Coastal and Waterfront Smart Growth Elements
PDF Documents:
Presentation from NOAA Beltway Brown Bag, November 28, 2007
Waterfront
and Coastal Smart Growth Elements (March 2008 draft)
Smart
Growth Powerpoint Presentation
Coastal Smart Growth Poster (March 2008 draft)
A community’s coastal or waterfront areas can provide an economic advantage as many people and businesses want to be located near a waterbody. Yet waterfronts also pose unique challenges. For example, not all land adjacent to a waterbody can be developed. Large portions of the waterfront may provide critical ecological functions that must be preserved, and most states require a significant buffer between the waterbody and development.
Smart growth approaches provide one possible tool for coastal and waterfront communities. In cities and older suburbs, smart growth approaches invest resources in restoring community and vitality. New development is generally more town-centered, transit and pedestrian oriented, and has a greater mix of homes, offices, shops, and other uses. Often more open space and other environmental amenities are preserved or enhanced. Communities using smart growth techniques to try to improve development’s environmental, economic, social, public health, and fiscal effects.
Smart growth approaches seek to meet multiple community objectives and are based on the 10 smart growth principles that were developed in 1996 by the Smart Growth Network.
The principles, however, do not directly address the unique challenges and opportunities faced by coastal and waterfront communities. To help fill that gap, coastal smart growth elements were drafted by a collaborative team that includes U.S. EPA Smart Growth Program, Michigan State University, and Rhode Island Sea Grant. Coastal and waterfront communities across the U.S. have found they achieve better economic, environmental, community, and public health outcomes by incorporating the elements described below.
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