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February 17, 2010

Growing pains: new publication promotes re-thinking community development

Since World War II, urban growth has increasingly contributed to a handful of social and environmental problems, such as rising emissions of greenhouse gasses, increased obesity, and decreased personal communication and connection in communities. However, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s Planning with POWER Project’s latest publication, Sustainable Land Use: Impact on Climate Change and Health, argues that a new kind of land use—smart growth—is a potential solution to these problems in communities across the country.

The six-page report describes the features and impacts of smart growth, which seeks to re-integrate different land use developments. Such neighborhoods are designed to have shops, offices, schools, churches, parks, and other community amenities near homes, so that residents and visitors have options of walking, bicycling, taking public transportation, or driving. Neighborhoods that offer alternatives to driving will reduce carbon dioxide emissions caused by cars while encouraging healthier modes of transportation.

The report also provides a study-based foundation for the complications created by current development and the demographic changes that make smart growth necessary.

Planning with POWER seeks to inform citizens so that they can get involved and influence land-use decision makers in their communities. For more information or to download the publication, visit www.planningwithpower.org or contact Robert McCormick.

The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program is one of more than 30 National Sea Grant College Programs. Created by Congress in 1966, Sea Grant combines university, government, business and industry expertise to address coastal and Great Lakes needs.  Funding is provided by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U. S. Department of Commerce, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University at West Lafayette, Indiana.