Livable Communities and Smart Growth

Building Healthy Communities 101 - A primer on growth and housing development intended for Los Angeles neighborhoods.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Smart Growth website - With an emphasis on environmental issues, this web site provides public resources to help create communities that promote the sustainability of America's environment, economy, and quality of life.

Livable Places - A non-profit community developer and advocacy organization. Website includes news, tools and policy information for livable, affordable communities in the LA region.

Sprawl Hits the Wall: Confronting the Realities of Metropolitan Los Angeles - This report, by the USC Southern California Studies Center and the Brookings Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, shows that the Los Angeles region is at a crisis point and that the region should, and can, grow differently.

Local Government Commission - A non-profit organization of local elected officials, city and county staff, planners, architects, and community leaders who are committed to making their communities more livable, prosperous, and resource-efficient.

Presentations from LGC's Developing Smart Growth Zoning Codes workshops - Tools for fine-tuning or completelyrevamping a community's zoning codes and policies to create more livable communities.

The Economic Benefits of Walkable Communities [PDF, 788KB] - An LGC report that outlines the economic case for pedestrian-friendly communities.

Smart Growth Online - A service of the national Smart Growth Network, including a smart growth resource library and calendar, funding opportunities and index of Smart Growth quotes.

Getting to Smart Growth: 100 Policies for Implementation - A popular, 100-page primer from an ongoing series describes concrete techniques for putting smart growth principles into practice. Order a free print copy or download a PDF.

Getting to Smart Growth II: 100 More Policies for Implementation - Follow up to Getting to Smart Growth, this report offers more policies, case studies and funding options. Order a free print copy or download a PDF.

Smart Growth America - A coalition of national, state and local organizations working to improve the ways we plan and build the towns, cities and metro areas we call home. A variety of online resources.

Measuring Sprawl and Its Impact: The Character and Consequences of Metropolitan Expansion - A report from Smart Growth America, based on research at Rutgers and Cornell, that defines, measures and evaluates metropolitan sprawl and its impacts.

Columbia Pike Form-Based Code - Form-based zoning codes foucs on regulating building, public space and neighborhood form rather than land use. The Columbia Pike code covers a revitalizing corridor in Arlington County, Virginia

Louisville Land Development Code - Another example of form-based development code, grew out of the Cornerstone 2020 regional vision plan for the Louisville, Kentucky metropolitan area.

MIT graduate thesis by Todd Kohr on the effectiveness of form-based codes. [5.5MB PDF]

Commentary on form-based codes from Ferrell Madden Associates LLC, a planning firm involved in the Columbia Pike Initiative and others.

Envision Utah Quality Growth Strategy - A regional growth vision for the Salt Lake City region.

California Inter-regional Partnerships - This site documents a variety of regional planning projects in California intended to balance job and housing growth.

Neighborhood Knowledge, California 2.0 - An innovative online resource for neighborhood research, data and mapping in California.

Walkable Communities, Inc. - Walkable Communities, founded by "walkability guru" and community design innovator Dan Burden, has worked in many communities across the U.S. and produced resources on community design.

[ Top ]

Land Use and Transportation

Noteworthy Metropolitan Planning Organization Practices in Transportation-Land Use Planning Integration [PDF, 2.19MB] - Case Studies and analysis prepared by the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations.

Mobility 21 Smart Growth Partnership - A Los Angeles County public-private partnership with a growth vision closely aligned with the Compass Blueprint program.

Transportation and Land Use Collaborative of Southern California - TLUC promotes joint transportation and land use decision-making at all levels of government within Southern California.

PPIC Special Survey on Land Use [400K PDF) - Public Policy Institute of California report on California's growth challenges and residents' perceptions of and reactions to those challenges.

Mean Streets - Report from the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) on Pedestrian Safety, Health and Federal Transportation Spending.

Tool Kit for Integrating Land Use and Transportation Decision-Making - A web-based source of methods, strategies, and procedures for integrating land use and transportation planning, decision-making, and project implementation provided by the Federal Highway Administration.

[ Top ]

Transit Oriented Development (TOD)

Transit Oriented Development as defined by the Victoria Transport Policy Institute - An encyclopedic discussion of TOD offered by a Canadian research organization.

California Transit-Oriented Development Database - Caltrans site with searchable database on TOD land uses, site maps, implementation processes, financing, facilities, zoning, design features, pedestrian access, transit services, photos, travel benefits, contact information, and other data.

Transit-Oriented Development Study: Factors for Success in California - Caltrans study with an overview of TOD practice, incentives and barriers in California.

Mineta Institute Paper on TOD - A Mineta Transportation Institute study on the incentives for building TOD.

Reconnecting America - A variety of TOD resources from a national organization formed to link transportation networks and the communities they serve.

Encouraging Transit Villages - TOD fact sheet from Livable Places.

Transit-oriented Development: Moving from Rhetoric To Reality - Brookings Institution paper offers an expanded definition of TOD that focuses primarily on functions and outcomes rather than on physical form. The study finds that projects to date have not taken full advantage of their potential to  be environmentally sustainable and socially just as well as economically stimulating.

AB 691: Transit village plans - Analysis of a state law that allows planning jurisdictions to designate "transit villages," offer density bonuses and implement other elements of TOD.

[ Top ]

Mixed Use Development

Mixed Use Development presentation - Report from the Local Government Commission on what makes infill development work, with examples from all around California.

Orange County Council of Governments Inter-Regional Partnership - Report on a OCCOG/WRCOG project that aims to promote mixed-use and infill development.

[ Top ]

Infill Housing Strategies and Tools

Land Use Opportunity Tracking System (LOTS) - This interactive mapping system supports infill development in the L.A. region by making pertinent spatial and socioeconomic data available in one place.

Infill Opportunity Zones - A guide to California's Infill Opportunity Zones law from the Transportation and Land Use Coalition.

Smart Growth Housing Initiatives brochure [PDF, 26.0MB] - Produced by the City of Los Angeles through the SCAG Inter-Regional Partnerships grant.

California Infill Parcel Locator - A tool that identifies specific parcels with infill potential anywhere in California.

Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing publications - Links to a variety of affordable housing design and development publications.

Raising the Roof: California Housing Development Projections and Constraints - The Department of Housing and Community Development publishes periodic updates of the California Statewide Housing Plan (CSHP), to facilitate efforts addressing this State housing goal.

Locked Out 2002: California's Affordable Housing Crisis Continues - Report from the California Budget Project describing the statewide affordable housing crisis as of 2002. Many of the conclusions are just as relevant today and in Southern California.

Affordable Housing Design Advisor - A tool, resource, idea bank and step-by step guide to design in affordable housing.

Current Preferences and Future Demand for Denser Residential Environments - Research by Dowell Myers and Elizabeth Gearin of USC.

[ Top ]

Have A Resource Library Link?

Do you know of links that others would find useful? Please send it to us and we'll be sure to add it to the list. Thanks for making the toolbox successful!