Smart Growth for Small Towns
Smart Growth for Small Towns relates the principles of Smart Growth to towns and rural communities, providing examples, discussion, explanation, and advice on community design and development.
The educational information provided on this site is intended to contribute to an understanding of the intent and purpose of the Smart Growth principles. However, planning for the future of our small towns requires input from a variety of fields and includes issues of design, policymaking, and governance. This site is focused primarily upon design issues associated with small towns and is intended to serve as a resource for government officials, teachers, designers, and the general public.
The explanation of each Smart Growth principle includes the following:
A.) Discussion of the purpose of the principles and why it is important.
B.) Strategies that suggest actions communities can take to help achieve the goals of the principle.
Ten Principles of Smart Growth:
- Mix land uses
- Take advantage of compact building design
- Create a range of housing opportunities and choices
- Create walkable neighborhoods
- Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place
- Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas
- Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities
- Provide a variety of transportation choices
- Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective
- Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions
Smart Growth for Small Towns is a cooperative project of Extension faculty of the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Stennis Institute of Government and Community Development. For more information contact Michael Seymour, Associate Extension Professor at Michael.Seymour@msstate.edu or Jeremy Murdock, Research Associate at Jeremy@sig.msstate.edu.
Publications
News
Broadband internet access provides development opportunities for rural areas.
A post-flood recovery meeting on Oct. 22 will help tie up some loose ends with information on agronomic and financial considerations for land that was flooded this year.
South Mississippi Delta residents are in recovery mode after returning to homes that have been under water for nearly six months, but they need materials and assistance as they try to resume their normal lives.
Every approach to cleaning a house after a flood has its pitfalls.
The annual Alabama-Mississippi-Tennessee Rural Tourism Conference will be in Natchez Oct. 21-23.
Success Stories
Jackson Precast Inc. is Mississippi’s only company that specializes in producing architectural precast, DeVoss explains. When the business competes for jobs, out-of-state manufacturers are its main competitors
As a young child, Emily Davis was the victim of a horrific crime, but, with the support of her family and the pediatrician who documented the evidence, Davis became a survivor.
When she came to her first Mississippi Homemaker Volunteers meeting in 1968, Rae Clarke accompanied her aunt, Versie Manning, who insisted Clarke come to the Thanksgiving party.
See what's new in Extension: Extension Supports University's Community Garden, Extension Appoints New 4-H Staff, Extension Landscape Symposium Honors Professor Emeritus, and Extension's Southern Gardener Opens Little Free Garden
There’s nothing quite like a charming Main Street. Lined with local shops, restaurants, and businesses, these streets are essential to building vibrant communities.
