Smart Growth at the Frontier: Strategies and Resources for Rural Communities

Although suburban and urban communities increasingly recognize and use the hallmarks of smart growth — such as collaborative planning, mixed-use development, downtown revitalization, and open-space conservation — these tools are not as widely applied to rural areas. It may be more difficult for rural communities to embrace and implement smart growth if they cannot envision the long-term consequences of building a new mega-mall or believe they have an inexhaustible land supply to develop. Rural communities also may lack the funding and organization that comprehensive planning requires.