Are Smart Growth Policies Solutions to Sprawl?
Box 2 outlines ten smart growth goals, recognized by many groups, including government, business and civic groups. A key idea behind these goals is the need to balance development with the protection of natural resources, such as farmland, forests and wetlands. From identifying goals and objectives, a community needs to identify policies and implementation tools so that those goals and objectives can be achieved. Below are three guidelines for thinking about how to get from goals and objectives to policies and tools: • No one policy will achieve an identified goal; use a number of policies in combination, including but not limited to, community planning, education, use of technology, incentives, and regulations. • A key step in the planning process is evaluating and understanding how your community has grown and changed in the past, and making a group decision (through visioning, for example) on whether or not your community wants to modify the way that growth and change have occurred.
