Frustrated by what's passing as "smart growth" and "transit oriented development," Bill Adams postulates ten refinements (or less subtly stated clarifications) of the principles of smart growth and new urbanism.
"These days, a lot of projects are crashing through the gates of community plans and dashing existing neighborhood character under the banners of smart growth or transit oriented development. Typically, such projects are simply high density or near transit corridors, or sometimes they include gratuitous green space and walking paths. However, they fail in many of the finer points of smart growth, new urbanism, or transit oriented development."
Therefore, San Diego land use attorney Bill Adams offers 10 clarifications and extrapolations of existing smart growth and new urbanism principles, as follows:
- Purge the term NIMBY from your language and your thinking. It stultifies any further understanding of community concerns, or how to reach a compromise.
- Respect community planning.
- Integrate with the surrounding community.
- In transit oriented developments (TODs), transit orientation should exceed auto orientation.
- Respect neighborhood character & identity.
- Increase density incrementally.
- Conform to existing “smart” retail corridors and centers.
- Look for opportunities to narrow (verb) streets and vanquish parking lots.
- Prioritize non-auto transportation by creating unique or exclusive pedestrian and bicycle amenities.
- Design for human nature rather than efficiencies and logic.
FULL STORY: 10 Rules for Smarter Smart Growth

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power
Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns
MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie