Kaid Benfield

Defining smart growth location

Director, NRDC Smart Growth Program, Feb 26, 10.

Tagged with urban planning, smart growth, leed nd

There has been much discussion lately about which criteria policymakers should use to define “smart growth” or “location efficiency” for the application of policy. As all of us who have slaved over LEED-ND for the better part of a decade can attest, this is a very difficult issue.
...
The problem is not that we don’t know what the principles are. We do: They are to (1) avoid sites whose environmental characteristics make them unsuited for intensive development; (2) favor locations within the existing developed area of a region and well-served by existing urban fabric and transportation choices; and (3) ensure that what is built in those locations is consistent with the goals of sustainability.
...
The challenge lies in defining locational parameters precisely enough so that implementing them will be consistent and effective, yet not so precisely that they require difficult calculations and unreasonable amounts of effort to apply. The challenge is complicated further by varying local circumstances and policy objectives. It’s become a policy cliché to say that “one size does not fit all,” but that is particularly true in this endeavor.
...
The most expeditious approach to defining good smart growth locations would be to borrow the standards of the [LEED-ND] rating system’s “smart location and linkage” section, and write them into relevant policy instruments. While they are not perfect, policymakers would have the confidence that comes with tapping into an extensive, multi-party deliberation that has been tested and thoroughly vetted.

In particular, LEED-ND’s prerequisites might be adopted as appropriate minimum standards, defining sensitive lands that should be avoided (habitat and ecologically significant lands, wetlands, floodplains, and certain agricultural lands), and using measures of basic urbanity (e.g., surrounding development, infrastructure, transit access, nearby neighborhood assets) to broadly describe sites likely to have better-than-average environmental performance.

Full story: What criteria should we use to define smart growth locations?
Source: NRDC Switchboard, February 24, 2010

More Commentary