Smart Growth for Philadelphia

Clearly “smart growth” is a crucial part of becoming a greener city. Generally the concept is based on a more well-rounded and thought-out approach to urban planning. Therefore, smart growth simply refers to “any of a number of programs designed to help the city manage growth to avoid or eliminate suburban sprawl and to direct economic development and population growth in ways that minimize their impacts on the physical environment” (Portney).

Clearly the way that cities urbanized and the way many have broken down in post-industrial stages present serious challenges to currently functioning as eco-friendly centers. Smart growth is a direct attempt to re-establish a form of thoughtful urban development in a way that uses the existing infrastructure and plans well for new projects and policies. Many smart growth policies “involve efforts to encourage infill economic development and development that produces fewer negative environmental impacts” (Portney).

Numerous cities, including Philadelphia are looking very seriously at the “development of ‘eco-industrial parks’, concentrated areas of development that encourage location of related industries that pollute less and even take advantage of production relationships that facilitate industrial reuse and recycling” (Portney). This practice is specifically applicable to Philadelphia as it attempts to fill some of the post-industrial voids of the inner city with more environmentally oriented development.


In Summary, here is a short list of programs and policies that are clearly connected to sustainability. The focus is on whether the city has:
· managed development by developing eco-industrial parks;
· committed to cluster or targeted economic development;
· established one or more eco-villages; and
· established a local brown field redevelopment initiative.