Smart Growth

As the largest council of governments in the country adopts a $525 billion transportation and land use plan for the next two decades, Josh Stephens marks the beginning of Southern California's age of climate-friendly, smart-growth regionalism.

April 5, 2012 - California Planning & Development Report

McKay Jenkins looks at the challenges confronting Maryland as the state tries to reckon with the devastating consequences of the era of sprawl and prepare for an additional one million people over the next twenty five years.

April 5, 2012 - Urbanite

Emily Badger delivers a lesson in how to navigate the linguistic minefield awaiting anyone who endeavors to talk about cities with those who don't live in one.

March 24, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Consider adding this animated video, which explains how past planning practices created sprawl and how smart growth policies can help solve multiple problems, to your family's Sunday morning cartoon rotation.

March 18, 2012 - Saga City

As oversized homes fall out of fashion, is Junior's private lair disappearing? And is that really so bad?

March 14, 2012 - PlaceShakers

Lydia DePillis profiles Washington D.C.'s planning director, Harriet Tregoning, and her efforts to reshape the city along smart growth principles.

March 9, 2012 - Washington City Paper

Having just returned from a United Nations-led tour of disaster-ravaged areas of Japan, Warren Karlenzig reports on efforts across the region to rebuild along smart growth and green economic development models.

March 6, 2012 - Common Current

Lee Epstein and Kaid Benfield pen a post on the importance of working rural landscapes to the sustainability agenda, which seems to be increasingly overlooked by smart growth advocates.

March 5, 2012 - Switchboard

Eric Jaffe discusses new charts released last week that purport to show the continued decline of vehicle-miles traveled in the United States, and wonders if increased urbanism can be credited as the cause.

March 2, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Last Thursday I debated the merits of smart growth with ‘Anti-planner’ Randal O'Toole at a community forum in Langley, a rapidly-growing suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia. A recording of the Debate and presenters' slide shows are available at www.southfraser.net/2012/02/smart-growth-debate-media.html. At the end more than three quarters of the audience voted for a pro-smart-growth resolution. This may reflect some selection bias – people concerned about sprawl may have been more likely to attend – but I believe that given accurate information most citizens will support smart growth due to its various savings and benefits.   Smart growth sometimes faces organized opposition by critics. It is important that planners respond effectively and professionally. Here is my critique of O'Toole’s claims and some advice for planners who face similar critics. 

February 27, 2012 - Todd Litman

Where there are no facts, sentiment rules. - Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West   In my previous two posts I have set the stage for our consideration of information sources in planning by arguing for the relevance of such an effort when it comes to (increasingly controversial) urban planning issues, and to situate such in terms of recognizing the influence of our world views on the production and use of informational and built environments. 

February 22, 2012 - Michael Dudley

Drawing on 2010 Census data, the Coalition for Smarter Growth highlights the prevalence of alternative transportation in the nation's capital.

February 22, 2012 - Greater Greater Washington

Bob Bengford, AICP, MAKERS, examines the goals and benefits, notable challenges, and lessons learned in providing on-site open space for multifamily developments, including a comparison of how a few Washington cities regulate this type of open space.

February 22, 2012 - MRSC Planning Advisor

In an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, Geoffrey Anderson and Bill Fulton reflect on the new normal for development across the country, which astonishingly to anyone looking back twenty years, has absorbed Smart Growth principles.

February 17, 2012 - UT San Diego

Andrew H. Whittemore contends that planners dismiss the far-fetched theories of a grand United Nations sustainability conspiracy at their own peril.

February 8, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

The 'lamestream media' picks up the story of Tea Party activists railing against efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy.

February 6, 2012 - The New York Times

Melinda Burns uses two California cities through which to investigate the reasons why the foreclosure crisis has impacted communities in dramatically different ways.

January 20, 2012 - Miller-McCune

A new study has created unexpected tensions between public health advocates and smart-growth-oriented urban planners.

January 12, 2012 - California Watch

Researchers look at the largely suburban South Bay area of Los Angeles to offer ways to retrofit auto-oriented suburbs for more pedestrian travel.

January 9, 2012 - Access

The year 2011 may be remembered by some as the year planners began fielding objections about smart growth from Tea Party supporters. Nathan Norris offers his four-step process for responding.

January 9, 2012 - PlaceShakers