Smart Growth - A Blueprint for Effective, High Quality, and Resilient Development
Smart Growth – A Blueprint for Effective, High Quality, and Resilient Development
As urban planners, there is always opportunity to learn and grow and DLBP takes pride in staying up-to-date and ahead of the curve, with smart urban planning best practices. One excellent source of literature is The Smart Growth Manual by Andres Duany, Jeff Speck, and Mike Lydon. This guide details the significance of implementing smart growth best practices into urban and regional planning to create more resilient and economically thriving communities and development. Some noteworthy points, as it relates to planning and development include:
- shared wealth and regional taxes – economic growth should benefit entire regions, not just isolated communities.
- scale of governance – smart growth requires governance at multiple levels (local, regional, and state) to align infrastructure investments, zoning policies, and economic development initiatives in order to prevent fragmentation and ineffective growth. Thus, encouraging cohesive planning.
- leapfrog growth – unchecked sprawl can lead to inefficient and scattered development with infrastructure gaps. Thus, thoughtful growth policies can prevent leapfrog development to ensure a interrelated community that prioritizes infill, compact development.
- Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs) – allows for developers to buy and sell development rights to redirect growth from preservation areas or low-density areas to designated growth zones. This market-based tool protects open spaces while focusing on development where infrastructure already exists.
Embracing walkability and mixed-use design are seeing stronger demand and higher property values as municipalities’ populations continue to grow at a quickening pace. Smart growth strategies create a place people want to live, work, and invest. It is worth considering how Georgia and the nation’s cities would evolve and grow synergistically if these types of smart growth best practices were consistently implemented in city and regional design.
