Quality of life includes health, safety, a sense of place and community, educational opportunities, cultural and recreational amenities, and scenic beauty. Many surveys say adequate open space, including developed parks and undeveloped natural habitat, is integral to quality of life.
In cities, regions, and states all over the United States – and in Canada as well – mayors, governors, urban planners, environmentalists, business leaders, and community activists are exploring a new vision of urban/suburban collaboration and regional growth management. The term used to describe this movement is “smart growth.”
At its core, smart growth is a concept that links development and quality of life. Advocates seek development that will simultaneously:
• improve the economy,
• build community,
• protect and enhance the environment.
Smart growth is not anti-growth, nor is it the enemy of suburban lifestyles. Smart growth is the enemy of inefficient growth that increases air pollution, worsens traffic congestion, degrades neighborhoods and the sense of community, has higher infrastructure costs, increases taxes, and destroys or damages environmentally sensitive areas.
Smart growth proponents say that mobility and land use are the critical systems that govern the economy and quality of life in a region. What kind of development takes place – and where – are the factors that make development either a community asset or a liability.
In addition to where and how things are built, smart growth focuses on how people move from place to place. Transportation and land use are tightly linked and affect each other. (Next Section)
Economy, Community, Environment
Smart Growth Trends
Strong Central Cities
Mobility and Land Use
Clusters
Community & Place: Revitalizing Neighborhoods
Greenspace and Natural Resources
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The broad objectives of smart growth are to promote fiscal health and keep taxes low, maximize return on public and private investment, encourage economic efficiency, protect environmental amenities, increase the sense of place and community, and give people more choices.