Smart Growth
Latest News & Updates
Issue
Summary
Smart
growth is development that serves the economy, community and the
environment. Over the last forty years a shift has taken place in the
patterns of development. Traditional development fostered a sense of
community while more recent development trends have led to sprawl and
isolated pockets of growth. Sprawl can bring about increased traffic
congestion as people are forced to rely upon automobiles for
transportation. Sprawl also leads to loss of open spaces.
Recently,
the debate about development has been changed by the emergence of a
new perspective: smart growth. Smart growth tries to combat sprawl by
recognizing the connections between development and the quality of
life. Smart growth is development that is environmentally, fiscally,
and economically sound. The following material includes information
on recent news and events concerning smart growth, as well as
full-text publications and links to other Web sites. These resources
are assembled to assist local governments in learning more about
smart growth and what it means to communities.
Resources
U.S.
EPA
Smart
Growth. EPA helps communities grow in ways that expand
economic opportunity, protect public health and the environment, and
create and enhance the places that people love. Through research,
tools, partnerships, case studies, grants, and technical assistance,
EPA is helping America's communities turn their visions of the future
into reality.
EPA Smart Growth Grants
and Other Funding
The
EPA smart growth program sometimes offers grants to support activities that
improve the quality of development and protect human health and the
environment. When these grants are offered, they will always be announced on
this Web page and on www.grants.gov
Making Smart Growth
Happen
Find tools and information to help you improve your community: technical
assistance, educational opportunities, tools for communities, partnerships.
About Smart Growth
Learn about smart growth issues and environmental benefits.
Find information about specific topics, resources, and
examples of smart growth development, including the National Award for Smart
Growth Achievement.
Topics
Education/Outreach
- Publications -
List of smart growth publications written or funded by EPA.
- Smart Growth Network - Partnership of more than 30 national organizations that promote smart
growth and offer resources to help communities.
- Smart Growth Online - Clearinghouse
of resources and information from the Smart Growth Network.
- Smart
Growth Speaker Series - Monthly lecture series at the National
Building Museum in Washington, DC.
Examples of Smart Growth Communities and Projects
Other
Federal Agencies
Center
of Excellence for Sustainable Development. This
project of the United States Department of Energy offers a Web site
providing information about sustained growth. The site presents a
comprehensive overview of the land use planning techniques currently
being used and also lists case studies, upcoming conferences, and
funding opportunities for growth-related projects.
Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention - Active Community Environments Initiative
Department of Agriculture - Economic
Research Service
Department of Energy - Smart
Communities Network
Federal Highway Administration -
Planning, Environment, and Realty
Federal Transit Administration
National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration - Coastal Community Development
States
Browse
Smart Growth Resources by State. This page allows
quick access to resources listed by state.
California State
Treasurer's Office - Pollution Control Financing Authority
Colorado Office of Smart Growth
Delaware - Livable Delaware Agenda
Florida Department of Community Affairs
Georgia Department
of Community Affairs - Planning and Quality Growth
Maryland Department of Planning --
Office of Smart Growth
Massachusetts
Clean Energy & Smart Growth-Smart Energy
New Hampshire -
Office of Energy and Planning - Achieving Smart Growth in New Hampshire
New Jersey Office of Smart Growth
New York State Quality Communities
Clearinghouse
Oregon Department of Land
Conservation and Development
Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection - Growing Smarter
Washington State Community, Trade, and Economic
Development - Smart Growth
Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources - Wisconsin's Planning Law
Organizations/Non-Government
Programs
Smart
Growth Network. The Smart Growth Network
(SGN) offers a wealth of resources to help you in your smart growth
efforts. Membership in the Smart Growth Network is free. Now,
anyone interested in smart growth can join SGN, and receive the
bi-monthly newsletter Getting Smart, participate in discussions on
the SGN members listserv, get tips and useful information from the
SGN Information Hotline, and get access to the members section of the
SGN Web site.
Trust
for Public Land. TPL is the only national
nonprofit working exclusively to protect land for human enjoyment and
well-being. In addition to news, the TPL Web site offers a variety of
full text, on-line reports.
Smart
Growth America. A nationwide
coalition promoting a better way to grow: one that protects open
space, revitalizes neighborhoods, keeps housing affordable, and
provides more transportation choices. The Web site includes "Smart
Tools," links to other smart growth sites, and produces a
bi-weekly newsletter on smart growth issues across the country.
American
Farmland Trust. AFT is a private, nonprofit
organization founded in 1980 to protect our nation's farmland. AFT
works to stop the loss of productive farmland and to promote farming
practices that lead to a healthy environment.
Louisiana
State University Green Laws. This Web site
contains guides to writing and understanding community tree
ordinances, links to additional information resources, and more.
Brookings
Institution's Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. This Web site examines urban policies that will help build strong
neighborhoods, cities, and metropolitan regions.
Regional Smart Growth Organizations
1000 Friends of Florida
1000 Friends of Iowa
1000 Friends of Maryland
1000 Friends of Minnesota
1000 Friends of New Mexico
1000 Friends of Oregon
1000 Friends of Wisconsin
10000 Friends of Pennsylvania
Campaign for Sensible Growth (Chicago area)
Environment
Colorado
Futurewise (Seattle, WA)
The Georgia Conservancy
Greater Ohio
Greenbelt Alliance (San Francisco Bay
Area)
Grow Smart Rhode Island
GrowSmart Maine
Gulf Coast Institute (Houston, TX)
Hawaii's Thousand Friends
Idaho Smart Growth
Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance
Michigan Environmental Council
Montana Smart Growth Coalition
New Jersey Future
North Carolina Smart Growth Alliance
Pennsylvania Environmental Council
Piedmont Environmental Council (Virginia)
Regional Plan Association (Connecticut,
New Jersey, New York)
South Carolina Coastal Conservation
League
Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council (Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, and Palm Beach Counties,
Florida)
Smart Growth Vermont
Other Organizations
Smart Growth Network (SGN) a partnership of government, business and civic organizations that support
smart growth. Since its creation in late 1996, the Network has become a
storehouse of knowledge about smart growth principles, facilitating the sharing
of best practices and acting as a catalyst for implementation of ideas.
AARP
- Livable Communities
Active Living by Design
GreenInfrastructure.net
Fannie Mae Foundation
National Association of Home Builders
National Center for Bicycling and Walking
National Conference of State Legislatures
National
Governors' Association Center for Best Practices
Reconnecting America/Center for
Transit-Oriented Development
U.S. Green
Building Council - LEED for Neighborhood Developments
Publications
Find reports, fact sheets, and other products to learn more about smart growth
and its benefits.
Community Design Tools
Context Sensitive Street Design
National Charrette Institute
Orton Family Foundation Smart Growth
Tools
"Pathways to
Planning" Community Assessment Tool
Smarter Land Use
Your Town Design Workshops
Publications
EPA
Smart Growth Publications. A categorized
list of Smart Growth publications.
Smart
Growth and the Clean Air Act. This study,
published by the Northeast-Midwest Institute, attempts to reconcile
the contrasting views of the Clean Air Act as a cause of sprawl and
as a useful tool to curb it by examining its application in several
major metropolitan areas, and suggests that the Act does not
necessarily divert growth from urban centers and indeed can
complement efforts to promote growth in areas with existing
infrastructure.
Smart
Growth and the Clean Water Act. This study,
published by the Northeast-Midwest Institute, investigates the
relationship between three Clean Water Act programs (stormwater,
combined sewer overflow and sanitary sewer overflow, and total
maximum daily load) and smart growth, and demonstrates how these
programs can promote smart growth when federal, state, and local
governments grasp opportunities to integrate water quality and smart
growth goals.
Coastal
Sprawl: The Effects of Urban Design on Aquatic Ecosystems in the
United States. This report, published by
the Pew Oceans Commission, looks at the effects of urban design and
land-use practices on aquatic ecosystems in the United States. It
presents new strategies and tools that communities may use to
preserve the same ecosystems that attract residents, tourists, and
businesses to the coasts. The report also highlights national efforts
underway to reform development patterns, embodied in such movements
as Smart Growth and the New Urbanism.
The
Economic Benefits of Parks and Open Space: How Land Conservation
Helps Communities Grow Smart and Protect the Bottom Line. This publication describes how communities around the country are
learning that open space conservation is not an expense but an
investment that produces important economic benefits.
Local
Tools for Smart Growth: Practical Strategies and Techniques to
Improve Our Communities. This report,
produced by the National Association of Counties, identifies tools,
resources, and examples to empower local governments to make their
own smart growth decisions.
Legislative
Guidebook for Growing Smart. This
publication contains model statutes for planning and the management
of change. The model statutes are intended to provide local
governments and others with ideas, principles, methods, and
procedures drawn from various states, regions, and local governments
across the country.
A
Roadmap for Adopting Local Sustainability Strategies. This guide provides an introduction to sustainability and
includes an annotated 21-agenda Community Sustainability roadmap of
constructive local options.
Town
Meets Country: Farm-City Forums on Land and Community. American Farmland Trust (AFT) and the U.S. Conference of Mayors
(USCM) have produced a report called Town Meets Country: Farm-City
Forums on Land and Community, a joint project addressing the
issue of sprawl. The report is based on a series of farm-city forums
held by AFT and the USCM to encourage urban, suburban and rural
leaders to work together for smart growth.
Local
Greenprinting for Growth: Creating a Greenprint. The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has published the first volume of
a report on greenprint conservation programs entitled Local
Greenprinting for Growth: Creating a Greenprint. The report is a
guidebook for communities seeking to create a greenprint conservation
program. Greenprinting is TPL's term for a smart growth strategy that
ensures quality of life, clean air and water, recreation, and
economic health.
Developments
and Dollars: An Introduction to Fiscal Impact Analysis in Land
Use Planning. This guide provides local
officials and others concerned with sprawling development and growth
issues with tools they need to examine the likely impacts of
development proposals on local taxes and municipal budgets.
Livability
and Affordability: Open Space Preservation and Land Supply. This report provides an overview of state programs to preserve
open space and describes the effects of preservation on land supply.
Building
a Sustainable Development Infrastructure. This
concept paper outlines a series of modules that (1) define in a
preliminary way the scope of what will be needed to address
infrastructure development needs over a multiple-year time period;
(2) break the problem down into pieces which facilitate
identification of who might be involved in working together on that
module; and (3) provide a basis for beginning to set priorities
depending on available resources, agency commitments, etc.
Best
Development Practices: A Primer for Smart Growth. Available for $9 from the International City/County Management
Association, this primer shows how changes in current development
patterns can help stop sprawl.
Pedestrian-
and Transit-Friendly Design: A Primer for Smart Growth. Available for $8 from the International City/County Management
Association, this primer illustrates essential features of
pedestrian- and transit-friendly design.
A
Region Divided: The State of Growth in Greater Washington, D.C. This report, produced by the Brookings Institution Center on
Urban and Metropolitan Policy, includes: (1) an overview of the
region's economy, (2) an examination of growth in metropolitan
Washington; (3) a summary of what the response has been to date in
the region to address some of the concerns around growth, and (4)
thoughts about how this region can begin to frame its vision and
efforts for building a vibrant region.
Databases
and Tools
Sustainable
Measures. Sustainable Measures develops
indicators that measure progress toward a sustainable economy,
society and environment. This site offers users free training
materials, a searchable database of indicators, a list of online and
print resources, answers to frequently asked questions, and more.
Treelink. This Web site offers an urban forestry database, guidelines for
improving urban forestry in your community, recent news, lists of
urban forestry forums, and links to other Web sites.
Tools
for Community Design and Decision Making. This
is an Internet-based presentation which offers information about the
planning tools of the future. The tools presented on this Web site
will help to diminish barriers to smart growth such as community
opposition to density and the mixing of uses, outdated regulatory
practices, and financing.
Financial Assistance
Grants
and Funding. Find out about financial assistance
available to organizations and communities.
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