The Smart Growth Manual
Andres Duany, Jeff Speck, and Mike Lydon

As I’ve pointed out before, “smart growth” is one of those terms like “green” that gets used in a variety of contexts with little to no ability to verify the validity of the claims being made.  Developers can throw the term out to make communities feel more comfortable about an impending project or communities can demand that developers adhere to smart growth ideals without ever really defining the concept.   There is a definite need to solidify smart growth as a concept and to have the tools necessary to evaluate what facets of a particular neighborhood or projects fit within the smart growth paradigm. (more after the jump)

Authors Andres Duany, Jeff Speck, and Mike Lydon have created The Smart Growth Manual, a resource which not only explains the overarching ideals of smart growth, but a manual that takes the time to show smart growth principles at each geographic scale (region, neighborhood, street, building).  The Smart Growth Manual bounces back and forth (in a beautifully organized manner) between steps for the implementation of smart growth and key concepts.  The format of The Smart Growth Manual allows for each concept to be referenced and reviewed quickly (each concept is explained in about half a page).

I found The Smart Growth Manual to be the type of reference that you would throw in your bag before heading to your community association meeting or grab on your way to a city council hearing about a new development.  The information is presented in such a simplistic, uncluttered format that you can use it almost like a dictionary.  Instead of wondering whether a particular idea really is smart growth you can flip to it in the manual and understand how the concept would work and how it relates to other principles of smart growth.  More importantly it can be used to better articulate community goals through providing an accessible guide to smart growth in an attainable format for charrettes, community meetings, etc.

To make The Smart Growth Manual all the more enticing, the pages are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and it’s pretty much pocket sized (so you don’t have to lug around yet another huge manual in addition to ordinances and the like).  The pages feature vivid illustrations and photographs of each concept so it’s not a struggle to understand or explain a concept.  I highly recommend The Smart Growth Manual as a part of any community participant’s or urban planner’s desktop references.