New Director Named to EPA's Smart Growth Office

"'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.'"