Smart Growth: Building Communities Without Sacrificing the Environment

Growth does not have to cost a community its rivers and open spaces. Smart growth is an approach to community development meant to make places, in its own words, "more livable, more economically efficient, and more effective at meeting the needs of the people who live there" — while protecting the environment at the same time.

Portland, Oregon, at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. Credit: NOAA.

The principles

Smart growth rests on a few tenets:

• Walkable communities, with a range of other ways to get around.
• Attractive, affordable homes, built with compact, energy-efficient designs.
• Respect for the environment, and an overall goal of preserving it.

An example: Portland, Oregon

Portland ties the city's growth to the health of its rivers. Besides building compactly within existing neighborhoods, it has adopted green infrastructure policies that support compact design. Its comprehensive Metropolitan Greenspaces Program acquires natural areas and trails, giving people places for recreation while protecting the city's water quality, floodplains, and fish and wildlife habitat.

Sources

Based on "What is smart growth?" from NOAA's National Ocean Service, a work of the United States government in the public domain.