… some principles (from Smart Growth America), photo galleries (from Smart Growth Online)

Mixing land uses means building homes, offices, schools, parks, shops, restaurants, and other types of development near one another—on the same block or even within the same building.

Mixed land uses bring more people to a neighborhood at a variety of times of day, which can support businesses, improve safety, and enhance the vitality of an area. Mixing land uses also makes it possible for people to live closer to where they work or run errands, and means they don’t need to drive a car to get there. Mixed-use neighborhoods are in-demand, meaning this approach can boost property values and keep them stable, protecting the investment of homeowners as well as tax revenues for municipalities.

In La Grande, on Adams (our Main Street), you can see examples of ground floor storefronts with residential space on upper floors.

Compact design means making more efficient use of land that has already been developed. Encouraging development to grow up, rather than out, is one way to do this. Infill development—building on empty or underutilized lots—is another. Building within an existing neighborhood can attract more people to the jobs, homes, and businesses already there while also making the most of public investments in things like water and sewer lines, roads, and emergency services.

The city of La Grande has worked to have a grocery store in the ‘downtown’ area, across from Max Square, with mixed success so far.

Building quality housing for families of all life stages and income levels is an integral part of a smart growth approach. Housing constitutes a significant share of new construction and development in any city, but its economic importance is sometimes overlooked. Adding housing in commercial districts can breathe new life into these neighborhoods in evenings and on weekends. And more importantly, the housing options available in a community will influence families’ economic opportunities, costs of living, and how much time they spend commuting each day. Diversifying housing options within existing neighborhoods can give everyone more choices about where to live.

Housing is a major problem for the city and county. There is a grant-funded warming station that operates overnight during the coldest months. A small planned community of ‘little houses’ for veterans has been approved. Almost 1 in 10 Union County residents is a veteran. Veterans make up almost nine percent of homeless adults, higher than their numbers in the population.

Walkable neighborhoods are in high demand across the country and it’s hardly a mystery why. Walking is a convenient, affordable, and healthy way to get around that never goes out of style—so long as people can do it safely and conveniently. Walkable places are created in part by mixing land uses and taking advantage of compact design, but are activated by smart street design that makes walking not only practical but safe and convenient to enjoy.

La Grande is not particularly pedestrian-friendly, but has made improvements for people with disabilities (at crosswalks). Ideas and Resources from Walk Friendly Communities.

Sense of place. Unique, interesting places that reflect the diverse values, culture, and heritage of the people who live there have the greatest staying power. Projects and neighborhoods that incorporate natural features, historic structures, public art, and placemaking can help distinguish a place from its neighbors to attract new residents and visitors, and support a vibrant community for the people who already live there.

Certainly there is room to engage the community and various neighborhoods in such a conversation. Siena (in the Tuscany Region of Italy) is a great historic example of strong neighborhood culture.

Preserving open spaces like prairie, wetlands, parks, and farms is both an environmental issue and economic issue. People across the country want access to natural recreation areas, which translates into demand for housing and tourism. Meeting that demand improves a city’s ability to attract employers, while also supporting agricultural industries. Preserving open spaces can also make communities more resilient, protecting them from natural disasters, combating air pollution, controlling wind, providing erosion control, moderating temperatures, protecting water quality, and protecting animal and plant habitats.

La Grande has some open space, parks, sports fields, but hey, it’s the American West–there is plenty of open space outside of town, there is a nearby national forest.

Developing within existing communities—rather than building on previously undeveloped land—makes the most of the investments we’ve already made in roads, bridges, water pipes, and other infrastructure, while strengthening local tax bases and protecting open space. Regulations, zoning, and other public policies sometimes make this approach unnecessarily difficult for developers, however. Local leaders can and should change policy to encourage development within existing neighborhoods.

The Urban Renewal Agency invests in the downtown area, the premise being that higher property values there will translate into greater city revenue for other public investments and neighborhoods.

Providing a variety of transportation choices—high-quality public transportation, safe and convenient biking and walking infrastructure, and well-maintained roads and bridges— helps communities to attract talent, to compete on a global scale, and to improve the day-to-day lives of their residents. To make this happen, elected leaders and transportation agencies must change how they prioritize, select, invest in, build, and measure transportation projects at the local, regional, and nationwide level.

La Grande happens to have an exemplary transportation system for its size–fixed route buses, vans for taking people to health care appointments, intercity shuttles that cover towns in Union, Baker and Umatilla County. The problem of distance is one of the fundamental problems rural areas face, and another option is to think about where information can be sent, rather than vehicles and people traveling (telehealth, for instance, allows patients to meet some health care needs via information technology).

Development that is predictable, fair, and cost effective. Developers play a crucial role in how towns and cities are built. Many developers who want to build walkable, urban places but are thwarted by restrictive regulations or complicated approval processes. Municipalities interested in encouraging smart growth development can and should examine their regulations and streamline the project permitting and approval process so that development decisions are more timely, cost-effective, and predictable for developers. By creating a supportive environment for development of innovative, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use projects, government can provide smart growth leadership for the private sector.

Stakeholder collaboration. Every community has different needs, and meeting those needs requires a different approach from place to place. Communities suffering from disinvestment may need to focus on encouraging development downtown; communities with robust economic growth may need to focus on addressing social equity. The common thread is that the needs of every community and the strategies to address them are best defined by the people who live and work there.

Smart growth is not possible without the perspective of everyone with a vested interest in a town, city, or neighborhood. Smart growth is about building a future for a community that everyone can participate in, and gathering the ideas, feedback, and support of everyone in a community is the only way to do that. This process is not only inclusive and equitable, it also will give projects built-in support and staying power.

We have discussed this topic at length, Chambers’ article gets at these issues–like how development can be ‘biased’ against people who feel politically, socially, racially, geographically marginalized. Also, Randy Stoeker’s text book and entire premise for engaging in community-based research revolves around participatory research and development, so expect you won’t be able to avoid this topic on the exam.

Some questions to ask

This can vary depending on what institutions or components of the city you’re examining …. it would be good to understand why and how.

• Natural capital—resources, land, forests, waterways, aquifers, soil/topsoil, wildlife, fish, air, etc.
• Technology—information, computers, physical infrastructure
• Human capital—kinds of skills, expertise (employment opportunities . . . )
• Physical infrastructure—technology, equipment, buildings, etc.
• Organizational capital—what organizations have some stake or responsibility? Regulatory (EPA, DEQ), administrative (government—federal, state, county, municipal), religious, management (BLM, USFS, ODF&W), non-profits (HCPC, SFS, CHD …)
  • Staff—how many people are gainfully employed in this area?
  • Volunteers, supporters (e.g., NRA, Ducks Unlimited,
  • Basic information: location, contact, website, etc.
  • Organizational mission, function,
• Spatial—maps (descriptions, ways to use . . . . citations, including dates, authors)
• Financial—money—funding, revenue, expenses, how does money flow through the system, etc. Keep in mind this will vary depending on the organization type–for instance, government office/agency, private company, non-profit organization, religious organization (church, synagogue, mosque, temple, etc.).
• Data sources(identify, document, describe, acquire if possible . . . . )
  • Data sources–the ones that might be really useful to collect, but that may not exist (but that students working on projects at a small university might be able to help identify and work with local citizens to create a system for collecting, storing, accessing, etc.)
• Use, consumption, access— and think about stakeholders here–who are they, what stakes do they have, and what access to either participate of use some service is available?
• Key problemsfacing the community (from different perspectives)—could stem from declining budgets, climate change, political debate/differences, cultural differences, etc.—you get this by asking experts or people working in the field, but also the people who might be suffering the problems–requiring, as Stoeker and Chambers point out, a participatory approach.

Advice: The best way to practice this would be to take some area you’re interested in, and walk through this list with it, come up with examples. You should do this in front of the computer to confirm the assumptions you might be making–don’t just run this through your head and think you’ll acquire the inquiry skills you need.