Advocacy

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Advocacy

SGA’s advocacy priorities

Known for taking bold stands—even when it’s uncomfortable—SGA works on Capitol Hill, with federal agencies, and alongside state and local partners to advance policy in three critical areas: housing, land use, and transportation.

How to get involved

Join our email list to become an active advocate for smart growth. As a subscriber, you’ll receive the latest information on legislative initiatives that require support, proposals that need opposition, and various ways you can contribute to making smart growth a standard at local, state, and federal levels.

Our Policy Priorities

Housing

We advocate for policies that expand and protect inclusive housing options for people of all incomes, ages, and family types. In the midst of a national housing crisis, affordability must be a priority. We support legislation and incentives that enable affordable homes in mixed-income, transit-connected neighborhoods—helping lower living costs and connect people to jobs, schools, and opportunity.

Advocacy highlights:

  • Championing a tax code that supports affordable housing and community development:
    • Opportunity Zones for Impact
    • Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act
Land Use

We champion modernized land-use and zoning codes that support compact, mixed-use development—essential for walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods. We advocate for replacing exclusionary, outdated regulations with policies that enable missing middle housing, infill, affordability, small-scale commercial uses, and meaningful community engagement.

Advocacy highlight:

  • Supporting the elimination of barriers to housing: We support policies that encourage reforms to local zoning codes that unlock housing development, including legislation like the Housing Supply Frameworks Act.
  • Facilitating brownfield redevelopment: We lead advocacy efforts to support legislation that facilitates brownfield remediation, including through reauthorizing and modernizing EPA’s brownfields program and reauthorizing the brownfield redevelopment tax incentive
Transportation

We push Congress to update the outdated federal transportation program to prioritize safety over speed, fix what’s broken, and invest in the full transportation system—including walking, biking, and transit. The current approach fails to meet its goals and drains taxpayer dollars. We advocate for a reimagined system that puts people and communities first, supports all ways of getting around, and uses public funds responsibly.

Advocacy highlight:

  • Reimagining the federal transportation system: Our policy proposals for reauthorization call for radically updating the program and making it more accountable to taxpayers. 

Our advocacy coalitions

Key advocacy effort
H.R. 815 | Brownfields Redevelopment Tax Incentive Reauthorization Act of 2025

This Act addresses the high costs of brownfield remediation by allowing developers to fully deduct the cleanup costs of contaminated sites in the year the expenses are incurred, rather than spreading them out over a decade.

Learn more

Join our cause

We encourage you to delve deeper into our efforts and join our mailing list for regular updates and involvement opportunities. Together, we can shape a future of sustainable, equitable growth.

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