What Is Smart Growth?

Video Transcript

"My name is Bill Rae. I'm with Alumni Financial Services out of Seminole Florida. I've been in the finance and the business world for over thirty years. The question that we're going to talk about is what is smart growth. This is a recent phenomena, a new buzz word that has come about the last five years or so. In it's purest form, smart growth is intended to have controlled growth, if you will, of a particular area. What I mean by that is cities are starting to use this to control density and where their sizes are growing out to so you don't have random growth of, for instance, I want to live close to my home, but I go ten miles out and just plop a home there and start farming and a few of my relatives come out and the next thing you know we have a little subdivision out there. In its purest form, smart growth is supposed to be able to control this urbanized growth and contain cost. It's also supposed to help lower our carbon foot print on this earth, but you know sometimes well intended thoughts don't necessarily translate into the real world. Think of it this way, if cities are impacting their growth and their densities by determining who can build where via zoning, in taxation and all sorts of regulation; what it means is you're putting more and more people into the same area trying to maximize the usage of everything to supply that; the gasoline, the electric, you know, transportation, and everything else. Look around you, however, and you begin to realize that this may not be working out the way we think it should. Cost of housing have skyrocketed even in today's day and age, with the recent downturns, houses are much more expensive in some of these areas than they've ever been before, and it stands to reason. If more people want to come into a particular area and that area is highly restricted, the cost to get in is going to get up. So, like everything else in life, you really need to use some common sense and think these things out. There's plenty of room for debate. I hope you continue to search and to make your voice known. My name is Bill Rae. Hope that helped. I'm with Alumni Financial Services and always, we're here to help you build true wealth."