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Mitigating the Costs of Sprawl With Smart Growth
As noted in the previous sections, sprawl development often doesn't pay in the long-term. So what can be done to fix the problem? Fortunately, smart growth addresses many of the problems associated with sprawl development - including the fiscal problems. Designing communities that are compact, mixed-use, and walkable; making sure new developments are close to existing infrastructure; preserving open spaces; and engaging your community in a comprehensive proactive planning process are all ways to mitigate the fiscal costs of sprawl.
"Sprawl" development is generally understood to posses one or more of these characteristics:
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Smart Community Design
A well-designed "smart" community has a number of important design features that are critical to achieving better places to live. By making development compact and mixing uses, driving alternatives - walking, biking, and transit - become much more viable. A well-designed community can have substantial fiscal and economic benefits. Commercial uses in close proximity to housing are often reflected in higher property values, and thus help raise local tax receipts. More businesses are attracted to areas with heavy foot traffic, and there is increased economic activity in places where people can walk around and shop on their lunch hours, or after work.
Development in Existing Communities
Smart growth is growth that takes place in existing communities already served by infrastructure. This can be more cost-effective - by encouraging development in existing communities, these communities benefit from a stronger tax base and less waste of land and services.
Open Space Preservation
Open space preservation supports smart growth goals by bolstering local economies, preserving critical environmental areas, improving our communities quality of life, and guiding new growth into existing communities. Protection of open space provides many fiscal benefits, including increasing local property value (thereby increasing property tax bases), providing tourism dollars, and decreases local tax increases (due to the savings of reducing the construction of new infrastructure).
Smart Planning
A well-thought-out vision for what your community should look like is an important part of stemming haphazard, ad hoc development. A well-crafted and enforceable comprehensive plan should be created by the community's stakeholders. This will ensure that residents know what to expect for their neighborhoods, developers have clearly defined rules and zoning, and long-term community goals can be visualized and implemented.