Read more about:
 Our Mission
Our Work
What is Smart Growth?
How is Smart Growth Achieved?
Who has endorsed Smart Growth?
Smart Growth America’s work falls into our four project areas: coalition
building, communications, policy development, and research.
Coalition Building: Smart Growth America dedicates significant
energy to building and broadening the coalition of organizations working
towards Smart Growth. SGA staff members regularly speak to groups across
the country, helping to broaden the base of understanding on growth issues.
SGA is working to expand a coalition that already includes advocates for
community reinvestment, farmland preservation, affordable housing, transportation
reform, and environmental preservation. Additionally, we have attracted
support from private sector organizations, public officials, labor
unions, public health experts, educators and faith-based organizations.
Communications: Smart Growth America plays a
central role in translating and transmitting the latest information on smart growth -- a knowledge
base that is growing rapidly both from research and real-world experience -- to its partners, the
media and general public. To that end, we produce a biweekly, electronic newsletter, Smart Growth Around America.
This is your biweekly source for
breaking smart growth news, information about the work being done by our Coalition members,
releases of new publications and resources, conference and events announcements, and
funding opportunities. You can also stay up-to-date with the SGA Blog. In addition to our periodicals, we also are developing a suite
of smart growth communication tools to help citizens understand and make the case for smart growth.
Already available is a PowerPoint presentation, Introduction to Smart Growth, designed to help
local advocates communicate succinctly -- and without off-putting jargon -- the arguments for
changing the way we grow. Finally, we are pleased to offer "Choosing Our Communities'
Future: A Citizen's Guide to Getting the Most Out of New Development." If you are a
citizen interested in shaping the growth of your community, rather than just accepting or
fighting the changes imposed upon you, then this book can help you do just that.
Policy Development: As a coalition of national, state and local groups, SGA
takes the lead on smart growth advocacy at the federal level. We’ve built strong relationships with
the Senate Smart Growth Task Force, House Livable Communities Task Force, House Sustainable
Development Caucus, and Congressional Black Caucus Transportation Brain Trust.
One of our past highlights was the January 2002 passage in the 107th Congress of the
Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act (H.R. 2869), perhaps
the first major federal legislative victory for smart growth. Redevelopment of the approximately
450,000 brownfield sites nationwide is critical to revitalizing communities and alleviating pressure
to develop farmland and open space. SGA will be working with other partners over the next year and a half on the
reauthorization of the federal transportation bill, working to
continue reforming federal policy towards promoting a more balanced and neighborhbood-friendly transportation system.
At the State and local level, SGA has tracked smart growth legislation
and ballot initiatives across the country. We also serve as an informational resource for
partner organizations on the activities of states, publicizing many of the best policy tools
that can be replicated by other state and local governments, called “Smart Tools.”
Research: SGA works with our partners on strategic pieces of research
to elevate the national debate on smart growth. To that end, our research
agenda is interrelated to our policy, coalition building, and communications
work. For example, we worked with the Brookings
Institution’s Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, on the
effects of growth management on housing affordability, “The
Link Between Growth Management and Housing Affordability: The Academic
Evidence.” This report refutes the myth that growth management
and affordable housing are mutually exclusive. Look at our resources page to read or
download our new, and classic reports, including Measuring Sprawl and its Impact,
Endangered by Sprawl, The Health Impacts of Sprawl, and Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban
Development and Climate Change.
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