused on the critical dairy preserve that will be converting to urban uses over the next few decades. Other similar projects are being planned.

-- Wildlife Conservation/Economic Development Dialogue, 1995-1997: Funded by grants from EPA, the Bank of America, the Metropolitan Water District, and other sources, GMI formed a facilitation team to organize and manage five dialogues among environmental and development interests affected by needs for wildlife habitat conservation. The dialogues in Washington, D.C., South Florida, Southern California, and Texas helped a multi-stakeholder steering group define and pursue legislation and other implementation programs to establish an equitable funding framework for habitat acquisition.

-- Federal Permitting Working Group, 1993 - 1996: A continuing series of discussions to further collaborative working relationships among federal, state, local, and private interests in conservation. Managed by GMI, cosponsored by the Environmental Law Institute, and funded by grants from the Environmental Protection Agency.

-- Infrastructure Funding for the Washington Region, 1993: a regional conference organized by GMI and sponsored by Johns Hopkins University.

-- Wildlife Forum for the Californias, 1993: With funding from the Fish and Wildlife Foundation and other sources, GMI assisted in organizing and managing a conference discussing mutual wildlife conservation issues in Southern California and the Baha Peninsula of Mexico.

• Research Efforts:

-- Analysis of Maryland's Smart Growth Legislation, 1998: With a grant from the Abell Foundation in Baltimore, MD, GMI is analyzing the effectiveness of the new legislation and subsequent implementation in achieving Smart Growth objectives, and recommending additional provisions and efforts toward that end.

-- Portland Metro Planning, 1994: Participation in research and recommendations regarding a no/growth-slow/growth scenario for metropolitan Portland in connection with its 2040 regional plan; grant from Portland Metro through ECO Northwest, Inc.

-- Transit Joint Development Studies, 1994: Preparation of four case studies of experience in station-area development, funded by the Urban Land Institute.