Growth in Carmel Shows “Smart” Approach
The Carmel Smart Code was designed around a set of development principles that are very popular in certain circles of policy advocates.
“Smart Growth” is a community planning concept promoting concentration of growth in the center of a city to avoid the kind of sprawl that has dominated American development since World War II. It is highlighted by a preference for “walkable communities” that are bicycle friendly, favor neighborhood schools, mixed use development and a variety of housing choices. Smart Growth views every community as a holistic organism, capable of supporting itself without long commutes, remote agricultural support or sterile, cul de sac neighborhoods.
Smart Growth advocates include land use planners, traditional neighborhood developers, single family home and neighborhood protectionists, and rabid environmentalists. Thus, the range of the political spectrum, from far left environmentalists to far right homeschooling families is touched by the advocacy of smart growth.
Its detractors come from similarly divergent perspectives. Contemporary subdivision, mall and power center developers, suburban families with suburban lifestyles, and a smattering of hard core libertarians and community organizers, find fault with or sense they are hurt by the implementation of Smart Growth criteria.
Yet as seriously as its principles have been debated over the past generation, the whole concept of Smart Growth remains unheard of by the majority of Americans. And yet again, its principles have been codified and brought to life in Carmel, IN, which stands as an example to anyone who cares to observe, of how a well planned community looks and functions after Smart Growth redevelopment takes hold.
Carmel has implemented “a consistent set of rules for walkable, compact, development and redevelopment of quality design and with a mix of uses in areas where retail, commercial, office and other functions make sense….” The results are truly worthy of a closer look.
