Idaho Smart Growth

Best Practices

Making Smart Growth Policy Accessible

Smart Growth is a set of principles that guides development into more compact, interconnected, mixed use patterns. This pattern produces more vibrant communities, healthier land and has proven to be more sustainable. Smart growth development has been shown to reduce the number of miles that people travel by vehicle every day and it has also proven to use less energy overall than more sprawling communities.

Compact development does not mean exclusively high-rise or even uniform high density. It does mean higher average densities from a mix of housing types. Compact development features a mix of land uses, strong population and employment centers, interconnected streets, and design of both structures and public realm at a human scale.

As a tool for neighborhoods, planners, decision makers, and developers, Idaho Smart Growth has developed a matrix of smart growth best practices. These practices concentrate on land use policies and regulations that can lead to sustainable smart growth communities while supporting good development, good developers and great neighborhoods. It features real examples of those practices as they are being used and especially includes Idaho examples.

» Download detailed best practices matrix

 

Safe Routes to Schools

Idaho Smart Growth is conducting workshops around the state on policy and practices that affect Safe Routes to Schools.  If you are interested in a workshop, please contact Elaine Clegg at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Here are some of the resources from the workshops:

Safe Routes to Schools Workshop Presentation (COMING SOON)

Safe Routes to Schools Workshop-Tools

Local strategies for supporting community-centered schools