AP Syllabus focus:
‘Smart-growth policies, including New Urbanism, aim to limit sprawl through compact design, connected streets, and diverse housing options.’
Smart growth and New Urbanism promote compact development, connected street networks, and diverse housing to counteract sprawl while improving walkability, environmental sustainability, and community cohesion.
Smart Growth: Core Principles
Smart growth is a planning approach that seeks to manage urban expansion by encouraging efficient land use, environmentally responsible development, and vibrant, walkable communities. These principles redirect growth inward rather than outward, prioritizing the revitalization of existing urban areas. Smart growth contrasts with urban sprawl, which spreads low-density development across large areas and increases car dependence.
Key Goals of Smart Growth
Limiting sprawl by promoting compact, mixed-use development within existing urban boundaries.
Reducing car dependence through walkability, transit access, and interconnected street networks.
Enhancing housing diversity to offer affordable and varied living options.
Preserving open space and farmland by directing growth to already-developed areas.
Supporting vibrant neighborhoods through public spaces, local services, and community amenities.
Smart growth frequently aligns with sustainability initiatives because it emphasizes the efficient use of resources, reduced infrastructure strain, and lower environmental impacts.
Compact Design and Land Use Efficiency
Compact design encourages development that uses less land per person by clustering housing, workplaces, and services closer together. This reduces distances between destinations and supports more sustainable transportation choices. Compactness works best when paired with mixed land use, which integrates residential, commercial, and institutional functions within the same area to support daily needs.
Mixed Land Use within Smart Growth
Mixed land use is essential to achieving smart-growth aims because it encourages shorter commutes, increases neighborhood vitality, and helps support local businesses. With land uses placed in proximity, urban residents can reach grocery stores, parks, restaurants, and schools without long car trips.
Mixed Land Use: A planning strategy that combines residential, commercial, and institutional land uses in close proximity to encourage accessibility and reduce travel distance.
A normal sentence between definition blocks is always required, and here it provides additional clarity by explaining why mixed land use supports efficient circulation patterns in compact urban environments.
Mixed-use zoning often modifies traditional zoning codes to allow varied land uses within single districts or even within the same building.
This photograph shows the Belmont Dairy redevelopment in Portland, Oregon, where a former dairy was converted into street-level shops with apartments above and an attached affordable-housing building behind. The project demonstrates smart growth principles by combining compact building design, mixed land uses, and reuse of an existing structure in a walkable neighborhood. The image includes storefront details that extend beyond the AP syllabus but support visual understanding of mixed-use design. Source.
Connected Street Networks and Mobility
Smart growth emphasizes interconnected street grids that facilitate mobility for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users. Unlike cul-de-sac–based suburban layouts, connected grids distribute traffic more evenly, shorten travel routes, and make non-automobile travel safer and more appealing.
Transportation Benefits of Smart Growth
Enhanced walkability, allowing more residents to travel safely without cars.
Reduced traffic congestion through multiple route options.
Better support for public transportation, as compact areas generate higher ridership.
Increased accessibility for people of all ages and abilities.
Walkability: The degree to which an area’s built environment supports safe and convenient walking for daily activities.
Improved connectivity also reinforces the concept of complete streets, which accommodate pedestrians, cyclists, transit, and cars rather than prioritizing automobiles alone.
This image shows a mixed-use main street in King Farm, Rockville, Maryland, with wide sidewalks, street trees, and shops facing the sidewalk. On-street parking and parking behind buildings create a pedestrian-friendly environment that still accommodates cars, illustrating complete-street principles. The photo includes local business signage not required by the AP syllabus but useful for visualizing walkable urban design. Source.
New Urbanism: A Design-Based Movement
New Urbanism complements smart-growth planning by focusing on neighborhood-scale design. Emerging in the late twentieth century, New Urbanism responds to the challenges of suburban sprawl by promoting traditional neighborhood principles, including human-scaled development and community-oriented public spaces.
Core Characteristics of New Urbanism
Walkable neighborhoods built around a clear center, such as a public square or main street.
Diverse housing types, including apartments, townhouses, and single-family homes.
Mixed land uses that place shops, schools, and workplaces within walking distance.
Connected streets that form small blocks and prioritize pedestrians.
Architectural variety that reflects local identity and creates a visually engaging environment.
New Urbanism differs from conventional suburban development by reducing separation between land uses and emphasizing form, aesthetics, and community character.
This diagram illustrates a traditional walkable neighborhood with a central civic square, mixed-use streets, and residential blocks all within a five-minute walking radius. It highlights key New Urbanist ideas such as human-scaled blocks, connected streets, and prominent civic spaces. The diagram includes additional labels about block lengths and edges that go beyond AP requirements but deepen understanding of neighborhood form. Source.
How Smart Growth and New Urbanism Interact
Smart growth provides the policy framework, while New Urbanism provides design principles. Together, they offer strategies to reshape the built environment and guide sustainable urban development.
How They Work Together
Smart-growth policies may enable mixed land use; New Urbanist design ensures it functions well at the street and neighborhood level.
Smart growth discourages sprawl; New Urbanism demonstrates attractive alternatives to low-density formats.
Smart-growth transit strategies encourage transit-oriented development, which often incorporates New Urbanist design.
Both approaches support environmental goals by lowering emissions, reducing land consumption, and promoting energy-efficient development patterns.
Housing Diversity and Social Dimensions
Smart growth and New Urbanism both emphasize diverse housing options, aiming to create inclusive communities that serve a wide range of incomes, household types, and age groups. Housing diversity supports economic vitality by allowing workers to live near jobs and helps reduce segregation created by exclusive zoning practices.
Benefits of Housing Diversity
Stronger community cohesion through social mixing.
Better access to employment and services.
Reduced cost burdens for low- and moderate-income households.
Increased resilience as neighborhoods adapt to demographic change.
Affordable housing remains a crucial component, as compact and attractive development can raise property values over time. Smart-growth strategies often incorporate inclusionary zoning policies to require or incentivize affordable units within new developments, helping maintain social equity.
Environmental and Economic Impacts
The environmental benefits of smart growth and New Urbanism stem from reducing land consumption, lowering vehicle emissions, and promoting greener infrastructure. Compact urban forms require fewer miles of roads, shorter utility corridors, and less energy for transportation. Economic benefits are also considerable, as concentrated development supports efficient public services, revitalizes existing urban cores, and increases the tax base without substantial new infrastructure costs.
Major Impacts
Reduced ecological footprint due to compact development.
Lower infrastructure costs for cities and taxpayers.
Revitalization of downtown areas and established neighborhoods.
Enhanced quality of life through accessible amenities and public spaces.
FAQ
Smart growth often channels investment back into built-up areas through infill development, rehabilitation of existing buildings, and infrastructure upgrades. This can make older neighbourhoods more attractive to residents and businesses.
These strategies help stabilise local economies by increasing foot traffic, supporting small shops, and improving public spaces.
However, economic uplift may also raise rents, requiring policies that balance revitalisation with affordability.
New Urbanist streets are designed for slower vehicle speeds, shorter blocks, and pedestrian priority. This contrasts with suburban layouts that favour long, wide roads aimed at fast car movement.
Key design elements often include:
• Narrow carriageways
• Frequent intersections
• On-street parking
• Continuous pavements and street trees
These features create safer, more sociable environments that encourage walking and local activity.
Public spaces act as social anchors, providing residents with places to meet, gather, and participate in community life. They help foster civic identity and strengthen neighbourhood cohesion.
In compact, mixed-use environments, well-designed squares, greens, and plazas support walkability by offering comfortable, engaging routes and destinations. Public spaces also improve environmental quality by incorporating shade, vegetation, and permeable surfaces.
Mixed land use supports energy-efficient building patterns by clustering heated and cooled spaces together, which reduces overall resource consumption.
It also:
• Encourages local economic activity and reduces the need for large retail centres
• Makes public transport more viable due to higher population densities
• Supports safer streets, as more people are present throughout the day
Together, these outcomes contribute to long-term environmental and social sustainability.
Retrofitting car-focused environments can be difficult due to wide roads, single-use zoning, and dispersed destinations. These built conditions limit the feasibility of creating walkable, mixed-use districts without major infrastructural changes.
Planners may need to:
• Revise zoning codes
• Narrow or redesign streets
• Introduce infill development
• Create new pedestrian connections
Political resistance, cost constraints, and established commuting habits can further complicate the transition toward New Urbanist development patterns.
Practice Questions
Question 1 (1–3 marks)
Explain one way in which smart growth policies help to reduce urban sprawl.
Mark scheme
1 mark for identifying a valid smart growth principle (e.g., compact development, mixed land use, transit-oriented planning).
1 mark for describing how that principle functions (e.g., encouraging inward development, limiting outward expansion).
1 mark for linking the principle directly to reducing sprawl (e.g., higher density reduces land consumption, walkability reduces need for dispersed housing).
Question 2 (4–6 marks)
Using examples, analyse how New Urbanism seeks to create more sustainable and community-focused urban environments.
Mark scheme
1 mark for identifying at least one key New Urbanist principle (e.g., walkable neighbourhoods, mixed land use, human-scaled design).
1 mark for explaining how these principles improve sustainability (e.g., reducing car dependence, lowering emissions).
1 mark for explaining how these principles build community (e.g., shared public spaces, active street life).
1–2 marks for providing relevant examples that illustrate New Urbanist design features in practice.
1 mark for demonstrating analysis (e.g., linking design principles to broader social or environmental outcomes).
