Center for Civic Partnerships

Smart Growth

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Smart Growth is an urban development strategy that promotes economically sound, environmentally responsible and socially just land use. The built environment has profound influence on every realm of the public’s health from safety and mental health to opportunities for physical activity. The smart growth approach emphasizes partnerships among varied sectors including local and regional government officials, developers, businesses, farmers, environmentalists and public health practitioners.

Land development patterns characterized by fragmented and segregated land uses, low-density residential settlements, widespread strip commercial development along roadways, and lack of connectivity between neighborhoods – often referred to as "sprawl" – reduces opportunities for physical activity, increases traffic congestion and pollution, and negatively impacts open space and agricultural lands. A sense of place and the social fabric of a community can also be negatively affected as homes, local government, businesses and schools are geographically isolated from each other, connected only by roadways and the use of a car. Smart growth policies and strategies can be used to reverse these community characteristics through the application of ten key concepts:

Creating a Range of Housing Opportunities and Choices
Creating Walkable Neighborhoods
Encouraging Community and Stakeholder Collaboration
Fostering Distinctive, Attractive Communities with a Strong Sense of Place
Making Development Decisions Predictable, Fair and Cost Effective
Mixing Land Uses
Preserving Open Space, Farmland, Natural Beauty and Critical Environmental Areas
Providing a Variety of Transportation Choices
Strengthening and Directing Development Towards Existing Communities
Taking Advantage of Compact Building Design Sources: Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, “Health and Smart Growth: Building Health, Promoting Active Communities” and Smart Growth Online (http://www.smartgrowth.org)

Online Tools and Resources

Center for Civic Partnerships
www.civicpartnerships.org/default.asp?id=331
Speaker presentations from the 2005 Healthy Cities and Communities Conference, "Healthy Cities and Smart Growth: Planning for Healthier Communities".

AboutPlanning.org
www.aboutplanning.org/directory.html#anchor_215
About Planning Directory: The Internet’s Best Planning Directory. Over 300 links to urban planning web sites.

Alliance for Quality Growth
http://aqg.ecology.uga.edu/recommended.html
Bibliography on smart growth, planning, sprawl, neighborhood development, urban restoration, transportation, and other growth-related topics.

American Planning Association
www.planning.org/growingsmart/bibliography.htm
Two annotated bibliographies on planning Smart Growth state statute reform.

Architects.org
www.architects.org/density
. Density: Myth & Reality conference, Sept. 12-14, 2003, Boston.

Centers for Disease Control
www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/default.htm
Designing and Building Healthy Places web site.