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What is smart growth?
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Our mission
Smart Growth America helps create healthy, prosperous, and resilient places to live for all people.
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Our work
Our work spans housing and land use, transportation, complete streets, and economic development to find solutions to communities’ most pressing needs.
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What is smart growth?
Smart growth is an approach to community design that connects housing, transportation, and land use to create healthy, prosperous, and resilient neighborhoods.
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Lessons from Smart Growth America’s Culture and Community Network: A Blueprint for Integrating Arts and Culture into Regional Planning
Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) play a pivotal but often unseen role in shaping how communities grow—coordinating transportation planning, allocating federal funding, and setting priorities that affect everything from daily commutes to climate resilience. Yet traditional public engagement approaches consistently fail to reach the communities most impacted by planning decisions. From April through October 2025, Smart Growth America convened the Culture and Community Network, bringing together nine MPOs to explore how...
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Dangerous by Design 2026 (PDF)
In 2024, 7,080 people were struck and killed while walking, a figure that remains near historic highs. While transportation officials have pointed to recent improvements as evidence that roads are becoming safer, pedestrian deaths have increased by 72 percent since 2009 and remain dramatically higher than they were just fifteen years ago. Dangerous by Design 2026 ranks the deadliest states and metro areas for people walking, examines disparities by race,...
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Complete Streets, Stronger Economies
Smart Growth America has documented the safety benefits of Complete Streets for more than two decades, but their economic potential is often overlooked. Our new report, Complete Streets, Stronger Economies, provides the first national analysis of these investments and examines their benefits for local businesses and community economic outcomes. Through a landscape analysis of existing research and data, the report finds that communities investing in safer transportation systems see a...
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Best Complete Streets Policies 2025 (PDF)
In the Best Complete Streets Policies Report 2025, Smart Growth America reviewed and scored 43 Complete Streets policies passed in 2023 and 2024. Complete Streets policies can be adopted in places of all sizes and can be tailored to meet the transportation and mobility goals of each community. As the top policies and case studies in this report demonstrate, it is possible to take action, whether you are a state,...
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Housing for Havens: Smart growth strategies for climate resilience
Climate hazards, including extreme weather and changing conditions like sea level rise or drought, can cause long-lasting damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure, and communities as a whole. Ripple effects on regional economies, including on housing prices and insurance costs, can further destabilize communities. As these hazards become more frequent and more intense, many may choose or be forced to relocate. Some communities have embraced reputations as climate havens to try...
Learn more
Lessons from Smart Growth America’s Culture and Community Network: A Blueprint for Integrating Arts and Culture into Regional Planning
Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) play a pivotal but often unseen role in shaping how communities grow—coordinating transportation planning, allocating federal funding, and setting priorities that affect everything from daily commutes to climate resilience. Yet traditional public engagement approaches consistently fail to reach the communities most impacted by planning decisions. From April through October 2025, Smart Growth America convened the Culture and Community Network, bringing together nine MPOs to explore how...
Learn more
Dangerous by Design 2026 (PDF)
In 2024, 7,080 people were struck and killed while walking, a figure that remains near historic highs. While transportation officials have pointed to recent improvements as evidence that roads are becoming safer, pedestrian deaths have increased by 72 percent since 2009 and remain dramatically higher than they were just fifteen years ago. Dangerous by Design 2026 ranks the deadliest states and metro areas for people walking, examines disparities by race,...
Learn more
Complete Streets, Stronger Economies
Smart Growth America has documented the safety benefits of Complete Streets for more than two decades, but their economic potential is often overlooked. Our new report, Complete Streets, Stronger Economies, provides the first national analysis of these investments and examines their benefits for local businesses and community economic outcomes. Through a landscape analysis of existing research and data, the report finds that communities investing in safer transportation systems see a...
Learn more
Best Complete Streets Policies 2025 (PDF)
In the Best Complete Streets Policies Report 2025, Smart Growth America reviewed and scored 43 Complete Streets policies passed in 2023 and 2024. Complete Streets policies can be adopted in places of all sizes and can be tailored to meet the transportation and mobility goals of each community. As the top policies and case studies in this report demonstrate, it is possible to take action, whether you are a state,...
Learn more
Housing for Havens: Smart growth strategies for climate resilience
Climate hazards, including extreme weather and changing conditions like sea level rise or drought, can cause long-lasting damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure, and communities as a whole. Ripple effects on regional economies, including on housing prices and insurance costs, can further destabilize communities. As these hazards become more frequent and more intense, many may choose or be forced to relocate. Some communities have embraced reputations as climate havens to try...
Learn more
Lessons from Smart Growth America’s Culture and Community Network: A Blueprint for Integrating Arts and Culture into Regional Planning
Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) play a pivotal but often unseen role in shaping how communities grow—coordinating transportation planning, allocating federal funding, and setting priorities that affect everything from daily commutes to climate resilience. Yet traditional public engagement approaches consistently fail to reach the communities most impacted by planning decisions. From April through October 2025, Smart Growth America convened the Culture and Community Network, bringing together nine MPOs to explore how...
Learn more
Our Impact
Smart Growth America works across the country, in contexts from rural to urban, forging partnerships and leading workshops to support communities to make their neighborhoods thrive. Click the link to learn more about SGA's many projects.
Our Impact Across America
How we work
Our programs support thriving businesses and jobs, provide more options for how people get around, and make it more affordable to live near work and essential services.
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Learn about Smart Growth America
Programs and coalitions
At Smart Growth America, our various programs and coalitions work collaboratively to shape communities where people thrive. Through research, advocacy, and hands-on support, our network of advocates, decision-makers, and field experts work together to advance policies and practices that prioritize safety, equity, and sustainability.
Our Resource Library
Our resource catalogue includes a variety of materials ranging from comprehensive studies and reports to practical guides and policy frameworks.
Whether you're a city planner, community leader, or simply interested in creating a better future for your community, these resources offer valuable insights and practical strategies to achieve that vision.
Go to the Knowledge Hub
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