Smart Growth Guidelines for Sustainable Design and Development
Smart Growth Guidelines for Sustainable Design and Development (pdf) (2009) is a resource for communities seeking to locate, design, and develop housing — particularly affordable housing — in a way that reduces household costs, improves residents' quality of life, and invests public resources more sustainably.
The guidelines can serve as a checklist for local officials, state or regional policy makers, developers, and community members to ensure that programs, plans, and proposed developments incorporate elements at the location, site, and building levels to result in more sustainable, affordable housing.
The resource provides a range of specific approaches that can incorporated at each step of the housing development process, from site selection to building design. They are organized under three central strategies:
- Identifying prosperous smart growth locations.
- Creating "place" through neighborhood design.
- Employing green building and infrastructure techniques.
These guides are not a substitute for certification, but they are aligned with the approaches used in formal certification programs, such as LEED, Green Communities, or others. Communities or projects that employ the strategies featured in this publication will have a strong foundation if they seek to obtain certification under a formal certification system.
Smart Growth Guidelines for Sustainable Design and Development was a product of a 2009 Smart Growth Implementation Assistance project with the Capitol Region Council of Governments in Connecticut, in which they are being used to help shape the implementation of the state's Home Connecticut affordable housing program. They were developed for EPA and CRCOG by Jonathan Rose Companies, LLC, and Wallace Roberts Todd, LLC.