National Smart Growth Conference report: Raleigh is gaining momentum

February, 08, 2011 , by Andrew

WakeUP Wake County reporting in from the National Smart Growth Conference, held February 3-5, in the Queen City.

Communities all across the country are increasingly attuned to the reality that quality of life is directly connected to how we grow and develop. Smart growth, a public policy planning innovation, focuses on creating sustainable, high quality communities that are good for citizens and developersalike. Towns and experts from cross the U.S. met in Charlotte this past week to report success stories and challenges in efforts to build green, livable, walkable, prosperous cities and towns. Perhaps Charlotte was chosen to host the National Smart Growth Conferencebecause Charlotte has leveraged quality growth and development by designing more livable, attractive streets, creating urban infill, encouraging pedestrian activity, spurring mixed use development along transit lines, and including high quality affordable housing in the mix.

We're learning exciting, effective good growth planning strategies that Raleigh and Wake County could benefit from. Some important lessons highlighted at the conference:

Strategic Transportation and Land Use Planning

Land use(or where we choose to place buildings and open space) should should coordinate with public transit.
Streets must be more accessible to bikes and pedestrians.

Water Quality Protection

Protecting watersheds is rural areas is critical to clean drinking water in urban areas.
Increasing density in urban areas means saving more land from sprawling, lower density development.

Creating Housing Choices

Cities must use policy tools to ensure that housing is available to people of all incomes throughout our city.
Mixed income housing is essential for all of us so that workers vital to supporting our communities can efficiently get to work.

In Raleigh we have the opportunity to create communities that reflect our values and sense of place if local governments show their leadership and stand up for high quality, yes, smart growth. Considering future population growth, Raleighites must work to ensure that our city is an even better place to live in the future. Raleigh is currently re-writing its development code, so citizens have an opportunity to speak up for smart growth! We also hope to see a referendum to help build a bus and rail transit plan that will better connect citizens across the community.

Planning Director for the City of Raleigh Mitchell Silver offered closing remarks at the National Smart Growth Conference, reporting on Raleigh's successes as a top-tier city and challenges as one of the most sprawled in the nation. The conference audience, people from across the nation and abroad, were shocked by the level of growth Raleigh has experienced and excited to see how our city is making strides to continue to sustain new growth in a more compact, walkable manner. As the baby boomer generation moves towards retirement and generation X and Y gain leadership in our community, new opportunities and challenges will arise. By applying smart growth principles, Raleigh can take advantage of demographic shifts and population growth to make our city an even better place to live!

WakeUP , Other posts by Andrew.