Washington, DC -- Vice President Al Gore today announced a 30-point Livable Communities Initiative to offer more choices to communities seeking to improve their quality of life. The Initiative represents a package of policy actions plus a set of voluntary partnerships with communities across the country.

"Our goal is to provide communities with the tools and resources they need to create more livable communities -- places where families enjoy sustained prosperity, personal freedoms, a strong sense of community, and a high quality of life" Vice President Gore said.

The initiative includes topics such as expanding transportation choices, creating parks, protecting the environment, increasing public safety, and investing in education. It covers areas from revitalizing cities, to reducing congestion, to protecting farmland.

"This effort is based on one fundamental principal -- communities know best," Vice President Gore said. "It's about enhancing the quality of our lives, keeping our prosperity, and building a stronger sense of community --and doing so in ways that respect local preferences and personal freedoms."

As part of the initiative, Gore said the federal government is entering into voluntary partnerships with 15 communities across the country to demonstrate how the federal government can best align its resources to support local goals. In these areas, federal efforts will be coordinated across agency lines -- providing more seamless service and simplifying access to federal programs. Each community's priorities and goals will drive the partnership.

"These partnerships will test innovative new approaches to building livable communities,"Vice President Gore said. "We will be working with communities to solve problems they've identified -- not dictating solutions from a thousand miles away--and the lessons we learn will be broadly applied to other areas in the future."

"This initiative is not about ‘no growth,' but ‘smart growth,' the kind that builds a stronger community while achieving local goals."

The full report is available at www.livablecommunities.gov.