The smart growth approach to urban land use: Implications for farmland protection

What is not to like about smart growth? It was a felicitous choice in the \n1990s to coin this metaphor, 1 an expression that has brought much public \nvisibility to efforts to change the ways in which urbanization occurs in the \nUnited States. (Are there any alternatives? Who could support "dumb" \ngrowth?) The metaphor may be new, but the specific techniques it encompasses - compact growth, urban density and in-fill, neighborhood improvement, open space protection, etc. - have long been in the planning and \njournalistic lexicon. However, they lacked the resonance of urgency and \npopular use until governors, mayors, a vice president, and other public figures \nbegan to promote the smart growth idea in the last few years.