Pt. II Sustainable Neighborhoods & Communities

Smart Growth and New Urbanism Over the past few decades, as policy makers, urban planners, and architects have discovered the high cost associated with current pattern of development, a series of movements have formed to promote more sustainable development patterns. While the U.S Green Building Council and other and organization have successfully promoted green building techniques, other agencies and organizations have focused on promoting development patterns that create more sustainable communities.

Smart Growth

A planning strategy to help communities develop and grow in a way that supports economic prosperity, environmental conservation, and a strong and fair society. The Smart Growth movement materialized in the late 1990s as a reaction to suburban sprawl. According to the Smart Growth Network, there are ten principles of smart growth that should guide development and conservation in communities.

1. Create a range of housing opportunities and choices.

2. Create walkable neighborhoods

3. Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration

4. Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place

5. Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost- effective

6. Mix land uses

7. Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas

8. Provide a variety of transportation choices

9. Strengthen and direct development toward existing communities

10. Take advantage of compact building design

New Urbansism

The CNU was reacting to many of the same issues as smart- growth proponent: sprawl and its negative environmental and social impacts, including extreme auto orientation, careless infrastructure demands, and the isolation of economically disadvantage populations.

The movement views

The loss of open space

The continuing degradation of our built heritage

The development of communities deigned for the automobile

The increasing social and economical divisions as interrelated issues that can be addressed through sound urban development

The Charter of the New Urbanism, which is the guiding document of the movement , identifies three basic scales of development.

The Region

The Neighborhood

The Building

Each scale are a series of principles that define the quality and character of the built environment and help to form working definitions of the communities.

The Region and the City

A region is comprised of a number of cities, towns, and communities. New Urbanism views individual cities as part of a larger region and emphasizes that, when planning for future development of a city, one must understand its place within the larger region and in relation to adjacent cities. the specific principles are:

1. The metropolis has an important environment, economic, and cultural relationship to surrounding farmland and natural landscape.

2. Infill development conserves environmental resources, economical investment, and social fabric.

3. New development should be organized around existing neighborhoods and districts; where this is not possible, it should be organized as viable towns and villages with a jobs and housing balance.

4. Cities and towns should benefits people of all incomes and avoid concentrations of poverty.

5. The region should be supported by a framework of multimodal transportation options.

6. Revenues and resources should be shared more cooperatively among municipalities and regional centers.

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