"Providing people with more choices in housing, shopping, communities, and transportation is a key aim of smart growth. Communities are increasingly seeking these choices -- particularly a wider range of transportation options -- in an effort to improve beleaguered transportation systems ... [They] are beginning to implement new approaches to transportation planning, such as better coordinating land use and transportation; increasing the availability of high quality transit service; creating redundancy, resiliency and connectivity within their road networks; and ensuring connectivity between pedestrian, bike, transit, and road facilities. In short, they are coupling a multi-modal approach to transportation with supportive development patterns, to create a variety of transportation options." -Smart Growth Online
Website
Smart Growth Online (opens in a new window)
In communities across the nation, there is a growing concern that current development patterns - dominated by what some call "sprawl" - are no longer in the long-term interest of our cities, existing suburbs, small towns, rural communities, or wilderness areas. Though supportive of growth, communities are questioning the economic costs of abandoning infrastructure in the city, only to rebuild it further out. They are questioning the social costs of the mismatch between new employment locations in the suburbs and the available work-force in the city. They are questioning the wisdom of abandoning "brownfields" in older communities, eating up the open space and prime agricultural lands at the suburban fringe, and polluting the air of an entire region by driving farther to get places. Spurring the smart growth movement are demographic shifts, a strong environmental ethic, increased fiscal concerns, and more nuanced views of growth. The result is both a new demand and a new opportunity for smart growth.
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Smart Growth - Transportation Guidelines: An ITE Proposed Recommended Practice
Article / Paper / Report
Smart Growth - Transportation Guidelines: An ITE Proposed Recommended Practice
This publication "addresses those aspects of smart growth related to transportation--the effects of transportation and land use on each other and the characteristics of transportation systems and services that can encourage and support smart growth. The report primarily contains transportation concepts for accommodating growth and improving quality of life by providing more mobility choices and reducing dependence on personal vehicle use."
--
Institute of Transportation Engineers
Article / Paper / Report
Getting to Smart Growth II: 100 More Policies for Implementation
Getting to Smart Growth II shows that a wide variety of
smart growth tools, policies, and approaches are available to create
more livable communities. Each community has its own unique set
of challenges, and smart growth demands a flexible response.
It offers a menu of options that can be mixed and
matched to fit local circumstances, local visions, and local values.
Getting to Smart Growth II contains many actions for the public sector and
highlights steps that the private sector can take to promote more livable communities. It discusses individual
programs (occasionally specific applications of broader
ideas presented in the previous work) and emphasizes case studies
to show where the various policies, programs, and projects have
been successfully implemented. It also contains "Finance Tips"
that illustrate important financial aspects of getting smart growth
projects on the ground. These tips address an important fact
about development: what gets financed is what gets built.
--
Smart Growth Network, USEPA
Article / Paper / Report
Smart Commute Initiative
The Smart Commute Initiative gives prospective home buyers
throughout the state of Delaware the opportunity to qualify for a mortgage with the help of savings realized from utilizing public transportation.
-- Fannie Mae, Citizens Bank
Website
Smart Growth Reader (opens in a new window)
Intended as a rich compendium of perspectives on the smart growth, the reader is grouped into seven sections:
Definitions and Critiques
Tools
Environment and Open Space
Legal Issues
Center Cities
Suburban and Regional Issues
Small Towns and Rural Areas
--
American Planning Association
Article / Paper / Report
Smart Growth Primer
Most of the problems related to urban and suburban
development can be tied to the way that land is used, and how
development occurs. Over the past 50 years, governments at all
levels have favoured low-density, auto-dependent developments
that are separated according to different types of land use. These
developments use land inefficiently, and are often subsidized by
existing taxpayers. Fees levied on developers, if they are charged
at all, rarely cover the full cost of providing infrastructure and
services. Likewise, the cost of maintaining services is often more
expensive than the municipal taxes collected from the community.
Local governments feel that they must keep growing in order to
pay for the services and debt incurred for large infrastructure
investments. In response to these problems and with a goal of
creating more livable communities, "smart growth" strategies have
been developing in communities across North America.
The Southern California region is expected to spend more than a trillion public and private dollars on roads and freeways, including more than $81 billion in public capital investment between 2000 and 2020. Yet, a report by the Southern California Association of Governments projects that those expenditures will result in a 330% increase in rush hour congestion because much of the new growth is expected to occur in outlying areas.
--
Local Government Commission Center for Livable Communities
