Towns in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are planning for safer, more walkable streets, and now the Environmental Protection Agency is lending a hand.

Each year, the environmental agency’s Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program brings development professionals to improvement-minded municipalities across the country, where they advise officials, conduct day-long seminars, and assemble “next steps” documents.

In the coming months, experts will visit Binghamton, NY to study complete streets, Onondaga County, NY to study zoning codes, Stony Point, NY to study smart growth economics, Simsbury, CT to audit the parking system, Passaic County, NJ to study green streets, and Jersey City to conduct walking audits.