Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl. It also advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a range of housing choices. The term 'smart growth' is particularly used in North America. In Europe and particularly the UK, the terms 'Compact City' or 'urban intensification' have often been used to describe similar concepts, which have influenced government planning policies in the UK, the Netherlands and several other European countries.
Smart growth values long-range, regional considerations of sustainability over a short-term focus. Its goals are to achieve a unique sense of community and place; expand the range of transportation, employment, and housing choices; equitably distribute the costs and benefits of development; preserve and enhance natural and cultural resources; and promote public health.
Read more about Smart Growth: Basic Concept, Basic Principles, History, Rationale For Smart Growth, Communities Implementing Smart Growth, Smart Growth, Urban Sprawl and Automobile Dependency, Criticism
Famous quotes containing the words smart and/or growth:
“Jefferson Smith: If you thought as much as being honest as you do of being smart ...
Diz: Honest? Why, we’re the only ones who can afford to be honest in what we tell the voters. We don’t have to be re-elected like politicians.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)
“Those who have been immersed in the tragedy of massive death during wartime, and who have faced it squarely, never allowing their senses and feelings to become numbed and indifferent, have emerged from their experiences with growth and humanness greater than that achieved through almost any other means.”
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