Smart Growth is Dangerous Growth

Normally the author of the website  does not compose the articles included in the newsletter. In this the author would like to make an exception.

The official website for Smart Growth, , is working actively, aggressively, and successfully to advance Agenda 21 in an attempt to transform our cities.

The Smart Growth America website lists 10 principles which are currently being used to transform our cities.  What the website does not tell you are the many negative consequences to the quality life of those living in the cities. Nor does it tell the truly horrible impact these principle will have on those living in the rural lands. Nor does it tell you how Smart Growth will steal freedom from every single American regardless of where they live.  This then is why the information in this article is so important.

Below are the 10 smart growth principles listed on the website which are being used to convince those going to the site just how wonderful will be the results of smart growth planning. You may click on any of the principles to see more information.

 1. Mix land uses

2. Take advantage of compact design

3. Create a range of housing opportunities and choices

4. Create walkable neighborhoods



7. Direct development towards existing communities

8. Provide a variety of transportation choices

9. Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective

10. Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions

Let’s examine the likely reality of the information listed under each principle and the likely outcome and purpose of each of these principles.

Principle 1, 2, 4, 7 and 8 collectively encourage developers to develop only within city boundaries resulting in developers building upward to acquire the millions of new living spaces needed. Encourage developers through zoning to place businesses on the ground floor of these high rises (=mixed use). Encourage the Progressive city councils raise taxes and take grants to fund mass transit and a massive network of sidewalks and bike paths.

The Smart Growth America website never mentions these principles over time will increase the difficulty of driving cars and trucks. As bicycles are given dedicated driving lanes or allowed to intermingle with moving cars, driving cars and trucks will become more difficult. Increasing the presence of more mass transit will further clog the roads. The addition of speed bumps and the loss of parking, as parking lots are replaced by high rises, acerbate the problem.  Eventually only the elite will have cars or parking spaces (think New York City). This sets up a scenario where the citizen is forced to walk, ride their bike, or use mass transit. This in turn makes it easy to limit where and when citizens are allowed to travel. If mass transit is not allowed to leave the city boundaries, then neither will the average citizen be able to leave-leaving the rural areas undisturbed advancing the Wildlands Project (See Lesson 3).

Principle 3 states there will be housing options for all socio-economic groups.

The Smart Growth America website does not mention, as develop-able land within the city becomes scarcer, affordable housing will become equally scarce. The only way the middle or lower classes can afford housing is if they are willing to live in a shoe-box size apartment, become part of the growing number of homeless, or have their housing subsidized by taxing others (again, think New York City).

Principle 5 states Smart Growth will create attractive communities with a strong sense of place.

The efforts by the American Planning Association (APA), which vigorously advances the principles of Smart Growth through its impact on university curriculum and its direct contact with virtually all of the city planners across America, along with numerous grants, passed out to cities to bribe them into using Smart Growth principles guarantees just the opposite result. In the end all the towns in America will have the same generic look; packed, stacked, full of bike paths, sidewalks, and mass transit with zoning and building codes which allow for little, if any, diversity of appearance. If not for the name of the city displayed on the side of its overpasses, it will be virtually impossible to tell one suburb or city from the other.

Principle 6 expresses the desire for more land to be locked up in a variety of green space options.

 The Smart Growth America website does not mention land taken out of private ownership is usually no longer taxed placing a greater burden on the remaining privately owned land. Further the resources on, above, and under the green space is usually locked down-often in perpetuity. As less land is left for private ownership, its value and the taxes on it go up-unless it is rural land outside of a town with an urban growth boundary.

A city, who creates an urban growth boundary, only allows development inside the city limits (creating pack and stack), while preventing development outside of the city limits. In addition to limited development the rural community is provided limited services. Taken to its logical conclusion, while the city land sky rockets in value, the rural land values plummet and the rural communities slowly become ghost towns as folks are forced to move into town. This then greatly advances the Wildlands Project.

If this sounds crazy, under Oregon law each of the state’s cities and metropolitan areas has already created an urban growth boundary around its perimeter to control expansion onto farm and forest lands. Other cities in America also have urban growth boundaries.

Principle 6 states:

“Preserving open spaces can also make communities more resilient, protecting them from natural disaster, combating air pollution, controlling wind, providing erosion control, moderating temperatures, protecting water quality, and protecting animal and plant habitats.”

The Smart Growth America website does not explain, with the exception of protecting animals and plant, which just makes sense, how in the world packing and stacking millions of humans into a relatively small space can achieve any of the rest of these claims.

All of China’s large cities embrace Smart Growth principles (have achieved extreme control of their citizens’ behaviors). Rarely are these cities touted for the good quality of their air or water. As for claims smart growth can control natural disasters and wind that is just nonsense designed to suck in the naïve.

Principle 9 and 10 assures the citizen the decision making process is fair and equitable and includes citizen involvement.

The head-sheds in charge of making the big decisions required to create a smart growth city do not leave any decisions to chance. They employ the Delphi/Consensus/Visioning process to make sure in advance the predetermined result the shakers and movers want is the result they get. Sure, they will attempt to create the illusion “everyone” has a say, but the process is rigged in advance.

In summary, the Smart Growth principles do not stand up to scrutiny. They are designed to sound wonderful, but in reality will drive the rural citizen out of the countryside and into packed cities where the peoples’ behaviors will be monitored and controlled. Smart Growth is just one more tactic used to steal our freedoms. Know it for what it is-dangerous growth.

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