What is Smart Growth?

The cumulative effects of population growth, its patterns and form have long-term social, environmental, and economic consequences. Smart growth is a continuous planning process to guide the preservation, development, or redevelopment of a neighborhood, community, or region to promote the goals and ambitions of its residents when facing growth pressures. Quality of life, infrastructure, and land use are typically key considerations in the process. Smart growth communities prudently manage and direct their growth-strained resources to assure an economic future consistent with their goals. In addition, smart growth informs economic development efforts by providing a framework to coordinate investments and policies.

Smart growth is guiding growth in ways that result in vibrant communities, strong economies, and a healthy environment. Smart growth means adding new homes, schools, businesses, jobs and infrastructure to Arizona’s economy in ways that make sense and promote balance. Smart growth enhances the communities where we live, without over- burdening our transportation and infrastructure systems, polluting our air and water, or depleting our open spaces and magnificent natural landscapes. Smart growth embodies qualities that make communities great places to live and give them a sense of place – walkable neighborhoods, recreational amenities, historic spaces, vibrant downtowns, choices in transportation, jobs, and housing, prudent investments in capital facilities and infrastructure and opportunities for diversity and citizen involvement.

Around the country, communities are striving to implement new practices of land use development that will maximize investments while also preserving natural lands and critical environmental areas, protecting water and air quality and reusing already-developed land. In turn, the resulting higher quality of life in many of these communities makes them more economically competitive and creates more business opportunities that improve the local tax base.

The Smart Growth Network developed a set of ten principles that reflect the new ways that many communities are positively affecting land use and development: