Smart Growth Initiatives, Sustainable Development Movement. Smart growth in the United States has been defined as environmentally sensitive land development whose goals are to minimize dependence on automobile transportation, reduce air pollution, and make infrastructure investment more efficient. The movement was started to combat sprawl, a form of urbanization earmarked by growth centered disconnected patterns of development, commercial strips, low density, separated land uses, automobile dominance, and minimal public open space.
Today, cities around the country have adopted "the smart growth movement" as a framework for urban, and at times, suburban revival.
The National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education recently published "ten principles of smart growth", which supports the development and resurgence of American cities. The principles annunciated by the National Ceneter endorse mixed-land uses, compact building design with vertical configuration, housing opportunities and choices, walkable communities, a strong sense of place, a variety of transportation choices, preservation of open space, preservation of existing buildings and communities, cost effectiveness, and collaboration with stakeholders and the community.
All of these principles suggest the increasing need for mixing residential uses with retail, restaurant, leisure, entertainment, and cultural uses. The provision of urban mixed-use developments, while predating the adoption of smart growth by some communities, fits perfectly into the smart growth development philosophy now being adopted by every major city in the United States.
Research shows that people who live in smart growth communities drive as much as 30 percent less than those who live in spread-out developments.1 As a result, they generate fewer hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, the chemicals that mix with sunlight to form ground-level ozone. Lower ozone levels may reduce the incidence of asthma attacks. Studies suggest that efforts to reduce driving in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympic Games not only reduced traffic, but may also have reduced the number of acute care asthma cases by 11 to 44 percent.2
Efficient, less spread-out growth can also reduce the demand for and cost of clean drinking water. Households in compact communities that are near water treatment facilities tend to use and lose less water, and require less infrastructure investment than more distant, dispersed developments.3 Research from Utah suggests that the cost of supplying water to households in close-in communities could be as much as 20 percent less than the cost for communities on the edge of developed areas.4 Using existing infrastructure wisely and encouraging growth in already-developed areas can help communities continue to grow within their water supplies and their budgets.
