Smartening up Growing Smart

Six years ago, the American Planning Association kicked off a major initiative aimed at helping states modernize planning law and manage change. APA staff decided to assemble a legislative guidebook for states and localities addressing issues from comprehensive planning to transfer of development rights, and everything in between. Dozens of researcher years, and thousands of pages of legislative text later, the CNU is joining other influential organizations in scrutinizing the APA's work before it goes public. Before “smart growth” became a household word, the APA named their effort Growing Smart. Yet rather than a guide to laws that implement smart growth principles, the project is a compendium of planning practices — including what CNU considers good, bad, and indifferent. Despite APA's standing as the country's foremost planning advocacy organization, the project's encyclopedic nature results in a lack of clarity about what the APA thinks are truly best practices in planning and regulation. The Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook includes some practices that have been repudiated by experienced practitioners, and omits others that offer the potential for smart growth solutions. CNU, Scenic America, the National Wildlife Federation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and others have given APA staff extensive comments and proposed changes. We are awaiting their revised draft to find out whether APA has satisfied CNU's and others' concerns. In the interim, we are doing our utmost to promote additional review by practicing planners. We hope that CNU members and others can review Growing Smart, focusing on planning process and outcomes, rather than devoting themselves to a specific policy agenda, however worthy. A further item that we are requesting of APA is that they pay a small group of practicing planners to review the entire document — closely and comprehensively. The review process so far has been fragmented. Some practitioners have had the opportunity to review parts of the document in great detail; other reviewers, such as those at CNU, have had access to the entire document, but have not had the time or budget to give it the close attention it deserves. If you are an APA member, we urge you contact your chapter officers. Encourage them to have the local chapter review the Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook. If you want the Growing Smart materials for your personal library, visit the APA's website at www.planning.org, and be prepared for an extended download period! APA will be moving forward with its smart growth program by preparing a Growing Smart Policy Guide. The policy guide will be drafted by a new task force with representation from APA's national board, a number of chapters, and organizations including the CNU. If you are interested in taking part, contact CNU's Director of Policy and Research, Ellen Greenberg, at (415) 495-2255 or egreenberg@cnu.org. u