An Overview of Smart Growth Projects
Smart Growth in Action projects offer a wealth of information on how to create solutions for growth issues. It's not always necessary to come up with new ideas for each development decision; there are literally dozens of projects throughout the United States that can provide perspective and show how other communities have dealt with similar challenges.
The projects listed here draw from a range of possibilities. Each project is ranked on Smart Growth Principles for each reference.
Projects are available online and may also be downloaded and printed as PDFs.
Smart Growth In Action:
Stapleton's Sustainable Development Plan, Denver, Colorado
When Denver's Stapleton International Airport closed in 1995, the city saw an opportunity to use the land to create a great new neighborhood. Over six years, starting before the airport even closed, citizens, the business community, and the city and… »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
New Columbia Neighborhood, Portland, Oregon
Columbia Villa was an isolated and distressed 82-acre public housing site. The Housing Authority of Portland (HAP) partnered with public and private stakeholders to redevelop the site and create New Columbia, a neighborhood built to improve economic opportunity, community livability, and environmental quality for both old and new residents. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Livable Communities Program, Minneapolis-St. Paul Area, Minnesota
Consistently ranked among the top locations in the country to raise a family or establish a business, the Minneapolis-St. Paul region is experiencing rapid population growth. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Village of Hyannis, Barnstable, Massachusetts
In recent decades, the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts, a coastal community on Cape Cod, has experienced tremendous growth. Hyannis, one of the town's seven villages, saw growth at its edges characterized by low-density residential subdivisions and… »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Housing & Conservation Board, State of Vermont
The state of Vermont promotes compact settlements surrounded by rural countryside. The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) supports this goal by funding affordable housing development in existing population centers and by preserving historic resources, farmland, forests, and public access to recreational lands. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Incentive Program, San Mateo, California
To give communities incentives to build more housing near rail stations, the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County created a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Incentive Program. It uses transportation funds to spur construction of n… »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Stapleton Educational Master Plan, Denver, Colorado
The redevelopment of Stapleton Airport is one of the nation's largest and most ambitious infill projects, converting Denver's old airport complex into 4,700 acres of homes, offices, shops, schools, and parks. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Central District Specific Plan, Pasadena, California
A popular town in the Los Angeles region, the city of Pasadena wanted to maintain its unique sense of place and give its residents choices in where they live and how they get around. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Lowry Neighborhood Project, Denver/Aurora, Colorado
In 1994, the Lowry Air Force Base closed, offering Denver and Aurora, the two communities with jurisdiction over the base's property, a chance to use the former military base to create a new neighborhood. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Abyssinian Neighborhood Project, Harlem Community Revitalization, Manhattan, New York
Through partnerships with The Abyssinian Baptist Church, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the Urban Technical Assistance Project at Columbia University and the Office of the Manhattan Borough President, Abyssinian Develop Abyssinian Development Corporation (ADC) developed a strategy to expand the housing and commercial options for central Harlem. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Liberty Station, San Diego, California
The Naval Training Center in San Diego trained members of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserve for 70 years. When it closed in 1995, the city took advantage of its historic buildings and its prime location on San Diego Bay to redevelop it as Liberty Station, which restores waterfront access to the public for the first time in 80 years, creates new parks, and establishes creative-arts facilities. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
San Juan Pueblo Master Land Use Plan, San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico
The San Juan Pueblo, just north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, has been inhabited for over 700 years. In 2000, San Juan Pueblo tribal members initiated a community planning process to articulate and implement a long-term vision for the pueblo. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Highlands' Garden Village, Denver, Colorado
When Denver's Elitch Gardens amusement park relocated in 1994, it left behind a 27-acre site just five miles from downtown. On this site, the Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA) helped facilitate the vision, design, financing, and economic development of Highlands' Garden Village, an innovative, compact, mixed-use community that has become a model for development throughout the Denver area. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
High Point Redevelopment, Seattle, Washington
The Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) worked closely with community members to rebuild a formerly crime-ridden and dilapidated 120-acre hilltop neighborhood into a mixed-use, mixed-income, and environmentally sensitive community.… »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Rosslyn-Ballston Metro Corridor, Arlington County, Virginia
Arlington's smart growth planning approach places dense, mixed-use, infill development at five Metro stations—known as the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor—and tapers it down to residential neighborhoods. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Sacramento Transportation/Land Use Study, California
More than 5,000 community members, elected officials, and business leaders shaped the future of the Sacramento region through a series of workshops, regional conferences, web-based dialogue, and surveys. The Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) initiated this two-year process—the Sacramento Region Blueprint: Transportation/Land Use Study—to examine current land use and future growth patterns and to plan where and how the region should grow. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Gilbert & Bennett Wire Mill Redevelopment, Redding, Connecticut
Closure of the Gilbert and Bennett wire mill in 1989 left a 55-acre, contaminated industrial site in Redding's Georgetown section, the primary commercial zone for this town of 8,400 residents. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Belmar's Walkable Downtown, Lakewood, Colorado
n communities across the country, aging shopping centers are losing business to larger and newer competitors. As these retail centers, known as "greyfields," cease to be viable as shopping malls, they can often provide opportunities for redevelopment that meet other community needs. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Baldwin Park Naval Base Redevelopment Project, Orlando, Florida
When the U.S. Navy announced in 1993 that it would close the Orlando Naval Training Center, the city of Orlando saw an opportunity to build a vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood that would make the base property once again part of the community. The city's Base Reuse Commission organized to plan the property's future, engaging citizens in hundreds of meetings over two years to help devise and refine a plan to redevelop the base. At visioning workshops, citizens described what they wanted: a variety of housing types, a vibrant main street, public access to lakes, and linkages with existing neighborhoods. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Georgia Quality Growth Program, Georgia Department of Community Affairs
Since 2000, the Office of Quality Growth (OQG) in the Georgia Department of Community Affairs has helped communities learn about and implement smart growth principles. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
The Village at NTC, Department of the Navy, Southwest Division Naval Facilities Engineering Command San Diego, California
Re-using former military bases and addressing the lack of decent and affordable military housing are concerns for many cities and the Armed Forces. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Neighborhood Schools Initiative, Milwaukee Public Schools, Wisconsin
Faced with increasing numbers of children who had to be bused to distant schools because schools in their neighborhood had no room, Milwaukee Public Schools decided to take action to not only create more neighborhood schools, but also to restore the communities around them. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Moore Square Museums Magnet Middle School, Wake County Public School System, Raleigh, North Carolina
For the past several decades, the national trend in school construction has been big buildings on large sites, often on the outskirts of town. Increasingly, however, communities are realizing that taking a school out of a community can have unforeseen repercussions, ranging from lower home values to increased traffic congestion to loss of green space. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Inderkum High School, Sacramento, California
North Natomas is a fast-growing planned community in Sacramento, California’s capital. In 2001, the city approved a master plan, designed according to smart growth principles, for the Natomas Town Center. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Southside Neighborhood, Greensboro, North Carolina
The Southside neighborhood, a 10-acre revitalization project, is one of Greensboro, North Carolina's first significant mixed-use, infill projects. The city’s Department of Housing and Community Development developed a Traditional Neighborhood District Ordinance to assist Southside's redevelopment. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Davidson Land Plan & Planning Ordinance, Davidson, North Carolina
To the residents of Davidson, North Carolina, located just 20 miles from Charlotte, the essence of their small town is great neighbors and great neighborhoods. This small community is setting the standard for creating healthy and vibrant neighborhoods in a historic setting. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Housing Enhancement Loan Program, Cuyahoga County, Ohio
The Cuyahoga County Treasurer’s Office, under the leadership of County Treasurer Jim Rokakis, created the Housing Enhancement Loan Program (HELP), an innovative program to improve quality of life and keep thousands of families in older Cleveland neighborhoods and inner-ring suburbs. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Community Preservation Initiative, State of Massachusetts
The Community Preservation Initiative (CPI) is a statewide smart growth program that helps municipal officials and community leaders understand the potential effects of growth. It provides tools and technical assistance to encourage informed and balanced growth decisions and emphasizes education, not regulation. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Bethesda Row, Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda Row, located in the central business district of Bethesda, Maryland, illustrates the revitalization of a suburban downtown area into a mixed-use, walkable shopping and restaurant district. It has become so successful it draws people from the surrounding county and Washington D.C. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Belmont Dairy, Portland, Oregon
The Belmont Dairy is a mixed-use, urban infill project in the Portland, Oregon, neighborhood of Sunnyside. Located approximately 1.5 miles southeast of downtown, Belmont Dairy has expanded housing and retail choices for Sunnyside residents, spurred reinvestment, and created a vibrant anchor for a changing neighborhood. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Accessory Dwelling Unit Development Program, Santa Cruz, California
Like many communities in northern California, Santa Cruz has seen its housing costs increase dramatically. These rising costs mean the city is struggling to retain teachers, police officers, and service workers. To address these challenges, Santa Cruz created an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Development Program. Accessory units create separate residences by converting all or part of a garage or by building new structures on a homeowner's property. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Wellington Neighborhood, Breckenridge, Colorado
The Wellington Neighborhood provides affordable and market-rate housing on a site that was once dredge-mined. The project recycles land, houses working families, and provides free transit to the nearby downtown. It helps the region avoid "mountain sprawl" by creating an attractive, compact neighborhood, a design that has fostered a strong sense of community in a short time. »» moreSmart Growth In Action:
Third Street Cottages, Langley, Washington
Langley, Washington, is a small town on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound, an hour away from downtown Seattle and Everett by road and ferry. The town is home to about 1,000 people and retains a village character despite being under moderate development pressure. »» more
Smart Growth Principles
Smart Growth Issues
