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Tuesday, June 11, 2019

NIMBY

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An airport is an example of a development that can cause a NIMBY reaction: though locals may benefit from improved transport links and new jobs, they may oppose it with objections to the noise, pollution and traffic it will generate.
 
Unfinished tower in Tenleytown, Washington, D.C. that was later removed as a result of complaints from the neighborhood
 
NIMBY (an acronym for the phrase "Not In My Back Yard"), or Nimby, is a characterization of opposition by residents to a proposed development in their local area. It carries the connotation that such residents are only opposing the development because it is close to them and that they would tolerate or support it if it were built farther away. The residents are often called Nimbys, and their viewpoint is called Nimbyism. 


The NIMBY concept may also be applied to people who advocate some proposal (e.g., budget cuts, tax increases, layoffs, immigration or energy conservation) but oppose implementing it in a way that might affect their lives or require any sacrifice on their part.

Claimed rationale

Developments likely to attract local objections include:
The claimed reasons against these developments vary, and some are given below.
  • Increased traffic: More jobs, more housing or more stores correlates to increased traffic on local streets and greater demand for parking spots. Industrial facilities such as warehouses, factories, or landfills often increase the volume of truck traffic.
  • Harm to locally owned small businesses: The development of a big box store may provide too much competition to a locally owned store; similarly, the construction of a new road may make the older road less travelled, leading to a loss of business for property owners. This can lead to excessive relocation costs, or to loss of respected local businesses.
  • Loss of residential property value: Homes near an undesirable development may be less desirable for potential buyers. The lost revenue from property taxes may, or may not, be offset by increased revenue from the project.
  • Environmental pollution of land, air, and water: Power plants, factories, chemical facilities, crematoriums, sewage treatment facilities, airports, and similar projects may, or may be claimed to, contaminate the land, air, or water around them. Especially facilities assumed to smell might cause objections.
  • Light pollution: Projects that operate at night, or that include security lighting (such as street lights in a parking lot), may be accused of causing light pollution.
  • Noise pollution: In addition to the noise of traffic, a project may inherently be noisy. This is a common objection to wind power, airports, roads, and many industrial facilities, but also stadiums, festivals, and nightclubs which are particularly noisy at night when locals want to sleep.
  • Visual blight and failure to "blend in" with the surrounding architecture: The proposed project might be ugly or particularly large, or cast a shadow over an area due to its height.
  • Loss of a community's small-town feel: Proposals that might result in new people moving into the community, such as a plan to build many new houses, are often claimed to change the community's character.
  • Strain of public resources and schools: This reason is given for any increase in the local area's population, as additional school facilities might be needed for the additional children, but particularly to projects that might result in certain kinds of people joining the community, such as a group home for people with disabilities, or immigrants.
  • Disproportionate benefit to non-locals: The project appears to benefit distant people, such as investors (in the case of commercial projects like factories or big-box stores) or people from neighboring areas (in the case of regional government projects, such as airports, highways, sewage treatment, or landfills).
  • Increases in crime: This is usually applied to projects that are perceived as attracting or employing low-skill workers or racial minorities, as well as projects that cater to people who are thought to often commit crimes, such as the mentally ill, the poor, and drug addicts. Additionally, certain types of projects, such as pubs or medical marijuana dispensaries, might be perceived as directly increasing the amount of crime in the area.
  • Risk of an (environmental) disaster, such as with drilling operations, chemical industry, dams, or nuclear power plants.
  • Historic areas: The affected area is on a heritage register, because of its many older properties that are being preserved as such.
Generally, many NIMBY objections are guessed or feared, because objections are more likely to be successful before construction starts. It is often too late to object to the project after its completion, since new additions are unlikely to be reversed. As hinted by the list, protests can occur for opposite reasons. A new road or shopping center can cause increased traffic and work opportunities for some, and decreased traffic for others, harming local businesses. 

People in an area affected by plans sometimes form an organization which can collect money and organize the objection activities. NIMBYists can hire a lawyer to do formal appeals, and contact media to gain public support for their case.

Origin and history

The word appears in a June 1980 newspaper article from Virginia, with the origin of the phrase explained thus:
Some call it the Nimby Syndrome. That's Nimby, as in "Not-in-my-back-yard"
The phrase '"not in my back yard" syndrome', without the acronym, is found from February of the same year. The Oxford English Dictionary earliest citation is a Christian Science Monitor article from November 1980, although even there the author indicates the term is already used in the hazardous waste industry.

The concept behind the term, that of locally organized resistance to unwanted land uses, is likely to have originated earlier. One suggestion is it emerged in the 1950s.

In the 1980s, the term was popularized by British politician Nicholas Ridley, who was Conservative Secretary of State for the Environment. Comedian George Carlin used the term in a comedy skit, implying that people had already heard of it.

The NIMBY acronym has also been used by social scientists since the early 1980s to describe the resistance of communities to the siting of controversial facilities and land use.

Variations

NIMBY and its derivative terms NIMBYism, NIMBYs, and NIMBYists, refer implicitly to debates of development generally or to a specific case. As such, their use is inherently contentious. The term is usually applied to opponents of a development, implying that they have narrow, selfish, or myopic views. Its use is often pejorative.

Not in My Neighborhood

The term Not in My Neighborhood (or NIMN) is also frequently used. "NIMN" additionally refers to legislative actions or private agreements made with the sole purpose of maintaining racial identity within a particular neighborhood or residential area by forcefully keeping members of other races from moving into the area. In that regard, "Not in My Neighborhood," by author and journalist Antero Pietila, describes the toll NIMN politics had on housing conditions in Baltimore throughout the 20th century and the systemic, racially based citywide separation it caused.

NIABY

Opposition to certain developments as inappropriate anywhere in the world is characterised by the acronym NIABY ("Not In Anyone's Backyard"). The building of nuclear power plants, for example, is often subject to NIABY concerns.

NAMBI

NAMBI ("Not Against My Business or Industry") is used as a label for any business concern that expresses umbrage with actions or policy that threaten that business, whereby they are believed to be complaining about the principle of the action or policy only for their interests alone and not for all similar business concerns who would equally suffer from the actions or policies. The term serves as a criticism of the kind of outrage that business expresses when disingenuously portraying its protest to be for the benefit of all other businesses. Such a labelling would occur, for example, when opposition expressed by a business involved in urban development is challenged by activists – causing the business to in turn protest and appealing for support from fellow businesses lest they also find themselves challenged where they seek urban development. This term also serves as a rhetorical counter to NIMBY. Seen as an equivalent to NIMBY by those opposing the business or industry in question.

BANANA

BANANA is an acronym for "Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything" (or "Anyone"). The term is most often used to criticize the ongoing opposition of certain advocacy groups to land development. The apparent opposition of some activists to every instance of proposed development suggests that they seek a complete absence of new growth. The term is commonly used within the context of planning in the United Kingdom. The Sunderland City Council lists the term in their online dictionary of jargon.

PIBBY

PIBBY is an acronym for "Place In Blacks' Back Yard." This principle indicates that the people with social, racial, and economic privileges object to a development in their own back yards, and if the objectionable item must be built, then it should be built so that its perceived harms disproportionately affect poor, socially disadvantaged people. Economically disadvantaged people might not be willing or able to hire a lawyer to appeal the right way, or might have more immediate troubles than a new nearby construction project. The environmental justice movement has pointed out Nimbyism leads to environmental racism. Robert D. Bullard, Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, has argued that official responses to NIMBY phenomena have led to the PIBBY principle.

SOBBY

SOBBY is an acronym for "Some Other Bugger's Back Yard" and refers to the state of mind which agrees that a particular project may be desirable and perhaps necessary – but only if it is placed elsewhere than someone's neighbourhood or district.

Points of debate

Although often used rather pejoratively, the use of the concept NIMBY and similar terms have been critiqued. For instance, the term is frequently used to dismiss groups as selfish or ill-informed, yet these same groups may have virtues that are overlooked.

In favor of development

Frequently argued debate points in favor of development include higher employment, tax revenue, marginal cost of remote development, safety, and environmental benefits. Proponents of development may accuse locals of egotism, elitism, parochialism, drawbridge mentality, racism and anti-diversity, the inevitability of criticism, and misguided or unrealistic claims of prevention of urban sprawl. If people who don't want to be disturbed see the general need of an establishment, such as an airport, they generally suggest another location. But seen from society's perspective, the other location might not be better, since people living there get disturbed instead.

In favor of local sovereignty

Those labeled as NIMBYs may have a variety of motivations and may be unified only because they oppose a particular project. For example, some may oppose any significant change or development, regardless of type, purpose, or origin. Others, if the project is seen as being imposed by outsiders, may hold strong principles of self-governance, local sovereignty, local autonomy, and home rule. These people believe that local people should have the final choice, and that any project affecting the local people should clearly benefit themselves, rather than corporations with distant investors or central governments. Still others may object to a particular project because of its nature, e.g., opposing a nuclear power plant over fear of radiation, but accepting a local waste management facility as a municipal necessity.

Examples

Canada

Nova Scotia

In July 2012, residents of Kings County rallied against a bylaw, developed over three years of consultation and hearings, allowing wind generators to be constructed nearby. A similar theme arose in September 2009, where residents there rallied against a wind generator in Digby Neck, Nova Scotia. In January 2011, residents of Lawrencetown, NS openly opposed a cellular telephone tower being built. A proposed development of downtown Dartmouth in August 2012 was also contested by residents. In February 2013, some residents of Lunenburg County opposed wind farms being built in the area, saying, "It's health and it's property devaluation" and "This is an industrial facility put in the middle of rural Nova Scotia. It does not belong there."

In March 2013, some residents of the community of Blockhouse opposed the building and development of a recycling plant, referred to by one business owner as a "dump." The plant would offer 75 jobs to the community of roughly 5,900 people. In the same month, the municipal councilors of Chester, Nova Scotia, approved the building of wind turbines in the area in a 6–1 vote, despite some local opposition.

China

In China there were many famous cases of nail houses, including one property holdout who had expressways built around and completely encircled his apartment building in Guangzhou.

Hong Kong

When Christian Zheng Sheng College, a correctional school for young drug addicts, opened in 1998, several people called it an eyesore. In June 2009, residents of Mui Wo voiced objection when they announced they are planning to move their campus into an empty school building there.

Italy

The No TAV opposition to the Turin–Lyon high-speed railway is often characterized as a NIMBY movement.

Japan

The Muraiken Undō or No Leprosy Patients in Our Prefecture Movement, was a government funded Japanese public health and social movement which began between 1929 and 1934. 

In 2001, when the leprosy prevention law was ruled unconstitutional, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Welfare, and the National Diet published statements of apology to leprosy patients and their families. Several prefectural governors made apologies at public sanatoriums. 

There have been incidents where NIMBYs ruled over Greater Tokyo interests. Shinkansen railways have been extensively engineered to mitigate impacts of tunnel boom due to complaints by nearby residents, such that Japan is the only country with such strict regulations (and accompanying financial burdens) on tunnel and aerodynamic designs. This is one of the key reasons there are so many Shinkansen trainset designs.

Narita Airport

Farmers near Narita International Airport, the metropolis's only international link to the outside world, have resisted even the smallest bit of land allocation. Originally the plan for the airport also included a high speed railway line that was scrapped. NIMBYs also prevented extension of the congested airport's very short 2nd runway (unusable for anything but short haul Narrow-body aircraft) until the late 2000s, when finally cross town Haneda Airport was opened to international traffic as additional runways on landfill were completed at many billions of dollars of extra costs, as the 2nd runway was lengthened to 2,500 meters. The 2nd Narita runway still runs short of its original 1974 blueprints and impacts airport operational capacity.

Odakyu Double Tracking

Odakyu Electric Railway, now providing transit along a corridor with 5 million people living in walking distance of its rail and feeder bus service area, was originally built prewar era, and as the city of Tokyo's population ballooned rail demand in suburbs exploded. By 1960s, oshiya pushers were required to squash people into packed trains, and Odakyu Railway sought to expand its two-track lines to four, thus allowing more passing trains and faster run times as well as less crowding and congestive wait and hold of trains. NIMBY residents aside the line in Setagaya ward fought off attempts by the railway to acquire land, Odakyu did not want to make a scene so they attempted to buy land one by one by offering high prices. The Setagaya Residents' opposition set the stage for a long-term and remarkable NIMBY cases in the courts and legislature. By 1993, after 3 decades of trying, it was apparent this plan was failing, and the company decided to go for an multi-billion dollar solution: tunneling two lines underground, and then adding back two new lines stacked on top, to make 4 tracks in each direction for 12 stations and 10.4 km, instead of acquiring the land. The company's decision began in 1993 and completed in 2004 for 1 critical section, meanwhile, for the 2nd smaller section, this same decision was made in 2003 with project completion finally approaching fruition in March 2018, nearly 6 decades later.

United Kingdom

Ashtead, Surrey

In the affluent English village of Ashtead, Surrey, which lies on the outskirts of London, residents objected in 2007 to the conversion of a large, £1.7 million residential property into a family support centre for relatives of wounded British service personnel. The house was to be purchased by a registered charity, SSAFA Forces Help. Local residents objected to the proposal out of fear of increased traffic and noise, as well as the possibility of an increased threat of terrorism. They also contended that the SSAFA charity is actually a business, thereby setting an unwelcome precedent. Local newspapers ran articles titled "Nimby neighbours' war with wounded soldiers' families" and "No Heroes in my Backyard." 

Ex-servicemen and several members of the British general public organised a petition in support of SSAFA, and even auctioned the "Self Respect of Ashtead" on eBay.

High Speed 2

Particularly in the run up to the final decision on the route of the high-speed railway known as High Speed 2, BBC News Online reported that many residents of Conservative constituencies were launching objections to the HS2 route based on the effects it would have on them, whilst also showing concerns that HS2 is unlikely to have a societal benefit at a macro level under the current economic circumstances. Likewise, Labour MP Natascha Engel—through whose constituency the line will pass—offered a "passionate defence of nimbyism" in the House of Commons, with regards to the effects the line would have on home- and business-owning constituents. HS2 has also been characterised by residents of the Chilterns and Camden making arguments against the supposed lack of a business case for the line, often as a smokescreen for NIMBYism. On 17 March 2014, it was announced that Camden's NIMBYs were successful in their campaign to derail the HS1–HS2 link railway.

Heathrow Airport

In November 2007 a consultation process began for the building of a new third runway and a sixth terminal and it was controversially approved on 15 January 2009 by UK Government ministers. The project was then cancelled on 12 May 2010 by the Cameron Government.

Coventry Airport

The airport is owned by CAFCO (Coventry) Limited, a joint venture between Howard Holdings plc and Convergence-AFCO Holdings Limited (CAFCOHL), and in June 2007 had its application to build permanent terminal and passenger facilities turned down by the UK government due to public pressure.

Wimbledon, London

The London Borough of Merton did not have enough school places for local children who would be reaching school age in 2012 and 2013. Almost all local schools had expanded, but the NIMBY group "Save Our Rec" (Recreation ground) opposed the expansion of Dundonald school onto the site of the nearby park's pavilion.

United States

Research shows that NIMBYism is bipartisan in the United States, with both conservatives and liberals opposing new housing developments in their localities. White neighborhoods and cities tend to favor more restrictive housing development policy. A study in Perspectives on Politics found that "individuals who are older, male, longtime residents, voters in local elections, and homeowners are significantly more likely to participate" in local government, and that "these individuals overwhelmingly (and to a much greater degree than the general public) oppose new housing construction."

According to a 2017 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is a shortage of 7.4 million affordable homes available for rent to extremely low income (ELI) households in the United States. As a result, seventy-one percent of ELI households are forced to spend over half of their income on housing costs leading to severe financial burdens. Yet, while the need for more affordable housing is evident, opposition from “Not-in-my-backyard” or NIMBY activists present significant challenges to affordable housing developments, resulting in costly design changes, construction delays, and permit denials. However, research suggests that proactive outreach and communication by affordable housing developers and proponents through the leveraging of social marketing and positive messaging can overcome common NIMBY barriers.

California

A small number of residents (mostly farmers) in Hanford, California and surrounding areas are opposed to the California High-Speed Rail Authority building high-speed rail near farmland, citing that it will bring environmental and economic problems.

Wealthy residents of southern Orange County, CA defeated a local measure that proposed to convert the decommissioned El Toro Marine Base into a commercial airport, claiming that the airport would be "unsafe" during landings and take-offs as well as create air quality issues. The real issue was the FAA planned the flight paths for the airport over expensive neighborhoods of the south Orange County and residents feared that their property values would decrease. The airport proposal, however, was strongly supported by Northern Orange County residents. The defeat of the local measure resulted in the creation of the Orange County Great Park. 

National, state and local environmentalists, historic preservationists and long time residents of South Pasadena, California have been successfully opposing the completion of the highly controversial State Route 710 through the cities of Los Angeles (El Sereno), South Pasadena and Pasadena for over 60 years. There has been a federal injunction in place for 41 years stopping construction of the surface freeway. USC and UCLA urban and transportation planning students study this 80-year-old controversy because it is a classic example of sustained grass-roots opposition to a government proposal.

Now and for over a decade, a struggle has been brewing in San Francisco, California between the voting public and the influx of young professionals and tech workers. With no room to expand, construction companies can only build up in order to meet the increasing housing demand. However, NIMBYism has prevented high rise construction from spreading in San Francisco, citing restrictions on buildings' shadows and the dramatic changes proposed to the waterfront skyline. The opposition argues that new construction will increase the supply of luxury housing without creating affordable housing, thus raising the average rent while by attracting a wealthier population to the city of San Francisco and forcing middle and lower income families out of the city.

On 29 September 2017, 15 housing bills were signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown to combat the state's housing shortage. Many of these bills are considered direct attempts to reduce the ability of private citizens to prevent housing projects from going forward, even being referred to by some as "Anti-NIMBY" bills.

Florida

Similar to the situation in Nantucket Sound, Mass., a minority of residents in St. Lucie County, Florida have vehemently opposed the construction of wind turbines in the county. The construction of the wind turbines was strongly supported by over 80% of county residents according to a 2008 Florida Power and Light (FPL) poll. Additionally, the power company proposed building the turbines in a location on a beach near a prior existing nuclear power plant owned by the company.

In the 1980s, a agency known as the Palm Beach County Expressway Authority was formed to develop a series of east/west highways to take people from suburban Palm Beach County into downtown West Palm Beach. This was done in anticipation of population growth that would happen over the next decades in Palm Beach County that would bring in more traffic. Many neighbors in areas such as Westgate and Lake Belvedere Estates strongly opposed this plan citing it would wipe out their neighborhoods. Ultimately the plan was revised to create SR-80 Boulevard into an express like roadway by eliminating traffic lights and overpassing other local roadways.

Illinois

In 1959, when Deerfield officials learned that a developer building a neighborhood of large new homes planned to make houses available to African Americans, they issued a stop-work order. An intense debate began about racial integration, property values, and the good faith of the residents, community officials and builders. For a brief time, Deerfield was spotlighted in the national news as "the Little Rock of the North." Supporters of integration were denounced and ostracized by residents. Eventually, the village passed a referendum to build parks on the property, thus putting an end to the housing development. Two model homes already partially completed were sold to village officials. Otherwise, the land lay dormant for years before it was developed into what is now Mitchell Pool and Park and Jaycee Park. The first black family did not move into Deerfield until much later, and in years since Deerfield has seen a greater influx of minorities, including Jews, Asians, Greeks and others. This episode in Deerfield's history is described in But Not Next Door by Harry and David Rosen, both residents of Deerfield.

Massachusetts

Opposition to two proposed freeways within the MA Route 128 beltway road around Boston—the Inner Belt and the routing of Interstate 95 in Massachusetts into downtown Boston via the Southwest Corridor—were opposed from their proposals during the 1950s era, and finally cancelled by the actions of then-Governor Francis Sargent in 1970. The MBTA Orange Line heavy rail rapid transit line's southern route was eventually re-located along much of the Southwest Corridor right-of-way for the cancelled I-95's roadbed in the late 1980s, when the Orange Line's Washington Street Elevated tracks were torn down at the time. 

Some residents and businesses of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Island have opposed construction of Cape Wind, a proposed offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound. Proponents cite the environmental, economic, and energy security benefits of clean, renewable energy, while opponents are against any obstruction to the views from oceanfront vacation homes and tourist destinations based in the region.

Minnesota

In the late 1990s a proposal for commuter rail on the Dan Patch Corridor between Minneapolis and Northfield was studied. In 2002, due to opposition from neighborhoods along the corridor, two state representatives from the suburbs of Bloomington and Edina passed a legislative ban not allowing further study, discussion, funding, and construction of the project. While the ban is still in place despite numerous attempts to repeal it, the two suburbs that sponsored the ban are now open to the proposal. Lakeville and St. Louis Park remain opposed to the project and repealing the ban.

New York

On Long Island, various electrification and expansion projects of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) were substantially delayed due to the protests of people living near the railroad. For example, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has proposed to build a third track on the Main Line from Floral Park station to Hicksville station in order to increase capacity. Although most communities along the route supported grade crossing eliminations as part of the project, there was fierce opposition for building a third track from the villages of Floral Park, New Hyde Park, and Garden City, which said the construction and the resulting increased train service will reduce the quality of life in their neighborhoods. The third track project was suspended indefinitely in 2008, but new funding for the project was included in a 2016 infrastructure improvement plan announced by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, which included measures intended to mitigate locals' concerns. Despite the promise of mitigation efforts, several local politicians denounced the governor's plan within a day of its announcement. In December 2017, the LIRR awarded a contract to build the third track.

In Port Washington, New York, a dispute broke out between the town of North Hempstead and the LIRR over a proposed yard expansion at Port Washington station. To expand the yard, a parking lot belonging to the town would need to be reduced in size, but a local councilperson stated that the addition of the tracks "will completely ruin the character of the town." The LIRR was able to expand the yard without the agreement of North Hempstead by tearing up 140 parking spaces of its own parking lot, also adjacent to the station.

Community opposition also led to the cancellation of a proposed extension of the New York City Subway's Astoria Line (carrying the N and ​W trains) to LaGuardia Airport. Similarly, opposition has killed any proposal to build a bridge or tunnel across the Long Island Sound with some believing it will harm their communities with an influx of unwanted traffic as well as concerns regarding the environment and the number of homes that would be cleared as a result.
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Monday, June 10, 2019

Smart growth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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", "urban densification" 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 sustainable development 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.

Basic concept

Smart Growth is a theory of land development that accepts that growth and development will continue to occur, and so seeks to direct that growth in an intentional, comprehensive way. Its proponents include urban planners, architects, developers, community activists, and historic preservationists. The term "Smart Growth" is an attempt to reframe the conversation from "growth" versus "no growth" (or NIMBY) to good/smart growth versus bad/dumb growth. Proponents seek to distinguish Smart Growth from urban sprawl which they claim causes most of the problems that fuel opposition to urban growth, such as traffic congestion and environmental degradation. Smart growth principles are directed at developing sustainable communities that provide a greater range of transportation and housing choices and prioritize infill and redevelopment in existing communities rather than development of "greenfield" farmland or natural lands. Some of the fundamental aims for the benefits of residents and the communities are increasing family income and wealth, providing safe walking routes to schools, fostering livable, safe and healthy places, stimulating economic activity (both locally and regionally), and developing, preserving and investing in built and natural resources. Smart growth "principles" describe the elements of community that are envisioned and smart growth "regulations" describe the various approaches to implementation, that is, how federal, state, and municipal governments choose to fulfill smart growth principles. Some of these regulatory approaches such as Urban Growth Boundaries predate the use of the term Smart Growth. One of the earliest efforts to establish smart growth forward as an explicit regulatory framework were put forth by the American Planning Association. In 1997, the APA introduced a project called Growing Smart and published "Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook: Model Statutes for Planning and the Management of Change." The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines smart growth as “development that serves the economy, the community, and the environment. It changes the terms of the development debate away from the traditional growth/no growth question to how and where should new development be accommodated” 

Smart growth is related to, or may be used in combination with the following concepts:
The smart growth approach to development is multifaceted and can encompass a variety of techniques. For example, in the state of Massachusetts smart growth is enacted by a combination of techniques including increasing housing density along transit nodes, conserving farm land, and mixing residential and commercial use areas. Perhaps the most descriptive term to characterize this concept is Traditional Neighborhood Development, which recognizes that smart growth and related concepts are not necessarily new, but are a response to car culture and sprawl. Many favor the term New Urbanism, which invokes a new, but traditional way of looking at urban planning. 

There are a range of best practices associated with smart growth, these include: supporting existing communities, redeveloping underutilized sites, enhancing economic competitiveness, providing more transportation choices, developing livability measures and tools, promoting equitable and affordable housing, providing a vision for sustainable growth, enhancing integrated planning and investment, aligning, coordinating, and leveraging government policies, redefining housing affordability and making the development process transparent.

Related, but somewhat different, are the overarching goals of smart growth, and they include: making the community more competitive for new businesses, providing alternative places to shop, work, and play, creating a better "Sense of Place," providing jobs for residents, increasing property values, improving quality of life, expanding the tax base, preserving open space, controlling growth, and improving safety.

Basic principles

There are 10 accepted principles that define smart growth:
  1. Create a range of employment opportunities.
  2. Mix land uses
  3. Take advantage of compact building design.
  4. Create walkable neighborhoods and a range of housing opportunities and choices
  5. Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place
  6. Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas
  7. Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities
  8. Provide in advance a variety of transportation choices, urban and social infrastructure based on population projections
  9. Make development decisions sustainable, predictable, fair, and cost effective
  10. Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions

History

Transportation and community planners began to promote the idea of compact cities and communities and adopt many of the regulatory approaches associated with Smart Growth in the early 1970s. The cost and difficulty of acquiring land (particularly in historic and/or areas designated as conservancies) to build and widen highways caused some politicians to reconsider basing transportation planning on motor vehicles. 

The Congress for the New Urbanism, with architect Peter Calthorpe, promoted and popularized the idea of urban villages that relied on public transportation, bicycling, and walking instead of automobile use. Architect Andrés Duany promoted changing design codes to promote a sense of community, and to discourage driving. Colin Buchanan and Stephen Plowden helped to lead the debate in the United Kingdom. 

The Local Government Commission which presents the annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference adopted the original Ahwahnee Principles in 1991 which articulates many of the major principles now generally accepted as part of smart growth movement such as Transit oriented development, a focus on walking distance, greenbelts and wildlife corridors, and infill and redevelopment. The document was co-authored by several of the founders of the New Urbanist movement. The Local Government Commission has been co-sponsoring Smart Growth related conferences since 1997. The New Partners for Smart Growth Conference started under that name circa 2002.

Smart Growth America, an organization devoted to the promoting Smart Growth in the United States, was founded in 2002. This organization leads an evolving coalition of national and regional organizations most of which predated its founding such as 1000 Friends of Oregon founded in 1975 and the Congress for the New Urbanism founded in 1993. The EPA launched its smart growth program in 1995.

Rationale for smart growth

Smart growth is an alternative to urban sprawl, traffic congestion, disconnected neighborhoods, and urban decay. Its principles challenge old assumptions in urban planning, such as the value of detached houses and automobile use.

Environmental protection

Environmentalists promote smart growth by advocating urban-growth boundaries, or Green belts, as they have been termed in England since the 1930s.

Public health

Transit-oriented development can improve the quality of life and encourage a healthier, pedestrian-based lifestyle with less pollution. The United States Environmental Protection Agency suggests Smart growth to reduce air pollution, improve water quality, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Reaction to existing subsidies

Smart Growth advocates claim that much of the urban sprawl of the 20th Century was due to government subsidies for infrastructure that redistribute the true costs of sprawl. Examples include subsidies for highway building, fossil fuels, and electricity.

Electrical subsidies

With electricity, there is a cost associated with extending and maintaining the service delivery system, as with water and sewage, but there also is a loss in the commodity being delivered. The farther from the generator, the more power is lost in distribution. According to the Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Information Administration (EIA), 9 percent of energy is lost in transmission. Current average cost pricing, where customers pay the same price per unit of power regardless of the true cost of their service, subsidizes sprawl development. With electricity deregulation, some states now charge customers/developers fees for extending distribution to new locations rather than rolling such costs into utility rates.

New Jersey, for example, has implemented a plan that divides the state into five planning areas, some of which are designated for growth, while others are protected. The state is developing a series of incentives to coax local governments into changing zoning laws that will be compatible with the state plan. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities recently proposed a revised rule that presents a tiered approach to utility financing. In areas not designated for growth, utilities and their ratepayers are forbidden to cover the costs of extending utility lines to new developments—and developers will be required to pay the full cost of public utility infrastructure. In designated growth areas that have local smart plans endorsed by the State Planning Commission, developers will be refunded the cost of extending utility lines to new developments at two times the rate of the revenue received by developers in smart growth areas that do not have approved plans.

Elements

Growth is "smart growth", to the extent that it includes the elements listed below.

Compact neighborhoods

Compact, livable urban neighborhoods attract more people and business. Creating such neighborhoods is a critical element of reducing urban sprawl and protecting the climate. Such a tactic includes adopting redevelopment strategies and zoning policies that channel housing and job growth into urban centers and neighborhood business districts, to create compact, walkable, and bike- and transit-friendly hubs. This sometimes requires local governmental bodies to implement code changes that allow increased height and density downtown and regulations that not only eliminate minimum parking requirements for new development but establish a maximum number of allowed spaces. Other topics fall under this concept:
In sustainable architecture the recent movements of New Urbanism and New Classical Architecture promote a sustainable approach towards construction, that appreciates and develops smart growth, architectural tradition and classical design. This in contrast to modernist and globally uniform architecture, as well as leaning against solitary housing estates and suburban sprawl. Both trends started in the 1980s.

Transit-oriented development

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a residential or commercial area designed to maximize access to public transport, and mixed-use/compact neighborhoods tend to use transit at all times of the day. Many cities striving to implement better TOD strategies seek to secure funding to create new public transportation infrastructure and improve existing services. Other measures might include regional cooperation to increase efficiency and expand services, and moving buses and trains more frequently through high-use areas. Other topics fall under this concept:

Pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly design

Biking and walking instead of driving can reduce emissions, save money on fuel and maintenance, and foster a healthier population. Pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly improvements include bike lanes on main streets, an urban bike-trail system, bike parking, pedestrian crossings, and associated master plans. The most pedestrian- and bike-friendly variant of smart growth and New Urbanism is New Pedestrianism because motor vehicles are on a separate grid.

Others

  • Preserving open space and critical habitat, reusing land, and protecting water supplies and air quality
  • Transparent, predictable, fair and cost-effective rules for development
  • Historic preservation
  • Setting aside large areas where development is prohibited, nature is able to run its course, providing fresh air and clean water.
  • Expansion around already existing areas allows public services to be located where people are living without taking away from the core city neighborhoods in large urban areas.
  • Developing around preexisting areas decreases the socioeconomic segregation allowing society to function more equitably, generating a tax base for housing, educational and employment programs.

Policy tools

Zoning ordinances

The most widely used tool for achieving smart growth is modification of local zoning laws. Zoning laws are applicable to most cities and counties in the United States. Smart Growth advocates often seek to modify zoning ordinances to increase the density of development and redevelopment allowed in or near existing towns and neighborhoods and/or restrict new development in outlying or environmentally sensitive areas. Additional density incentives can be offered for development of brownfield and greyfield land or for providing amenities such as parks and open space. Zoning ordinances typically include minimum parking requirements. Reductions in or elimination of parking minimums or imposition of parking maximums can also reduce the amount of parking built with new development increasing land available for parks and other community amenities.

Urban growth boundaries

Related to zoning ordinances, an Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) is a tool that used in some U.S. cities to contain high density development to certain areas. The first urban growth boundary in the United States was established in 1958 in Kentucky. Subsequently, urban growth boundaries were established in Oregon in the 1970s and Florida in the 1980s. Some believe that UGBs contributed to the escalation of housing prices from 2000 to 2006, as they limited the supply of developable land. However, this is not completely substantiated because prices continued to rise even after municipalities expanded their growth boundaries.

Transfer of development rights

Transfer of development rights (TDR) systems are intended to allow property owners in areas deemed desirable for growth (such as infill and brownfield sites) to purchase the right to build at higher densities from owners of properties in areas deemed undesirable for growth such as environmental lands, farmlands or lands outside of an urban growth boundary. TDR programs have been implemented in over 200 U.S. communities.

Provision of social infrastructure

Systematic provision of infrastructure such as schools, libraries, sporting facilities and community facilities is an integral component of smart growth communities. This is commonly known as 'social infrastructure' or 'community infrastructure'. In Australia, for example, most new suburban developments are master planned, and key social infrastructure is planned at the outset.

Environmental impact assessments

One popular approach to assist in smart growth in democratic countries is for lawmakers to require prospective developers to prepare environmental impact assessments of their plans as a condition for state and/or local governments to give them permission to build their buildings. These reports often indicate how significant impacts generated by the development will be mitigated, the cost of which is usually paid by the developer. These assessments are frequently controversial. Conservationists, neighborhood advocacy groups and NIMBYs are often skeptical about such impact reports, even when they are prepared by independent agencies and subsequently approved by the decision makers rather than the promoters. Conversely, developers will sometimes strongly resist being required to implement the mitigation measures required by the local government as they may be quite costly. 

In communities practicing these smart growth policies, developers comply with local codes and requirements. Consequently, developer compliance builds communal trust because it demonstrates a genuine interest in the environmental quality of the community.

Communities implementing smart growth

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has recognized these cities for implementing smart growth principles:
The smart growth Network has recognized these U.S. cities for implementing smart growth principles:
In July 2011, The Atlantic magazine called the BeltLine, a series of housing, trail, and transit projects along a 22-mile (35-km) long disused rail corridor surrounding the core of Atlanta, the United States' "most ambitious smart growth project".

In Savannah, Georgia (US) the historic Oglethorpe Plan has been shown to contain most of the elements of smart growth in its network of wards, each of which has a central civic square. The plan has demonstrated its resilience to changing conditions, and the city is using the plan as a model for growth in newer areas.

In Melbourne, Australia, almost all new outer-suburban developments are master planned, guided by the principles of smart growth.

Smart growth, urban sprawl and automobile dependency

Whether smart growth (or the 'Compact City') does or can reduce problems of automobile dependency associated with urban sprawl have been fiercely contested issues over several decades. A 2007 meta-study by Keith Barthomomew of the University of Utah found that reductions in driving associated with compact development scenarios averaged 8 percent ranging up to 31.7 percent with the variation being explained by degree of land use mixing and density. An influential study in 1989 by Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy compared 32 cities across North America, Australia, Europe and Asia. The study has been criticised for its methodology  but the main finding that denser cities, particularly in Asia, have lower car use than sprawling cities, particularly in North America, has been largely accepted — although the relationship is clearer at the extremes across continents than it is within countries where conditions are more similar. 

Within cities studies from across many countries (mainly in the developed world) have shown that denser urban areas with greater mixture of land use and better public transport tend to have lower car use than less dense suburban and ex-urban residential areas. This usually holds true even after controlling for socio-economic factors such as differences in household composition and income. This does not necessarily imply that suburban sprawl causes high car use, however. One confounding factor, which has been the subject of many studies, is residential self-selection: people who prefer to drive tend to move towards low density suburbs, whereas people who prefer to walk, cycle or use transit tend to move towards higher density urban areas, better served by public transport. Some studies have found that, when self-selection is controlled for, the built environment has no significant effect on travel behaviour. More recent studies using more sophisticated methodologies have generally refuted these findings: density, land use and public transport accessibility can influence travel behaviour, although social and economic factors, particularly household income, usually exert a stronger influence.

Paradox of intensification

Reviewing the evidence on urban intensification, smart growth and their effects on travel behaviour Melia et al. (2011) found support for the arguments of both supporters and opponents of smart growth. Planning policies which increase population densities in urban areas do tend to reduce car use, but the effect is a weak one, so doubling the population density of a particular area will not halve the frequency or distance of car use.

For example, Portland, Oregon a U.S. city which has pursued smart growth policies, substantially increased its population density between 1990 and 2000 when other US cities of a similar size were reducing in density. As predicted by the paradox, traffic volumes and congestion both increased more rapidly than in the other cities, despite a substantial increase in transit use.

These findings led them to propose the paradox of intensification, which states "Ceteris paribus, urban intensification which increases population density will reduce per capita car use, with benefits to the global environment, but will also increase concentrations of motor traffic, worsening the local environment in those locations where it occurs". 

At the citywide level it may be possible, through a range of positive measures to counteract the increases in traffic and congestion which would otherwise result from increasing population densities: Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany is one example of a city which has been more successful in this respect.

This study also reviewed evidence on the local effects of building at higher densities. At the level of the neighbourhood or individual development positive measures (e.g. improvements to public transport) will usually be insufficient to counteract the traffic effect of increasing population density. This leaves policy-makers with four choices: intensify and accept the local consequences, sprawl and accept the wider consequences, a compromise with some element of both, or intensify accompanied by more radical measures such as parking restrictions, closing roads to traffic and carfree zones. 

In contrast the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts reported that its Kendall Square Neighborhood saw a 40% increase in commercial space attended by a traffic decrease of 14%.

A report by CEOs for Cities report, "Driven Apart," showed that while denser cities in the United States may have more congested commutes they are also shorter on average in both time and distance. This is in contrast to cities where commuters face less congestion but drive longer distances resulting in commutes that take as long or longer.

Proponents

Criticism

Robert Bruegmann, professor of art history, architecture, and urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of Sprawl: A Compact History, stated that historical attempts to combat urban sprawl have failed, and that the high population density of Los Angeles, currently the most dense urban area in the United States, "lies at the root of many of the woes experienced by L.A. today."

Wendell Cox is a vocal opponent of smart growth policies. He argued before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that, "smart growth strategies tend to intensify the very problems they are purported to solve." Cox and Joshua Utt analyzed smart growth and sprawl, and argued that:
Our analysis indicates that the Current Urban Planning Assumptions are of virtually no value in predicting local government expenditures per capita. The lowest local government expenditures per capita are not in the higher density, slower growing, and older municipalities.
On the contrary, the actual data indicate that the lowest expenditures per capita tend to be in medium- and lower-density municipalities (though not the lowest density); medium- and faster-growing municipalities; and newer municipalities. This is after 50 years of unprecedented urban decentralization, which seems to be more than enough time to have developed the purported urban sprawl-related higher local government expenditures. It seems unlikely that the higher expenditures that did not develop due to sprawl in the last 50 years will evolve in the next 20 year, despite predictions to the contrary in The Costs of Sprawl 2000 research.
It seems much more likely that the differences in municipal expenditures per capita are the result of political, rather than economic factors, especially the influence of special interests.
The phrase "smart growth" implies that other growth and development theories are not "smart". There is debate about whether transit-proximate development constitutes smart growth when it is not transit-oriented. The National Motorists Association does not object to smart growth as a whole, but strongly objects to traffic calming, which is intended to reduce automobile accidents and fatalities, but may also reduce automobile usage and increase alternate forms of public transportation.

In 2002 the National Center for Public Policy Research, a self-described conservative think tank, published an economic study entitled "Smart Growth and Its Effects on Housing Markets: The New Segregation" which termed smart growth "restricted growth" and suggested that smart growth policies disfavor minorities and the poor by driving up housing prices.

Some libertarian groups, such as the Cato Institute, criticize smart growth on the grounds that it leads to greatly increased land values, and people with average incomes can no longer afford to buy detached houses.

A number of ecological economists claim that industrial civilization has already "overshot" the carrying capacity of the Earth, and "smart growth" is mostly an illusion. Instead, a steady state economy would be needed to bring human societies back into a necessary balance with the ability of the ecosystem to sustain humans (and other species).

A study released in November 2009 characterized the smart-growth policies in the U.S. state of Maryland as a failure, concluding that "[t]here is no evidence after ten years that [smart-growth laws] have had any effect on development patterns." Factors include a lack of incentives for builders to redevelop older neighborhoods and limits on the ability of state planners to force local jurisdictions to approve high-density developments in "smart-growth" areas. Buyers demand low-density development and because voters tend to oppose high density developments near them.

Beginning in 2010, groups generally associated with the Tea Party movement began to identify Smart Growth as an outgrowth of the United Nations Agenda 21 which they viewed as an attempt by international interests to force a "sustainable" lifestyle on the United States. However planning groups and even some smart growth opponents counter that Smart Growth concepts and groups predate the 1992 Agenda 21 conference. In addition the word "sustainable development" as used in the Agenda 21 report is often misread to mean real estate development when it typically refers to the much broader concept of human development in the United Nations and foreign aid context which addresses a broader slate of economic, health, poverty, and education issues.
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