Morris defined "smart growth" -- a term not universally appreciated by all planners and developers -- as "land use and transportation planning that is used as community building, economic efficiency and environmental sustainability as an alternative to sprawl that has dominated our landscape for more than fifty years.
"When I speak about sprawl, I am referring to the low-density, single-use development that has spread out across every region of our country… and, unfortunately, throughout the globe. And though it offered the prospect of escape from the ills of urban life to a better quality of life, it has, in fact, become its own problem. It consumes natural resources at an extraordinary pace. It displaces economic and social and academic capital, encourages the development of isolated commercial real estate; eventually sprawling abandoned gray fields…when communities [that] support the transfer decide to transfer their wealth to the next tier of urban development.
"The most significant aspect of sprawl in the context of our discussion today is that it confines mobility and obligates us to automobile use. The further we migrate from urban [and even village] centers…the more we have to drive.
"Sprawl... is land use planning as if peak oil didn't matter. It wasn't by accident that we go here," Morris stated.
Besides the climatic, economic and political consequences of our overly oil-dependent lifestyle, are the health impacts, Morris pointed out. He cited two 2003 studies which linked suburban sprawl to obesity and hypertension. He also noted that the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the drop in the incident of asthma attacks in the city when commuters were asked to leave their cars at home and telecommute, use transit or limit the number and duration of trips.
Morris took the rest of his presentation to discuss the concept of "placemaking" where land use and transportation planning converge in the development of livable, walk-able communities. One such example is the West Hyattsville TOD illustrated above and in the planning map below.
This is an important, uplifting and positive talk and we strongly recommend that you listen to it in its entirety because Morris discusses many of the tools available to communities that can help them not just reduce their energy consumption, but actually improve the quality of life for their citizens, while reducing automobile use. You can download the 11.38 MB file to your computer hard drive for playback on your favorite MP3 device or you can use the Flash-based MP3 player below the illustration of the Maryland project.
EV World expresses its thanks to ASPO USA, Steve Andrews and Randy Udall for granting us permission to attend and record this historic event. The next conference will be held in Boston, Massachusetts in 2006.
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