About Smart Growth
Development decisions affect many aspects of people's everyday lives - their homes, their health, the schools their children attend, the taxes they pay, their daily commute, the natural environmental around them, and economic opportunity in their community. Smart growth is an overall approach of development and conservation strategies that can help protect our health and natural environment and make our communities more attractive, economically stronger, socially diverse, and resilient to climate change.
Based on the experience of communities around the nation, the Smart Growth Network developed a set of ten (10) basic principles to guide smart growth strategies:
- Mix land uses.
- Take advantage of compact building design.
- Create a range of housing opportunities and choices.
- Create walkable neighborhoods.
- Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place.
- Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas.
- Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities.
- Provide a variety of transportation choices.
- Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective.
- Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions.
On this page
EPA and Smart Growth
How and where communities develop can have a major impact on human health and the environment. EPA works with local, state, and national agencies; nonprofits and community organizations; academia; and the development sector to encourage development strategies that support thriving local economies, provide attractive and affordable neighborhoods for people of all income levels, and mitigate and adapt to climate change. EPA's smart growth efforts help create healthier and more environmentally sustainable communities.
In the United States, development decisions are predominantly under state and local jurisdictions, and policies and regulations vary by community and state. The federal government generally does not directly regulate development, although many federal policies, particularly those related to the environment, transportation, and housing, do affect how communities develop. The federal government can also help municipalities, states and the development sector better understand the impacts of development patterns.
EPA's Office of Community Revitalization supports communities, Tribes, states, and regions to encourage better growth and development by:
- Providing technical assistance;
- Conducting research and creating tools, reports, and publications; and
- Convening diverse interests and influencing networks.
Learn more about what smart growth strategies look like on the ground in This is Smart Growth, or visit our Examples of Smart Growth Communities and Projects page.
Environmental Benefits of Smart Growth
Development guided by smart growth principles can result in many direct and indirect environmental benefits, like minimizing air and water pollution, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving resources, encouraging the cleanup and reuse of contaminated properties, and preserving natural and environmentally sensitive lands.
For more information on the environmental effects of development and the benefits of smart growth, see Our Built and Natural Environments: A Technical Review of the Interactions between Land Use, Transportation, and Environmental Quality (2nd edition).
Specific benefits are described in more detail below.
Air Quality
Compact communities with a mix of uses and transportation options make it easy for people to choose to walk, bicycle, or take public transit instead of driving. People who choose to drive generally can drive shorter distances. Less travel by motor vehicles can reduce air pollution by smog-forming emissions and other harmful pollutants.
Climate Change
Smart growth policies and strategies can also help communities prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Transportation options, such as walking, bicycling, public transit, micro-mobility, or electric vehicles, and compact land use patterns can reduce air pollution and decrease the emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. For homes and buildings, using energy-efficient, green building techniques can also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from construction and ongoing energy use.
Water Quality
Compact development and open space preservation can help protect water quality by reducing paved surfaces and allowing natural lands to filter rainwater and runoff before it reaches drinking-water supplies. Green infrastructure techniques, which mimic natural processes to capture, hold, absorb, and filter stormwater, can also be incorporated into streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and buildings to improve water quality.
Brownfields Redevelopment
Brownfields are abandoned, idled, or underused industrial and commercial properties where redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. Cleaning up and redeveloping a brownfield can remove blight and environmental contamination, catalyze neighborhood revitalization, lessen development pressure on undeveloped land, and use existing infrastructure.
- Smart Growth and Brownfields
- Brownfields and Infill Publications
- EPA's Brownfields and Land Revitalization Program
Open Space Conservation
Preserving natural lands and waterways, and encouraging growth in existing communities protects farmland, wildlife habitat, outdoor recreation, and natural water filtration that ensures clean drinking water.