Smart growth tools address a diverse range of specific concerns, including historic
preservation, farmland protection, habitat conservation, flexible architectural design, and
expedited land development. Smart growth unites the traditionally separate and
competing growth promotion and growth control measures into a single growth
accommodation approach. In addition to these important concepts, Henry R. Richmond
posits that smart growth must now be explained within the context of “new urbanism”
and “new regionalism.” What smart growth tries to accomplish is thus development with
implied improvements in quality of life and environmental protection rather than mere
urban growth or economic expansion per se.
An important obstacle to smart growth measures is that growth problems rarely
respect political boundaries. Scattered development patterns, as well as the traffic
congestion, environmental degradation, fiscal stresses, and other problems that often
accompany them, tend to be regional in nature, extending beyond the boundaries of any one locality. Accordingly, many growth problems are better addressed through regional
solutions that federal, state and local smart growth measures my not provide.
The general premise of “new regionalism” is that the economic health of the city
and its outlying areas are inseparably intertwined, and that without regional planning and
programs, individual jurisdictions in a single region compete with one another for limited
resources and economic investment. New regionalists typically advocate from one of
these three competing positions: greater economic prosperity, increased environmental
protection, or improved social equity. Consequently, many politicians, advocates and
activists are calling for the implementation of integrated policies that address the interrelatedness
of all regional challenges, including housing, transportation, water, sewage,
and other regional physical infrastructure systems.
Denver evidences a suite of tensions between the promise and outcomes of
planning with a wider, regional applicability. On the one hand, there is a progressiveness
that embraces regional governance, growth management, economic vitality and quality
infrastructure. But on the other hand, there is the reality of city sprawl, competitive local
government relationships, and a convergence of interest between citizen choice and
development industry behavior. This report will illustrate three issues regarding effective
and efficient regional planning implementation at local, state and federal levels in the
context of regional planning efforts in the Denver Metro Area. First, why does infill
development and economic revitalization not only benefit the central city but the region
as a whole? Secondly, how do land-use assignments and development design, like Smart
Growth and New Urbanism, encourage regional planning efforts towards integrated mass
transit? Finally, How does government fragmentation and overlap contribute to the lack
of regional consensus and efficient planning? / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/22575 |
| Date | 05 December 2013 |
| Creators | Walker, Brett Robert |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | electronic |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works., Restricted |
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