The Smart Growth Manual

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Each year numerous work teams set goals for the coming year and leadership teams determine their goals intended to be attained for their organizations. During the goal and goal to be attained setting process, the term SMART goal is often times employed without much thought as to what it may mean as an overall working plan. SMART goals are a way to not only determine what to do, but how to do it in a way that may effortlessly be tracked to determine whether or not progress is made and recognise when the goals are met. In this type of goal, the acronym in SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based.

Specific describes the details of what is to be accomplished in a clear and simple way. The goal must be easy to understand and well specified in order to make achieving it possible. Unclear goals are without apparent effort misunderstood and accordingly distinctively do not accomplish the desired results. Being specific answers the question of what has to be done so that suitable actions may be taken.

Measurable uses quantifiable terms in order to compare where the goal is in reaching the desired target. Establishing performance criteria for measuring the goal will grant for changes for the duration of the goal amount of time in order to manage the routine and stay on track to meeting the target. Utilizing a definitive tracking method shows how much will be gained by achieving the goal and inspires continued improvement.

Attainable means the goal is within the capacity and capability of those involved while stretching their collective endowments to reach the most desirable target. It means that the specified goal is both possible and realistic while still being challenging for the institution and it is people. Having a goal that stretchings persons and allows for growth chance many times leads to very suitable business results.

Relevant indicates the goal is not only within reach of skill levels but also has meaning and relates directly to the aim or vision of those who are responsible for meeting the goal. Relevancy means everyone involved may perceive how they influence the goal and how it affects them. When a goal is applicable to those involved it increments dedication and makes meeting the goal a highly motivational tool.

Time-based defines a amount of time for meeting the measurements in the goal or a deadline date for achieving the overall target goal. Having a time frame established allows a frequency for monitoring progress, staying on track, making adjustments to meet the overall goal, and benefitting momentum with each accomplishment along the goal path. Without a time-based factor to the goal, it will be totally unlikely to make a aimed plan.

Use the acronym SMART to establish goals that are: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. SMART goals may be employed as an effective way to determine what to do in the coming year and where to make changes if the tracked goals are not progressing as desired. During the every year goal or goal to be attained setting process, be sure to use the SMART goal definition when working on a plan for the future of a team or organization.

Everyone is calling for smart growth…but what incisively is it? In The Smart Growth Manual, two leading city planners provide a exhaustive answer. From the expanse of the metropolis to the detail of the window box, they address the pressing challenges of urban development with easy-to-follow counsel and wide array of best practices.

With their landmark book Suburban Nation, Andres Duany and Jeff Speck “set forth more without doubt or question than anybody has done in our time the parts of good town planning” (The New Yorker). With this long-awaited associate volume, the writers have organized the latest contributions of new urbanism, green design, and healthful communities into a comprehensive handbook, to the full or entire extent illustrated with the built work of the nation’s leading practitioners.

“The Smart Growth Manual is an indispensable guide to city planning. This kind of progressive development is the only way to to the full or entire extent restore our economic strength and formulate new jobs, new industries, and a renewed capacity to compete in the firstborn rank of world economies.” — Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco

“Authors Andres Duany, Jeff Speck, and Mike Lydon have invented 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). I highly commend [it] as a portion of any community participant’s or urban planner’s desktop references.” — LocalPlan.org

About the Author

Andres Duany, FAIA, CNU, is a founding essential of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ). DPZ is a leader of the New Urbanism, an global motion that seeks to end suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment. Since 1980, DPZ has designed more than 300 new towns, territorial plans, and community revitalization projects. Duany is cofounder of the Congress for New Urbanism and the recipient of assorted honorary doctorates and awards, including the National Building Museum’s Vincent J. Scully Prize and the Richard H. Driehaus Prize.

Jeff Speck AICP, CNU, LEED-AP, Hon. ASLA, expended 10 years as conductor of town planning at DPZ, where he led or managed more than 40 of the firm’s projects. Subsequent to the publication of Suburban Nation, he was appointed conductor of design at the National Endowment for the Arts, where he produced the Governors’ Institute on Community Design, a program that brings smart growth proficiencies to state leadership. After four years at the Endowment, he founded Speck & Associates, a design consultancy serving public officials and the real estate industry. He is a contributing editor to Metropolis magazine.

Mike Lydon CNU, is an urban planner, writer, and livable streets activist. Before founding The Street Plans Collaborative, an urban planning firm specializing in substitute transportation and the public realm, he worked for DPZ, the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, and Smart Growth Vermont. He is presently a Next American City Urban Vanguard and serves as a board fellow member for the Miami Bicycle Coalition.

Most helpful customer reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
Review from LocalPlan.org
By Joshua P. OConner
[...].

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.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Both Sides Thumbs Up
By Richard L. Oram
This book is likely to change things. It works from both sides: for planners and politicians to teach themselves and others, and for citizens concerned about what planners might do. It will help planners get new visions across. And help them ease valid citizen concerns and even NIMBY concerns. It conveys concepts by showing reality … which sounds very good no matter what side you are on. I studied urban planning 30+ years ago and walked away from it as it seemed more wrong than right. This book will go a long way to making things right.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Supremely useful–with a few suggestions for the next edition
By Reader in St Pete
Duany and company are architects so their focus on design is highly useful. Echoing other on-the-ball reviewers here, the book is very well organized, easy to follow and leads directly to application.

If the authors ever read customer comments, I would like to suggest the following should the book be updated:

1. Our country’s population is growing, but it also aging. Over the next 20 years, the aging of the population may be more significant to planners than “just” growth (which is inevitable, despite the silly claims of other reviewers). There has to be a “Smart Aging” perspective this country needs to adopt because older Americans have different needs–not lesser needs, different needs that should be addressed.

2. Include a section on the behavioral side of Smart Growth–while a necessary component of getting people out of their cars, design by itself is insufficient to get people out of their cars. What incentives, what kind of education and outreach needs to take place for the public and, perhaps most importantly, elected officials. Most local officials aren’t particularly brave. They need help.

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