Developing Productive Places

Angie Schmitt, writing for StreetsBlog, on the Smart Growth America’s recent report on the relative productive value of different development patterns:

For starters, smart growth is cheaper to build. On average, municipalities save about 38 percent on infrastructure costs like roads and sewers when serving compact development instead of large-lot subdivisions. […]

The public savings don’t stop once projects get built. Mixed-use projects also reduce ongoing costs to municipalities for services like police, fire and trash. Smart Growth America estimates the average savings at almost 10 percent.

[…]

Finally — and this is the most important part — smart growth provides a better return for cities and taxpayers. SGA’s analysis showed that walkable development generates about 10 times more tax revenue per acre than traditional suburban development. […]

With so many public budgets strained, it is past time to start making development decisions based on sustained financial resiliency. Sprawl is expensive to build, service, and maintain and it doesn’t bring in enough revenue to cover the costs. Something has to give.