Riverkeeper Releases New Smart Growth Report
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Riverkeeper recently issued Save It! Volume II: Strategies for Achieving Smart Growth in the Hudson River Valley. This Smart Growth report is a follow-up to our 2005 sprawl report, Pave It…Or save It?, which analyzed sprawl throughout the East-of-Hudson Watershed. Our new Smart Growth report answers this question. This comprehensive report provides solutions for communities to combat sprawl and adopt smart growth principles. It is designed as a tool box for communities to pick and choose what works best for them.
While the report focuses on the Hudson Valley, many of its principles are equally applicable throughout the NYC Watershed and beyond.
In Save It! we identify viable solutions for local governments and citizens that address and help minimize the impacts of sprawl. The report has three main chapters: (i) building smart: planning sustainable communities; (ii) legal tools: adopting effective laws, and (iii) community empowerment. There are a total of 32 separate strategies to combat sprawl.
Some of the strategies include:
- Regional planning;
- Encouraging mixed-use, infill development;
- Investing in mass transit;
- Requiring cluster development;
- Utilizing purchase or transfer of development rights;
- Increasing State funding; and
- Involve citizens in local decision-making
