Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl. It also advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a range of housing choices. The term "smart growth" is particularly used in North America. In Europe and particularly the UK, the terms "compact city", "urban densification" or "urban intensification" have often been used to describe similar concepts, which have influenced government planning policies in the UK, the Netherlands and several other European countries.
Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land-use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. Regional planning is related to urban planning as it relates land use practices on a broader scale. It also includes formulating laws that will guide the efficient planning and management of such said regions. Regional planning can be comprehensive by covering various subjects, but it more often specifies a particular subject, which requires region-wide consideration.
In British town planning, the green belt is a policy for controlling urban growth. The term, coined by Octavia Hill in 1875, refers to a ring of countryside where urbanisation will be resisted for the foreseeable future, maintaining an area where local food growing, forestry and outdoor leisure can be expected to prevail. The fundamental aim of green belt policy is to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently green, and consequently the most important attribute of green belts is their openness.
A green belt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which have a linear character and may run through an urban area instead of around it. In essence, a green belt is an invisible line designating a border around a certain area, preventing development of the area and allowing wildlife to return and be established.
Urban sprawl is defined as "the spreading of urban developments on undeveloped land near a more or less densely populated city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growth in many urban areas of housing, commercial development, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for very dense urban planning. Sometimes the urban areas described as the most "sprawling" are the most densely populated. In addition to describing a special form of urbanization, the term also relates to the social and environmental consequences associated with this development. In modern times some suburban areas described as "sprawl" have less detached housing and higher density than the nearby core city. Medieval suburbs suffered from the loss of protection of city walls, before the advent of industrial warfare. Modern disadvantages and costs include increased travel time, transport costs, pollution, and destruction of the countryside. The revenue for building and maintaining urban infrastructure in these areas are gained mostly through property and sales taxes. Most jobs in the US are now located in suburbs generating much of the revenue, although a lack of growth will require higher tax rates.
Metro is the regional government for the Oregon portion of the Portland metropolitan area, covering portions of Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties. It is the only directly elected regional government and metropolitan planning organization in the United States. Metro is responsible for overseeing the Portland region's solid waste system, general planning of land use and transportation, maintaining certain regional parks and natural areas, and operating the Oregon Zoo, Oregon Convention Center, Portland's Centers for the Arts, and the Portland Expo Center. It also distributes money from two voter-approved tax measures: one for homeless services and one for affordable housing.
Ribbon development refers to the building of houses along the routes of communications radiating from a human settlement. The resulting linear settlements are clearly visible on land use maps and aerial photographs, giving cities and the countryside a particular character. Such development generated great concern in the United Kingdom during the 1920s and the 1930s as well as in numerous other countries during the decades since.
Green development is a real estate development concept that considers social and environmental impacts of development. It is defined by three sub-categories: environmental responsiveness, resource efficiency, and community and cultural sensitivity. Environmental responsiveness respects the intrinsic value of nature, and minimizes damage to an ecosystem. Resource efficiency refers to the use of fewer resources to conserve energy and the environment. Community and cultural sensitivity recognizes the unique cultural values that each community hosts and considers them in real estate development, unlike more discernable signs of sustainability, like solar energy,. Green development manifests itself in various forms, however it is generally based on solution multipliers: features of a project that provide additional benefits, which ultimately reduce the projects' environmental impacts.
In urban planning, infill, or in-fill, is the rededication of land in an urban environment, usually open-space, to new construction. Infill also applies, within an urban polity, to construction on any undeveloped land that is not on the urban margin. The slightly broader term "land recycling" is sometimes used instead. Infill has been promoted as an economical use of existing infrastructure and a remedy for urban sprawl. Detractors view increased urban density as overloading urban services, including increased traffic congestion and pollution, and decreasing urban green-space. Many also dislike it for social and historical reasons, partly due to its unproven effects and its similarity with gentrification.
Melbourne 2030 is a Victoria State Government strategic planning policy framework for the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Australia intended to cover the period 2001–2030. During this period the population of the metropolitan area is expected to grow by a million people to over five million. Population projections now predict Melbourne's population could reach seven million by that time and the government has since changed its strategy on the policy, abandoning the urban growth boundary in the north and west of Melbourne and reducing green wedges.
Urban consolidation describes the policy of constraining further development and population growth to within the boundaries of preexisting urban areas rather than expanding outward into suburban areas. Urban consolidation seeks to increase the population density of a given urban area by expanding upward, redeveloping preexisting buildings and lots, and constructing new facilities in available spaces. It is theorized that discouraging urban sprawl and encouraging further development of housing units in preexisting urban areas will lead to a net gain in social and economic prosperity.
Solway is an unincorporated community in Knox County, Tennessee, United States. The United States Geographic Names System classifies Solway as a populated place. The area is located between Oak Ridge and Knoxville, just southeast of the Clinch River, which forms the Anderson County line. It lies on Oak Ridge Highway, also known as Tennessee State Route 62, just north of its intersection with Pellissippi Parkway. Beaver Creek flows through the area.
The compact city or city of short distances is an urban planning and urban design concept, which promotes relatively high residential density with mixed land uses. It is based on an efficient public transport system and has an urban layout which – according to its advocates – encourages walking and cycling, low energy consumption and reduced pollution. A large resident population provides opportunities for social interaction as well as a feeling of safety in numbers and "eyes on the street". It is also arguably a more sustainable urban settlement type than urban sprawl because it is less dependent on the car, requiring less infrastructure provision.
Michael Leigh Burton is an American politician. He served in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1985–1995 and was Speaker Pro-tempore (temporarily) in the 1991 session.
The Metropolitan Green Belt is a statutory green belt around London, England. It comprises parts of Greater London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey, parts of two of the three districts of Bedfordshire and a small area in Copthorne, Sussex. As of 2017/18, Government statistics show the planning designation covered 513,860 hectares of land.
A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many other terms: "bedroom community", "bedroom town", "bedroom suburb" (US), "dormitory town" (UK). The term "exurb" was used from the 1950s, but since 2006, is generally used for areas beyond suburbs and specifically less densely built than the suburbs to which the exurbs' residents commute.
The Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, 2006 is a regional growth management policy for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) area of southern Ontario, Canada. Introduced under the Places to Grow Act in 2005, the Plan was approved by the Lieutenant Governor in Council and enacted on June 16, 2006. Administered by the Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure (MOI), the plan identifies density and intensification targets, urban growth centres, strategic employment areas, and settlement area restrictions designed to mitigate negative environmental, economic, and human health impacts associated with sprawling, uncoordinated growth in the region.
The Avon Green Belt, also known as the Bristol and Bath Green Belt, is a non-statutory green belt environmental and planning policy that regulates urban expansion and development in the countryside surrounding the cities of Bristol and Bath in the South West region of England. It covers areas in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, Mendip, and Wiltshire. Essentially, the function of the green belt is to limit urban sprawl and maintain the open character of areas around the Bristol and Bath built up areas, and nearby towns and villages. The policy is implemented by local planning authorities on the basis of guidance from central government.
House Bill 2001 is an Oregon bill that allows for alternative, more economical types of housing in an effort to preserve outer-city rural areas, such as farms. The bill is especially aimed at reducing the pace of urban sprawl in densely populated cities such as Portland, Oregon, with non-traditional land use zoning.
Robert Eugene Stacey Jr. was an Oregon attorney and leader in land-use and transportation planning. He served as an elected councillor at Metro, the regional government in the Portland metropolitan area, from 2013 to 2021. On his death, Congressman Earl Blumenauer stated that "Oregon just lost the most important person that most people have never heard of". In a number of roles in state and local government, Stacey was instrumental in defining land-use law and policy within the state of Oregon.
