Market-Driven Smart Growth

Smart Growth is good for business. In market downturns and upswings, developers and communities have opportunities for growth that may be too important to pass up, especially when they are viewed as catalytic projects that could add exponential value to a place’s quality of life and economic well being. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Sustainable Development is responding to communities’ requests to provide information about market-driven trends and economic benefits that capitalize on the goals and outcomes of smart growth policies. Lee Sobel, specialist with the US EPA’s Smart Growth Program, will examine how smart growth can make money and save money for various community interests; local governments trying to do more with tighter budgets, business seeking viable growth markets, citizens interested in increasing their quality of life, and real estate professionals looking to increase their bottom line.

Lee is a specialist with the US EPA’s Smart Growth Program, where his work focuses on removing barriers to development and finance issues to promote and encourage development. Previously he was an associate with CB Richard Ellis Investment Properties Group in Miami, where his work encompassed acquisition and development, valuation, consultation, and financing of retail and office properties. Lee is also an avid New Urbanist and is the author a report on dead and revitalized shopping malls, Greyfields Into Goldfields (Congress for the New Urbanism, 2002).