Fifty Criteria to Rate Smart Growth Developments

The coalition created a quality-growth test that poses 50 questions covering a variety of issues, including housing diversity, compactness, community needs and connectivity.

The Coalition's Smart Growth Scorecard uses teams of volunteer experts to rate proposed developments from poor to excellent on as many as 50 separate criteria in Livable Communities Coalition eight categories: location and availability of basic services; density and compactness; diverse mix of land uses; housing choice; accessibility, mobility, and connectivity; pedestrian safety, streetscapes, and parking; environmental protection; and community needs.

Points are assigned for each criterion, and the score for all criteria are then averaged. Projects must earn an average score of 3.0 points, or very good, to win recommendation for approval. Work on the Livable Communities Coalition Smart Growth Scorecard began last fall. The resulting scorecard was patterned after one developed by the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, an affiliate of Smart Growth America, which promotes smart growth nationwide.