Smart Growth
Smarter growth means better choices for our communities.
Elements of Smart Growth
- Housing: More choices, for more people, in affordable, convenient places to live
- Economy: Smart growth is smart business
- Children and Schools: Why Johnny can't walk to school - and why it matters
- Environment: Preserving natural habitat by creating better human habitat
- Preservation and Revitalization: Building on our legacy to create a landscape worthy of America
- Social Equity: Expanding the American dream of opportunity for all
- Transportation: More travel options, less time in traffic, here's how we get from here to there
- Open Space and Farmland: Prime farmland, productive forests, one-of-a-kind scenery: it's all on the edge
- Health and Aging: Safe, walkable neighborhoods for healthy living
From Smart Growth America
Ten Principles of Smart Growth
The 10 principles outline how together we can create better places to live:
- Mix land uses.
- Take advantage of more compact building design.
- Create a range of housing opportunities and choices.
- Create walkable neighborhoods.
- Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place.
- Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas.
- Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities.
- Provide a variety of transportation choices.
- Make development decisions predictable, equitable, and cost effective.
- Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration.
The connection between expansive road building and abandonment of existing infrastructure is clear in the Richmond region. We have chosen to invest in expensive highway projects like 895 rather than in the potential of boarded-up commercial spaces in Church Hill. Building and rebuilding mixed-use, multi-modal communities near or within existing infrastructure is key to preserving our natural and economic resources.
Why Smarter Growth in Richmond?
Central Virginians enjoy a wealth of cultural and natural benefits. The counties that surround the state’s capital city are blessed with beautiful rolling hills, lush forests, and a quality of life that is cherished by many. Recently however, development patterns that have traditionally been seen as benign, are beginning to dismantle the fabric of our communities across the region.
In recent years our region has consumed more land at a faster rate than any major metropolitan area in the state. Our region “developed more land in the five years between '92 and '97 than it had in the previous ten, converting an average of 11,760 acres each year. The region is developing an average of 32 acres per day or 1.3 acres every hour. If land continues to be developed at this rate, approximately 294,000 acres will be developed over the next 20 years, an area over seven times the size of the City of Richmond. This would mean that the region would develop more land in 20 years than it had in the previous 400." (SELC)
Land consumed for suburban sprawl also creates a landscape that is entirely dependent upon automobile use. Traffic congestion, higher taxes to pay for schools, utilities, and services, and a diminished public realm are the consequences for allowing growth to continue unchecked. Without appropriate and thoughtful planning of our natural and built environments, our quality of life will continue to be diminished.
We need smarter growth to ensure and protect the quality of life our region holds so dear.
