Sierra Club endorses specific new urbanist projects

The Sierra Club’s publication Smart Choices or Sprawling Growth: A 50-State Survey of Development marks the first time the leadership of a major environmental group has endorsed specific development projects and examined not only the location of projects, but also their physical form. Several well-known new urbanist projects are among the positive examples profiled in the report. In the introduction to the report, the Sierra Club acknowledges the central role of the New Urbanism by saying that “smart growth is behind many of the most successful examples. Some refer to this work as ‘New Urbanism’ or traditional neighborhood development.” The environmental group’s definition of smart growth falls in line with new urbanist core principles. “Smart-growth projects seek to make neighborhoods friendly to people on foot, offer residents public transportation options, and create a healthy balance of shops, jobs, and housing around a downtown or main street,” the report states. According to the report, such projects also find inspiration in vernacular architecture and invite residents to participate in the planning process. Unsurprisingly, the Sierra Club’s endorsement did not stretch to embrace new urbanist greenfield projects. A frequent complaint about the poor examples of development in the report is that the projects are isolated from other development and have no links to public transportation. Such criticism is often leveled at new urbanist neighborhoods on outlying sites, despite the merits of their physical design. The Sierra Club has published three recent reports warning of detrimental environmental impacts from sprawl. Prior to Smart Choices or Sprawling Growth, however, the group has offered solutions to the problem only in terms of broad changes in federal, state, and local growth policies and in the allocation of transportation and development subsidies. Examples of good growth The report profiles two projects for every state — one embodies smart growth principles, the other represents the worst of wasteful land use and poor planning. Examples range from completed mixed-use developments, to buildings or projects under construction, to city-wide or regional plans. Among the new urbanist developments that get a thumbs up, the Stapleton Airport redevelopment in Denver is lauded for its proximity to downtown, for its reuse of abandoned land and preservation of wetlands, for its mix of housing types, and for its inclusion of civic and commercial facilities. Inadequate emphasis on public transportation is the major flaw of the plan, the report states. The traditional neighborhood development (TND) Vermillion in Huntersville, North Carolina gets praise for a design that integrates retail and employment into a pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly plan. Other new urbanist projects featured include Mizner Park in Boca Raton, Florida; a plan for downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Clear Springs, a TND in Fort Mill, South Carolina; Eastgate Town Center, a shopping mall redevelopment in Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Post Midtown Square, a mixed residential and retail complex by Post Properties in downtown Houston. Beyond encouraging smart growth development patterns, the Sierra Club recommends that local zoning ordinances and codes change to allow a mixing of uses and housing types within new neighborhoods. The report also suggests that the private sector needs to put “its substantial creativity and muscle” behind smart growth projects. “Where there’s demand for smart growth, there’s a profit to be made,” the Sierra Club says.