Understanding Smart Growth Savings

Land use patterns affect the costs of providing public infrastructure and services such as roads, water, sewage, garbage collection, school transport and mail delivery. Various studies show that these costs tend to increase with sprawl (dispersed development outside existing urban boundaries), and can be reduced with Smart Growth (compact, planned development within existing urban boundaries). Smart Growth can save hundreds of dollars annually per capita compared with providing comparable public services to sprawled destinations. Most current development charges, utility fees and taxes fail to accurately reflect these location-related cost differences, representing a subsidy of sprawl. More accurate pricing can result in significantly more efficient land use development patterns, providing overall benefits to consumers. This paper summarizes estimates of Smart Growth savings, and critiques a study by Cox and Utt which claims that such savings are insignificant. That study misrepresents Smart Growth and contains several critical errors. Understanding Smart Growth Savings