Blithedale Terrace - A Smart Growth Project

Principles of Smart Growth

• Mix land Uses
Smart growth supports the integration of mixed land uses into communities as a critical component of achieving better places to live.

• Take Advantage of Compact Building Design
Smart growth provides a means for communities to incorporate more compact building design as an alternative to conventional, land consumptive development.

• Create Range of Housing Opportunities/Choices
Providing quality housing for people of all income levels is an integral component in any smart growth strategy

• Create Walkable Neighborhoods
Walkable communities are desirable places to live, work, learn, worship, and play, and therefore a key component of smart growth.

• Foster Distinctive, Attractive Communities With a Strong Sense of Place
Smart growth encourages communities to craft a vision and set standards for development and construction which respond to community values of architectural beauty and distinctiveness, as well as expanded choices in housing and transportation.

• Preserve Open Space, Farmland, Natural Beauty and Critical Environmental Areas
Open space preservation supports smart growth by bolstering local economies, preserving critical environmental areas, improving our communities' quality of life, and guiding new growth into existing communities.

• Strengthen and Direct Development Towards Existing Communities
Smart growth directs development towards existing communities already served by infrastructure, seeking to utilize the resources that existing neighborhoods offer, and conserve open space and irreplaceable natural resources on the urban fringe.

• Provide a Variety of Transportation Choices
Providing people with more choices in housing, shopping, communities, and transportation is a key aim of smart growth.

• Make Development Decisions Predictable, Fair, and Cost Effective
For a community to be successful in implementing smart growth, it must be embraced by the private sector.

• Encourage Community and Stakeholder Collaboration
Growth can create great places to live, work, and play – if it responds to a community’s own sense of how and where it wants to grow.

Blithedale Terrace saves over two acres of usable land somewhere in California by designing single family homes at a density of seventeen units per acre.