| Abstract: | Smart growth policies direct development towards existing communities already served by roads, sewer systems and other infrastructure. The increased development in these communities in turn should enable them to benefit from a stronger tax-base, more efficient use of their schools and other public facilities, and the renewed economic vitality of their urban centres. These goals and objectives appear to complement and support the efforts of urban mayors to attract new property tax rateables and better-paying jobs, but they may conflict with the desires of residents to reduce densities and improve the quality of life. We use a visual GIS-based model to assist five small contiguous older suburbs individually and collectively to evaluate their current redevelopment plans and to understand the implications of their land-use decisions on the quality of life in their communities. By bringing them together as a group, and our raising broader redevelopment and impact issues, they have begun to rethink how these properties could be best used to meet the community's needs and to see them in the context of similar redevelopment plans within their mini-region. One of the changes emerging is a greater role for certain types of residential development and a concurrent reduction in the amount of commercial space being considered. The authors would like to thank the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for funding this project, the Somerset County Planning Board and mayors of the five towns for actively supporting and participating in the study and the Regional Planning Partnership for its co-operation and assistance in refining its GOZ model to promote regional planning from the bottom up. The authors accept full responsibility for the ideas and recommendations in this report. |
