Digested From "Smart Growth Supporters Envision New Urban West"
Associated Press by Heather Clark
Smart growth advocates believe that urban sprawl has been a contributor to the current economic turmoil in the United States, but they believe there are prospects today for more efficient and less car-dependent growth going forward, at least in the Mountain West region. Organizers of the Eighth Annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference, held in January in Albuquerque, NM, USA, see the opportunity for new development that encourages walking, biking and public transportation as well as green building and more mixed use of space. "I feel like there's a realization that things have to change because of crisis and there's an openness to change that I have never seen before," says Judy Corbett, executive director of Local Government Commission in Sacramento, CA, USA, which sponsored the conference. "It's an incredibly exciting time." Robert Grow of O'Melveny & Myers in Salt Lake City, UT, USA, believes the Mountain West region offers the best smart-growth opportunity because of how fast its growth is. Five Mountain West megalopolitan areas--the Front Range from the Denver area to Colorado Springs in Colorado; the Sun Corridor from Phoenix to Tucson in Arizona; Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos in New Mexico; the Salt Lake City area; and the Las Vegas area in Nevada, which spills into southern Utah--are expected to see their population double from 2005 to 2040 and to be the economic drivers of the region. Conference speakers predicted the end of single-family homes in cul-de-sac developments demanding long commutes. According to Arthur C. Nelson of the University of Utah, "We are at the cusp of a fundamental change in the housing dynamics in this country, and we're not aware of it. A large part of it is driven by the impending baby boom population beginning to sell homes, moving to attached products and rental products." Nelson believes cities like Albuquerque should take the opportunity to convert dead strip malls into multifamily housing close to transportation routes and other stores. Smart-growth planners would also like to see more residences over shops and restaurants close to transportation centers, such as light rail lines, with more people living in apartments and condominiums and with streets accommodating public transit, bicyclists and pedestrians.
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