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- Info
Smart growth in the Southeast: New approaches to guiding development
| Author: |
Southern Environmental Law Center, Environmental Law Institute |
| Date: |
1999 |
| Periodical: |
Charlottesville, VA: Southern Environmental Law Center, Whashington, DC: Environmental Law Institute |
| Abstract: |
The Southeast has a rich legacy of vibrant communities with a strong sense of identity and place. Historic cities such as Charleston, Savannah, and Alexandria are national treasures, and numerous distinctive smaller communities define the character of the region. The Southeast is also blessed with tremendous natural beauty and diversity. The forests blanketing the Southern Appalachian mountains, the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and coastal plains, wild and scenic rivers, and the rolling Piedmont all shape the region. And the Southeast boasts sweeping rural landscapes where human activities blend harmoniously with nature, featuring productive farmland and strong communities. These resources contribute to the quality of life that has made the Southeast a desirable place to live and work, and has helped fuel rapid economic and population growth in the region. This dynamic growth has brought jobs, a higher standard of living, increased tax revenues, and other benefits. Unfortunately, much of this growth has been poorly planned, and has led to strip malls, parking lots, highways, and subdivisions that spread further and further out, consuming the countryside and draining investment from existing communities. The costs of this sprawling, haphazard development are escalating. From traffic congestion to tax hikes to serve new growth, from lost farmland to declining air and water quality, from longer commutes to the loss of treasured places, poorly planned development poses a long-term threat to our economy, our communities, our health, and our environment. The problems caused by current growth patterns are not limited to large urban areas and to small communities in the path of juggernauts such as Atlanta. Nearly every community in the region has experienced some of the harm sprawling development brings, and people throughout the Southeast are increasingly concerned about the costs of this type of growth. There is a broad-based, growing effort by public officials, conservationists, taxpayer groups, historic preservationists, health and social justice groups, alternative transportation advocates, as well as businesses and developers, to create a new approach to land use and transportation. This approach does not seek to prevent development, but to capture the benefits of growth without overwhelming communities, taxpayers, and the environment. A key to these efforts is the recognition that haphazard development is less the product of the free market than the result of federal, state, and local government investments, subsidies, and regulations that, intentionally and unintentionally, promote inefficient and destructive growth. Smart growth depends on reversing these policies and offering a broader range of housing and transportation alternatives. Although there is a sizeable body of literature on growth issues and strategies, there is relatively little information on trends and solutions in the Southeast. This report provides an overview of land use and transportation trends in seven southeastern states - Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. It then examines tools and strategies to guide the location, pace, and scale of growth that are being successfully implemented in the region. These strategies include offering incentives to preserve open space and farmland, offering incentives and revising regulations to encourage development that preserves and revitalizes communities, and focusing public investment in roads and other infrastructure within existing communities. There are abundant opportunities to develop smarter growth policies. Some of the tools and strategies discussed in this report need to be adopted at the state level; others can be implemented by localities; still others require cooperation among a variety of jurisdictions. Most can be adapted to benefit large metropolitan areas, smaller cities and towns, and rural communities. Moreover, most of these strategies can be applied in communities that are thriving or in declining areas that need revitalization. Each community should develop a comprehensive approach to guiding growth that is geared to its own goals, social background, and physical surroundings. With creativity, commitment, and perseverance, southeastern states and localities can create and maintain healthy, vibrant communities, preserve open space and farmland, and protect environmental quality. |
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