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Smart Growth
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| Automobile-dependent
development eats up land! (Clear Lake area, Houston) |
Denser
development can be more pedestrian friendly and have a higher
quality of life. (New Orleans French Qtr) |
Denser
development saves habitat! (Curry Lake, TX) |
Smart Growth is growth that preserves quality of life as well as quality
of the environment. It is a framework that informs sustainable urban
development. There are many facets to smart growth, as well as many different
"flavors". Here we define smart growth as those policies and practices
that impact the pattern of urban development in such a way that
impacts to air and water quality are restricted to smaller areas.
The actual impacts may be greater than so-called "green development"
in the areas that are disturbed, but the impact to the overall ecosystem
is less because greater amounts of undisturbed green space can be preserved.
Resources
Books
The
Death and Life of Great American Cities. Jane Jacobs. Vintage
Books. A ground breaking work. Over 30 years old but not at all
dated. A common sense book by a woman completely outside the profession.
Maybe thats why it reads so good.
How
Cities Work : Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken. 2001.
Alex Marshall. An eye-opening book. One of the most important on the subject.
Cities, not developers, are responsible for the pattern and shape of urban
development.
Cities
in Full. Recognizing and realizing the great potential of Urban America.
2002. Steve Belmont. Planners Press. American Planning Association. Chicago,
IL. One of the most important books you can read on this subject. Recentralization
of the urban core is the central thesis of this book. Chock-a-block full
of tables and statistics. A long book, but a must-read.
Design with Nature. Ian McHarg. 1992. John Wiley and Sons (Reprint
of 1969 original). The original smart growth manual. Pay attention
to the landscape!
The Regional City. 2001. Peter Calthorpe and William Fulton. Planning
for the End of Sprawl.
The
Next American Metropolis. Ecology, Community, and the American Dream.
1993. Peter Calthorpe. Princeton Architectural Press. This book
presents 24 of Calthorpe's regional urban plans, in which towns are organized
so that residents can be less dependent upon their cars and can walk,
bike, or take public transportation between work, school, home, and shopping.
Conservation
Design for Subdivisions. A practical guide to creating open space networks.
1996. Randall G. Arendt. Island Press. The author proposes a step-by-step
approach to conserving natural areas by rearranging density on each development
parcel as it is being planned so that only half (or less) of the buildable
land is turned into houselots and streets. This is planning on a subdivision
rather than on a city level.
Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.
2001. Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jeff Speck. North Point Press.
An excellent introduction to the problems of sprawl and available
solutions.
Some Tools
Links
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