|
IN
THIS ISSUE:
|
PREVIOUS
ARTICLE | FRONT
PAGE | NEXT ARTICLE
Smart Growth: A
Solution to Sprawl?
By Anna L.
Haines, Ph.D.
The previous
article entitled �Defining and
Characterizing Sprawl� focused on defining sprawl and identifying its
urban and rural characteristics. In turn, this article tackles how to
address sprawl by examining smart growth. Like the previous article, this
one will focus on small town and rural areas.
|
Reedsburg, Wisconsin
|
There are two
basic models presented in the literature as possible solutions to sprawl �
smart growth and new urbanism. Generally, both models aim at tackling sprawl
in metropolitan areas, such as the Milwaukee/Waukesha/Kenosha area, the Fox
Valley, and Dane County. Because smart growth policies can be altered to fit
a small town or rural area more readily than new urbanism (see Box
1), this article will attempt to define smart growth and discuss how
several smart growth policies can be adopted for use in small town or rural
settings.
|
Box
1: New Urbanism
New
Urbanism generally focuses on the neighborhood or town scale, on new
areas of development, and almost exclusively on physical design.
Seaside and Celebration, Florida are examples of New Urbanist
developments. These developments aim to produce compact, livable
communities. An idea that stems from new urbanism is called �traditional
neighborhood development� or TND.
Generally,
TND�s occur on greenfield sites, i.e., undeveloped land, including
agricultural fields. Ideally, they could be built on brownfield sites
(previously developed, vacant and/or polluted sites) within cities.
Rather than allowing a 200 acre subdivision with 100 houses evenly
spread over that land with garages and roads dominating the feel of
the development, a TND would bring the houses closer together, add a
small retail district with the possibility of apartments above stores,
de-emphasize cars and roads by creating alleys and placing garages in
the rear of the lot, and focus attention on people through sidewalks,
front porches and small lot sizes. This development option is
important because it potentially provides consumers with additional
choices about the kind of suburban development they will choose to
live in.
Wisconsin�s
comprehensive planning law (WI statute 66.1027) provides that cities
and villages over 12,500 people must pass a TND ordinance. However,
TND�s do not present a viable option for many smaller communities
that experience development at a much slower pace. Small cities and
villages that would like to encourage this type of development over
time could therefore use the land use element of their comprehensive
plan and incorporate many of these principles into their zoning
ordinance. Since TND�s are focused on replicating a bygone era, it
is necessary to understand a community�s past development patterns
and include those design standards into a community�s zoning and
subdivision regulations. |
So What Is
Smart Growth?
Smart Growth is a new term for an old
idea � growth management, which is a strategy that communities have used
for approximately forty years. Growth management evolved over time, and one
could argue that smart growth is its latest evolution. Growth management has
largely been used in states and metropolitan areas that have experienced
rapid growth rates � Florida, Oregon, and New Jersey to name a few. Some
of the primary tools used in growth management include: zoning, development
buffers, purchase of development rights programs, urban growth boundaries,
minimum density requirements, cluster development, and exclusive
agricultural zoning. Over time as the number of places that experienced more
rapid growth than they were used to and that growth tended to spread outward
more quickly than previously, growth management was repackaged and expanded
into the �smart growth� movement.
Smart growth,
like sprawl, has many definitions depending on one�s perspective. Below
are five definitions or ways in which different groups have conceptualized
smart growth:
-
Smart
growth is �understanding that suburban job growth and the strong
desire to live in single-family homes will continue to encourage growth
in suburbia.� National Association of Home Builders
-
�Smart
growth promotes economic prosperity and enhances the quality of life
through measures that respect the importance of freedom of choice,
flexible land uses, and natural resource management.� National
Association of Industrial and Office Properties
-
�Smart
growth does not seek to stop or limit growth, but rather to accommodate
it in a way that enhances the economy, protects the environment and
preserves or improves a community�s quality of life.� Urban Land
Institute
-
Smart
growth solutions are �those that reinvigorate our cities, bring new
development that is compact, walkable, and transit-oriented, and
preserve the best of our landscape for future generations.� Natural
Resources Defense Council
-
Smart
growth is �calling for an end to sprawl and a new vision of
urban/suburban collaboration and regional growth management.� Sprawl
Watch Clearinghouse
(Gillham,
2002: 157).
Like
definitions of sprawl, there are no agreed upon definitions of smart growth.
Neither what it is nor how it works is clearly defined. Most definitions
depend largely on whether an organization favors development or
conservation. Embedded in many definitions are the following ideas:
-
Acknowledgement
of continued construction of single-family homes,
-
Importance
of balancing development with natural resources,
-
Importance
of managing growth rather than stopping it,
-
Recognition
that cities are important to our quality of life,
-
Recognition
that new development patterns that favor compact and walkable/bikeable
communities are possible and allow for a wider range of transportation
choices, and
-
Recognition
that intergovernmental cooperation is a key factor in addressing growth.
|
Kentlands, Maryland, NRDC
|
Are Smart
Growth Policies Solutions to Sprawl?
Box 2 outlines ten smart growth goals, recognized by many groups, including
government, business and civic groups. A key idea behind these goals is the
need to balance development with the protection of natural resources, such
as farmland, forests and wetlands. From identifying goals and objectives, a
community needs to identify policies and implementation tools so that those
goals and objectives can be achieved. Below are three guidelines for
thinking about how to get from goals and objectives to policies and tools:
-
No one
policy will achieve an identified goal; use a number of policies in
combination, including but not limited to, community planning,
education, use of technology, incentives, and regulations.
-
A key step
in the planning process is evaluating and understanding how your
community has grown and changed in the past, and making a group decision
(through visioning, for example) on whether or not your community wants
to modify the way that growth and change have occurred.
-
If a
community vision lends endorsement to establishing a new �smart� way
for growth and change to occur, then explore innovative policies to
accomplish that vision.
(Smart
Growth Network)
Table
1 outlines a few policies for each goal outlined in Box
2. The tools can be implemented at the local government level
and are appropriate for small towns and rural areas.
|
Boulder, Colorado,
NRDC
|
Conclusion
Sprawl and smart growth represent two opposing and contrasting patterns of
development along a continuum. Communities have not consciously chosen the
path to sprawl, but communities now have the opportunity to consciously
choose an alternative path. Wisconsin communities are in a unique position,
because of the comprehensive planning law, to examine community growth
trends, understand the implications of those trends, decide the future path
their community will take (visions, goals and objectives) and how they will
move along that path (policies and tools). The planning process that many
communities are going through, and will go through, afford the public a
chance to decide the future of their communities. Altering a community�s
growth pattern away from sprawl towards one that preserves, maintains, and
creates a sense of place and better balances development with natural
resources and open space will not be an easy or simple task. However, in
making plans and abiding by them, communities can begin to create healthy
and vibrant places to live and work.
|
New Richmond, Metropolitan
Council
|
Dana
Lucero, Kassandra Walbrun, WDNR Land Use Team, and the Center for Land Use
Education staff have reviewed this article for form and content. Any errors,
mistakes and omissions remain the responsibility of the author.
References
Gillham, Oliver. 2002. The Limitless City: A Primer on the Urban Sprawl
Debate. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Nelson, Arthur C. 2000. The Practice of Local Government Planning.
Washington, D.C.: ICMA.
Smart Growth Network. Undated. Getting to Smart Growth: 100 Policies
for Implementation. Washington, D.C.: ICMA. www.smartgrowth.org
Resources
The American Planning Association. www.planning.org
Congress for New Urbanism. www.cnu.org/
EPA smart growth website. www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. www.lincolninst.edu
Smart Growth Network. www.smartgrowth.org
Traditional Neighborhood Development. A Model Ordinance.
www.wisc.edu/urpl/people/ohm/projects/tndord.pdf
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/es/science/landuse
|
Middleton Hills, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin
|
|
A Review of
Wisconsin�s Comprehensive Planning Law
Often, Wisconsin�s comprehensive planning law (WI Statute 66.1001)
is referred to as the �Smart Growth� law. However, labeling the entire
law �smart growth� is a misrepresentation. The law changed the
definition of comprehensive planning, so that now plans must:
-
Include
nine elements (issues and opportunities; housing; economic
development; transportation; utilities and community facilities;
agricultural, cultural and natural resources; land use;
intergovernmental cooperation; and implementation)
-
Include
public participation,
-
Be
adopted in whole by ordinance by the elected body, and
-
Future
land use decisions should be consistent with the plan.
The plan only needs
to be prepared and adopted if that local government, be it town,
village, city, county, or regional planning commission, is going to make
land use related decisions after January 1, 2010.
The �smart growth�
part of the law is attached to the funding mechanism. If a local
government would like to receive state assistance for preparing its
plan, planning grants (both general and transportation-specific) are
available. A local government that discusses within their grant
application how it will plan for fourteen goals specified in the law
(Box 2a), and how it will plan for �smart growth areas� (Box 2b)
will likely receive a higher score in the grant application process. An
incentive for local governments to plan with their neighbors (to promote
intergovernmental cooperation) is also included within the grant scoring
criteria.
14 Local
Comprehensive Goals: Planning grant awardees must specify how they
will achieve these goals and state agencies are encouraged to integrate
these goals into their work plans.
-
Promotion of the
redevelopment of lands with existing infrastructure and public
services and the maintenance and rehabilitation of existing
residential, commercial and industrial structures.
-
Encouragement of
neighborhood designs that support a range of transportation choices.
-
Protection of
natural areas, including wetlands, wildlife habitats, lakes,
woodlands, open spaces and groundwater resources.
-
Protection of
economically productive areas, including farmland and forests.
-
Encouragement of
land uses, densities and regulations that promote efficient
development patterns and relatively low municipal, state governmental
and utility costs.
-
Preservation of
cultural, historic and archaeological sites.
-
Encouragement of
coordination and cooperation among nearby units of government.
-
Building of
community identity by revitalizing main streets and enforcing design
standards.
-
Providing an
adequate supply of affordable housing for individuals of all income
levels throughout each community.
-
Providing
adequate infrastructure and public services and an adequate supply of
developable land to meet existing and future market demand for
residential, commercial and industrial uses.
-
promoting the
expansion or stabilization of the current economic base and the
creation of a range of employment opportunities at the state, regional
and local levels.
-
Balancing
individual property rights with community interests and goals.
-
Planning and
development of land uses that create or preserve varies and unique
urban and rural communities.
-
Providing an
integrated, efficient and economical transportation system that
affords mobility, convenience and safety and that meets the needs of
all citizens, including transit-dependent and disabled citizens.
Smart
Growth Area Definition
"�Smart growth area� means an area that will enable the
development and redevelopment of lands with existing infrastructure and
municipal, state and utility services, where practicable, or that will
encourage efficient development patterns that are both contiguous to
existing development and at densities which have relatively low municipal,
state governmental and utility costs.� (WI Statute: 16.965) |
PREVIOUS
ARTICLE | FRONT
PAGE | NEXT ARTICLE
|
