How To 'Fix' Smart Growth Financing

Commissioned by the Funders' Network, this paper was written by Robert E. Lang, Jennifer LeFurgy, and Steven Hornburg for the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech in order to spark conversation and challenge assumptions about smart growth financing.

The paper reassess the current methods for smart growth finance and sketches out two different "fixes" for the problem of financing smart growth. Further, the paper also addresses the history of both finance and the built environment in the United States, in order to put our current situation in context. Finally, the paper offers several case study examples from the Washington, D.C., region that help illustrate smart growth finance strategies.

From the paper:

"The first fix directly addresses the financial instruments underlying development. Most of the literature on financing smart growth focuses on how to improve and reform these instruments. We extend this literature by offering new finance fixes for smart growth.

The second fix focuses on urban design. This is the less intuitive strategy, but one that is just as important to the future of smart growth as fixing its finance. The actual urban form of the built environment can influence whether or not a project is fundable. We argue that there are more urban design possibilities for accomplishing the goals of smart growth than are now being considered, and that some of these alternative designs can be funded with current financial products."