Infill Development
Communities are finally discovering an alternative to conventional development patterns that cause suburban sprawl, destroy open lands, siphon vitality from existing communities, and create gridlocked lifestyles.
A major solution to these problems is infill development - the creative recycling of vacant or underutilized lands within cities and suburbs. Every city, town, and suburb has these types of properties. They range from the single vacant lot to surface parking lots to empty shopping malls.
Once considered eyesores, such cities are becoming prized as catalysts that improve solid communities and revitalize those facing problems. Successful infill, for example, addresses traffic issues by creating communities where people live closer to work and school, and where biking, walking, and public transit can substitute for auto travel.
Successful infill development can offer these rewards for communities:
• provide housing (both affordable and market rate)
near job centers and transit;
• increase the property-tax base;
• preserve open space at the edge of regions;
• provide new residents to support shopping
districts and services;
• capitalize on community assets such as parks,
infrastructure, and transit; and
• create new community assets such as child-care
centers, arts districts, and shopping areas.
As a result of successful infill development, many cities and older communities have been on the rebound. Large cities such as Denver and New York are even seeing increases in population and jobs for the first time in decades. Smaller communities such as Bay City, Michigan, and Lafayette, Indiana, are also doing well economically and feature newly bustling neighborhoods, downtowns, and cultural districts.
Suburbs like Bethesda, Maryland, are remaking themselves based upon models that are more urban than suburban. They are embracing well-designed dense developments connected by pedestrian-oriented streets. They are redeveloping vacant and underused properties to create walkable retail districts and neighborhoods, often built around transit. Single projects blend housing, retail, entertainment, civic, and office functions - "mixed use" in the best sense.
As a result, these cities, towns, and metropolitan areas are evolving into healthy communities featuring strong, resilient economies and stronger social connections within neighborhoods. They enjoy more green and open spaces and depend less upon automobiles and asphalt. Whether you call it New Urbanism, sustainable development, or smart growth, this is human-scaled development that preserves land and fosters balanced communities.
from: Strategies for Successful Infill Development (2001), a collaborative report authored by the Northeast-Midwest Institute and the Congress for the New Urbanism (Christopher Hudson, contributor). http://www.nemw.org/infillbook.htm