Smart Growth

A New Jersey town along the one of the state's light rail line has rejected a plan for adding new mixed-use residential to its downtown, for fear of new development threatening its main street's historic character.

Though the state is considered a model for smart planning, Oregon's sprawling landscape shows that the state has much the same problems as the rest of the country.

In the current issue of Housing Policy Debate, Reid Ewing and Fang Rong argue that sprawling urban form contributes to higher residential energy use. Two responses -- one from Samuel Staley and another by John Randolph -- rebut the paper.

The housing markets most affected by the subprime mortgage fallout are those with the toughest land use regulations, argues Wendell Cox.

Scholar and Brookings Fellow Christopher B. Leinberger says Vancouver provides an accessible model for American cities as they look for examples of sustainable development done right.

The Sacramento region has become a national model for smart growth planning. But what, asks Bill Fulton, will it take to make the region sustainable for decades to come?

In anti-growth Santa Barbara, preservationists and smart growth advocates have forged a compromise that will permit taller buildings for developments that include affordable housing.

Public officials and scientists are starting to say that adaptation to climate change is just as important as trying to stem climate change. One way to adapt is to embrace smart growth principles that reduce energy usage, according to this article.

Sacramento Bee's political columnist Dan Walters discusses the California growth debate amidst the temporary development lull and questions whether the state is ready to embrace smart growth, despite recognizing that it reduces global warming.

It's politics, not planning, that drives up housing costs. Rather than back away from regulations, more professional planning is needed to create healthy and affordable communities.

Atlanta's Livable Communities Coalition has begun scoring development projects on 50 smart growth criteria and has recommended approval of its first project, a mixed-use development in Cobb County.

A new master plan for Los Angeles's Century City attempts to undo some of the shortcomings that typically plague Modernist master-planned edge cities. Its goals include walkability, greening, and a more appealing public realm.

Gallatin County, Montana, has experienced 20 percent population growth over the last eight years, and officials are hoping that the adoption of smart growth principles will help guide the rapidly developing area towards a sustainable future.

The coal industry, electric utilities and manufacturers are in line to get trillions of dollars in federal funding to reduce carbon emissions, leaving virtually no money for smart growth and transit solutions to climate change.

Residents of San Francisco and Los Angeles like to feel superior to supposedly unsophisticated Sacramento. Yet, Sacramento appears to be ahead of the hip coastal areas when it comes to actually implementing smart growth.

Transportation planners and public officials have begun to consider ways to reconfigure cities and alter driving patterns in order to reduce vehicle miles traveled and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.