If governments throughout the US required more

If governments throughout the US required more rational, compact development patterns, they would save 11 percent, or $110 billion, on road-building over 25 years. They would save 6 percent, or $12.6 billion, on water and sewer costs in those 25 years. And they would annually save roughly 3 percent, or $4 billion, on operations and service delivery. Those findings, which draw from work by Anthony Downs and Robert Burchell, are in a new report, “Investing in a Better Future: A Review of the Fiscal and Competitive Advantages of Smarter Growth Development Patterns,” which Mark Muro and Robert Puentes wrote for the Brookings Institution’s Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. The 41-page report can be found at www.brookings.edu/urban.