A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH

The radical planning philosophy that blends old ways with new

Smart Growth is a sustainable approach to planning that emphasises compact and accessible urban communities and which opposes urban sprawl and car dependency. It seeks traditional ways of planning towns based around local services, ease of walking and cycling and good public transport, especially rail-based. It looks for ways to rebuild our lost sense of community.

WHAT IS SMART GROWTH?

Here in the UK we are rightly proud of our historic towns and cities, our beautiful countryside and a planning system which protects our environment. But, for a whole string of reasons, our small and overcrowded country has spent 100 years building urban sprawl and creating a transport system fatally dependent on the car and the motor lorry. Despite its large areas of moor and mountain, the UK is a very densely populated country and England is now Europe’s most densely populated country.

Parts of it are short of water and there is strong opposition to the urban sprawl which some argue is necessary to house our population. Climate change means we need to use less fossil fuel, yet we have a transport system which accounts for more than a quarter of our emissions, our public transport is expensive and often inadequate and the fabric and economies of many of our towns and cities have decayed.

Smart Growth has its origins in a country where the damage done by sprawl, car dependency and urban deprivation far exceeded our own mistakes – America. Yet extreme challenges often prompt the best solutions and, over the past 20 years, the Smart Growth movement has increasingly tackled these problems. Today, many US inner cities are regenerating economically and socially and being equipped with the rail-based public transport many of our cities desperately need. Cities are being remodelled to allow people to walk or cycle and are challenging America’s fatal car dependency. Meanwhile its sprawling suburbs are feeling the chill wind of higher gas prices, falling house prices and social decline.

Recent years have seen discussions among environmental groups about ways of mirroring these successes here in the UK. A group of environmental NGOs formulated and agreed a set of principles for Smart Growth in the UK for use in planning, transport planning, community development and urban regeneration.

THE SMART GROWTH UK PRINCIPLES

Plan Compact Communities

Smart Growth promotes well-designed, compact, functional communities and rejects land-hungry sprawl and wastage of greenfield land.

Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities

Smart Growth emphasises use of communities’ existing infrastructure and resources and conserves open space and urban fringes.

Provide sustainable transport choices

Smart Growth reduces dependence on road transport and increases opportunities for walking, cycling and public transport. Towns, cities and villages should be pedestrian-friendly and rail-accessible.

Protect the unbuilt environment

Smart Growth believes our countryside and open space is a precious environmental, social and economic resource. It should be protected and husbanded if we are to move towards a more sustainable society. Squandering it will create, not solve, problems for our towns and will do nothing for our national economy.

Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place

Smart Growth encourages communities to develop their own identity and vision, respecting their cultural and architectural heritage. It supports human-scale development and opposes large, monolithic developments, out-of-town retailing and “big box” architecture.

Mix land uses

Smart Growth supports a sensible mix of land uses to suit communities and which meet their daily needs.

Encourage communities to flourish and grow

Smart Growth supports mixed-income, mixed-age, inclusive communities that take responsibility for their own development. Local economies should be developed to make them more self supporting.

Create a range of housing oppurtunties and choice

Smart Growth supports quality living for people of all income groups, ages and needs. We want human-scale development at appropriate densities to support sustainable transportation and local facilities.

Make development decisions fair and economically inclusive

For communities to successfully implement Smart Growth they must ensure all three sectors of the economy – public, private and community - function successfully and sustainably.