Sustainable Development

What is Smart Growth?
Nevada & Smart Growth
What Can You Do?
Background Reading

Introduction

In communities across the nation, there is a growing concern that current development patterns -- dominated by what some call "sprawl" -- are no longer in the long-term interest of our cities, existing suburbs, small towns, rural communities, or wilderness areas. Though supportive of growth, communities are questioning the economic costs of abandoning infrastructure in the city, only to rebuild it further out. Increasingly, city planners are welcoming development and conservation strategies that fall under the term “Smart Growth”. In Nevada, especially in Southern Nevada, with a population that is growing at phenomenal rates, there needs to be an increased emphasis on Smart Growth versus the continued expansion into outlying territories.

What is Smart Growth?

Increasingly across the continental United States city planners are coming to the realization that the sprawling, low-density, haphazard development pattern of the past 40 years is economically, socially and environmentally unsustainable. People are beginning to question the financial efficacy of abandoning infrastructure in the city, only to rebuild it further. They are also coming to see that many of our current environmental challenges, such as air and water pollution, global warming, habitat fragmentation and conversion, are due in part to the way we have built our neighborhoods, communities, and metropolitan areas during the past half-century. There are many environmental costs associated with the continued sprawl into open space at the suburban fringe and the pollution caused by having to drive further to get places. Further spurring the smart growth movement are demographic shifts, such as the ascendance of single-parent households, single-person households, empty-nesters and couples without children, which now make up the majority of American households and who will be more likely to choose higher-density housing in vibrant neighborhoods over single-family houses far from the community core. Such trends will only be intensified by population increases in America, which is growing by 2.7 million new residents per year.

Smart growth, or compact planning, is an alternative that promises more efficient use of services, such as water, fire and police, and more efficient uses of land while offering a range of development and conservation strategies that help protect our natural environment and make our communities more attractive, economically stronger, and more socially diverse.

The main principles of Smart Growth are:

To foster distinctive, attractive and town-centered communities, in which inhabitants can develop a strong sense of place
“Mixed-use” development, which combines housing, commercial and retail uses, thereby providing opportunity for a variety of needs and interests, as well as providing health, social, economic, and environmental benefits for all
To provide a variety of transportation choices such as mass transit, bike lanes and pedestrian walkways; transportation is a key aim of smart growth with the purposes of conserving energy, reducing pollution and encouraging residents and workers to engage in a more active and healthy lifestyles
To strengthen and direct development towards existing communities; often referred to here is infill development, which involves the rehabilitation and reuse of existing structures and denser new development in city centers or urban settings.
To promote resource-efficient building and community designs, low-impact development and green building practices; in this fashion smart growth reduces health threats from air and water pollution and indoor air contaminants
To create a range of housing opportunities and choices
To preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and other environmental amenities
To make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective
To encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions

Sources: Smart Growth Online at http://www.smartgrowth.org/Default.asp?res=1280; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Smart Growth website at http://www.epa.gov/dced/ index.htm; Haughey, Richard M. Higher-Density Development: Myth and Fact. Washington, D.C.: ULI-the Urban Land Institute, 2005 (pdf) at http://www.uli.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Research&Template=
/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentFileID=1065

Nevada and Smart Growth

Clark County

Las Vegas is one of the fastest-growing major metropolitan areas in the country. State estimates say that greater Las Vegas will add 1 million residents in the next 10 years and hit 3 million by 2020. The problem, however, is that the Las Vegas valley is nearly built out. Developers and real estate analysts estimate that, at the current building pace, available acreage will be gone in less than a decade.

The scarcity of land amidst high demand is driving prices skyward, while, on the other hand, average income levels have not increased so as to accommodate the increase in home sale prices. At an increase of 148 percent, home sale prices are five times that of income growth. With average vacant property values at around $800,000 per acre and higher in the Vegas area, and building costs that have increased 14 percent or more during the last year alone, working families are finding it increasingly harder to own a home.

Sources: Ritter, John.“Las Vegas Closing in on Full House.” November 3, 2006. USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-11-12-vegas_x.htm; Illia, Tony. “Homeowner Affordability Fuels Suburbs.” April 24, 2006. Business Press at http://www. lvbusinesspress.com/articles/2006/04/24/news/news04.txt

Urban Sprawl in Clark and Lincoln Counties

As valley home prices continue to escalate, homebuilders and homeowners are giving rural communities outside the valley more serious consideration and are beginning to welcome the notion of longer commutes in exchange for larger lots and bigger homes that are 40 to 50 percent cheaper. Such is the essence of the proposed Coyote Springs project, the building of which will commence in 2007. Located around 55 miles north of Las Vegas, this 42,000 acre development project of up to 160,000 homes in Clark and Lincoln counties will offer residents single and double stories homes from 1,100- to 4,500-square-foot in size, a dozen golf courses, and water features, no longer available in Las Vegas, such as multiple outdoor swimming and lap pools as well as lagoons and water slides.

Source: Illia, Tony. “Homeowner Affordability Fuels Suburbs.” April 24, 2006. Business Press at http://www. lvbusinesspress.com/articles/2006/04/24/news/news04.txt

While Coyote Springs may hold the promise of more affordable mortgages, it is criticized on a number of different issues:

1) The project encourages urban sprawl

2) The costs of building roads, sewers and utilities are great

3) The development will consume already scarce water resources, competing for the same water from the Las Vegas Valley Water District, as it is proposed that water will be shipped to the development through a pipeline planned by the Southern Nevada Water Authority

4) Environmentalists fear that the development could deplete springs in nearby areas, affecting rare birds, plants and animals in the region, and potentially destroying a whole desert ecosystem

5) Traffic and air pollution would increase significantly by moving urban areas deep into the desert

Sources: Ritter, John. “Las Vegas Closing in on Full House.” November 3, 2006. USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-11-12-vegas_x.htm; “Southern Nevada Development Plan Defended.” December 2001. U.S. Water News Online at http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcsupply/1sounev12.html

On water for Coyote Springs see article
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-other/2005/dec/25/519871476.html

Smart Growth in Clark County

As an alternative to urban sprawl, there are now a number of “smart growth” or “new urbanism” projects that are underway across Clark County. High-rises, shorter "mid-rises" and town houses are no longer confined to the Strip and downtown Las Vegas. Since Clark County passed zoning changes that promote higher density, more than 80 projects have been approved in the past two years.

Source: Ritter, John. “Las Vegas Closing in on Full House.” November 3, 2006. USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-11-12-vegas_x.htm

For more information see web site Vegas Today and Tomorrow – Mixed Use Developments at http://www.vegastodayandtomorrow.com/page9mixed.htm

Truckee Meadows

In June of last year, North Valley residents and conservationists opposed the changes to the 2002 Truckee Meadows Regional Plan, which would have allowed annexation of 12,000 acres by Reno and 16,000 acres by adjacent Sparks over the next 20 years, as well as of 132,000 acres by the county after the new city tracts were developed. In opposition to development proposals, conservationists warned against prospective traffic, water shortages, wildlife decimation and open space loss, while smart-growth advocates, construction workers, and labor and business leaders questioned where schools, police, fire protection and other public services would come from, stressing the importance of long-term planning for roads and necessary public services. Such annexation proposals and plans develop beyond city boundaries undermine efforts to redevelop downtown areas. Organizations such as Voters for Sensible Growth and the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada advocate reasonable growth with a balanced view of resource use and long-term sustainable infrastructure.

Sources: Tchudi, Stephen.“Your Turn: Voters Can Get Rampant Growth Here under Control.” May 15, 2006. Reno Gazette-Journal at http://www.planevada.org/file/growth_051506.pdf; Fulkerson, Bob. “The Great Terrain Robbery.” May 04, 2006. Reno News and Review at
http://www.newsreview.com/reno/Content?oid=oid%3A56746

On opposition to annexing land in Washoe County

“Reno Regional Planning Commission Takes Steps to Direct Future Growth by Amending Truckee Meadows Regional Plan.” June 28, 2006. Reno Gazette-Journal
http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/bystate.asp?state=NV

What You Can Do?

Join Voters for Sensible Growth, a coalition of North Valley citizen groups, homeowners’ associations, conservation organizations and off-road vehicle users. They meet the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 4 p.m. at the PLAN offices, 821 Riverside Drive, Reno, NV 89503, (775) 348-7557.

Links/Literature

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency strives to help communities grow in ways that expand economic opportunity, protect public health and the environment, and create and enhance the places that people love through research, tools, partnerships, case studies, grants and technical assistance. To learn more visit the EPA’s Smart Growth web site at http://www.epa.gov/dced/index.htm.

Smart Growth Online is a service of the Smart Growth Network (SGN), a group comprised of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several non-profit and government organizations. The Network was formed to search for new ways to grow that boost the economy, protect the environment and enhance community vitality. The website Smart Growth Online is a clearinghouse of information on smart growth.
http://www.smartgrowth.org/Default.asp?res=1280

To view Smart Growth Network publication This is Smart Growth (September 2006) (pdf) at http://www.smartgrowthonlineaudio.org/
pdf/TISG_2006_8-5x11.pdf

The Urban Land Institute is a Smart Growth think-tank made up of community builders and people who develop and redevelop neighborhoods, business districts and communities across the U.S. and around the world. Their mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. http://www.uli.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home

Haughey, Richard M. Higher-Density Development: Myth and Fact. Washington, D.C.: ULI-the Urban Land Institute, 2005. (pdf). The purpose of this publication is to dispel the many myths surrounding higher-density development and to create a new understanding of density that goes beyond simplistic negative connotations that overestimate its impact and underestimate its value.
http://www.uli.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Research&Template=
/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentFileID=1065

To read more on the benefits of smart growth and the environmental effects of development see the EPA’s Our Built and Natural Environments: A Technical Review of the Interactions between Land Use, Transportation, and Environmental Quality (January 2001) (pdf) at http://www.epa.gov/dced/pdf/built.pdf

For more information of the effects of higher-density development on air quality see EPA’s The Transportation and Environmental Impacts of Infill Versus Greenfield Development: A Comparative Case Study Analysis (1999) (pdf) at
http://www.epa.gov/dced/pdf/infill_greenfield.pdf

For more information of the effects of higher-density development on water quality see EPA’s Protecting Water Resources with Higher-Density Development (2006) (pdf) at
http://www.epa.gov/dced/pdf/protect_water_higher_density.pdf

For more information about environment sustainability, see the American Institute of Architects' Sustainable Design Assessment Team report.