Issues: Smart Growth

Credits

Principal Authors
Michael L. Siegel
Public and Environmental Finance Associates

Contributing Authors
Jutka Terris and Kaid Benfield
Natural Resources Defense Council

Director of Communications
Alan Metrick

Publications Director
Nancy Vorsanger

About the Author

Michael Siegel is a public and environmental finance consultant based in Washington, D.C. and working on fiscal impact analysis, land use, housing financing, and development impact analysis throughout the U.S. His prior experience includes working as a regional planner, in western Colorado, as a public finance economist for a large engineering company, as the director of commercial revitalization for the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, and as assistant director of the Research Center of the Government Finance Officer's Association.

Some of Mr. Siegel's projects have included economic and fiscal impact analyses of major military installations, large scale minerals extraction and processing facilities, the corporate headquarters of a large multi-national telecommunications concern, a major new theme park and mixed use housing and commercial development, and a demand study for a major municipal water project. Mr. Siegel has developed fiscal impact models and prepared fiscal impact studies for several state and local governments, federal agencies, and non-profit organizations.

The Toolkit for Smart Growth

This report is a product of the Toolkit for Smart Growth, a project begun jointly by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Surface Transportation Policy Project. The Toolkit also has produced a comprehensive book on sprawl development, Once There Were Greenfields: How Urban Sprawl Is Undermining America's Environment, Economy, and Social Fabric (1999), available from online booksellers or from bookstores via special order, and Another Cost of Sprawl: The Effects of Land Use on Wastewater Utility Costs (1998), available separately from NRDC. A forthcoming volume will present a series of case studies documenting successful smart-growth development projects from around the United States.

Acknowledgments

The generous support and assistance of the following donors has enabled NRDC to begin and continue our work on smart growth: Surdna Foundation, Inc., the Urban and Economic Development Division of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, The Joyce Foundation, The J.M. Kaplan Fund, Inc., The George Gund Foundation, and The Nathan Cummings Foundation (for transportation-related issues). As with all our work, this report would not have been possible without the support of NRDC's 400,000 members.

This report was edited by Kaid Benfield and Nancy Vorsanger, with formatting and design by Tanya Washington.