Smart Growth

Why Nevada Needs Sustainable, Smart Growth
Sprawling cities like Las Vegas must rein in unchecked growth and promote infill development and more sustainable transportation modes.

Urban Villages for the Proletariat
Compact, walkable urban villages benefit working families and organized labor by creating jobs, improving household affordability, reducing commute duration, improving economic opportunities, and creating cleaner, healthier communities.

What Is Smart Growth?
Smart growth describes an approach to planning and development that prioritizes compact built environments, designed for benefits to the economy and the environment.

Smart Growth Loves Heatmaps
Smart growth can provide many important benefits that are easy to see using informative and beautiful heatmaps—our complex world as viewed by all-knowing gods.

Getting to Work: New Commute Duration Heatmaps
The Mineta Transportation Institute's new interactive website produces heatmaps that illustrate commute duration—the number of minutes that workers spend traveling to their jobs—plus related information, for most U.S. communities.

Clean Vehicles Versus Vehicle Travel Reductions: Better Transportation Emission Reduction Planning
There are many possible ways to reduce transportation emissions, some of which provide large co-benefits. Unfortunately, current evaluation practices tend to overlook some of the best. Lets examine why.

To Save the Climate: Driving Habits Must Change
Even with ambitious electric Vehicle adoption, the United States must reduce vehicle miles traveled by 20 percent before the end of the decade to limit warming to 1.5°C, according to new research by the Rocky Mountain Institute.

What Is Sprawl?
Sprawl is one of the most common terms used to describe built environments in the United States and the world. It can be applied to urban, suburban, and exurban settings, and it's almost never a compliment.

The Housing Supply Debate: Evaluating the Evidence
Let's rely on science, not ideology and propaganda, when planning solutions to urban unaffordability. Look for credible evidence in the peer-reviewed publications referenced here.

The Housing Affordability Recipe
Smart policies can ensure that low- and moderate-income households can find suitable housing in good neighborhoods where transportation costs are low. The research is clear: upzoning works.
City of Bothell
Town of San Anselmo
Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency (TPA)
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Harvard Graduate School of Design Executive Education
Harvard Graduate School of Design Executive Education
City of Apache Junction
City of Helena
Gallatin County, Montana
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.
Hand Drawing Master Plans
This course aims to provide an introduction into Urban Design Sketching focused on how to hand draw master plans using a mix of colored markers.