The Environmental Law Institute® has just released a report showing that states can link their investments in open space with practical measures to shape community growth and economic development. Smart Links: Turning Conservation Dollars into Smart Growth Opportunities, examines land conservation programs across the U.S. for linkages between public funding for land acquisitions and the development of smart growth policies — including urban revitalization, development patterns that conserve waterways and habitat, and targeted improvements of transportation and infrastructure.
Five states have made significant strides in integrating substantial conservation funding with smart growth incentives. These Smart Links states — Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey — show that a statewide vision of important ecological lands, when coupled with attention to patterns of local land development, can enhance the effectiveness of both efforts. Eleven other states, also addressed in the study, have elements of “smart links” in their conservation programs.
What incentive would encourage state and local governments to take on this kind of comprehensive land use planning? Funding for land acquisition and conservation is rising to historic levels at the federal, state and local levels. The proposed Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA), currently under consideration in Congress, would substantially increase federal conservation funding to the states. But the act currently is missing the concept of Smart Links.
“Tying federal and state conservation funding to the implementation of smart growth policies is the missing piece in our current conservation efforts,” says ELI Senior Attorney James McElfish. “State and local governments need to exercise their land use authority to ensure that land adjacent to the protected conservation land is used in a manner which contributes to the health of the conserved land as well as the rational development of the broader community.”
One highly effective way to protect conservation lands is to promote smart growth policies in all land conservation planning. “We have a unique opportunity in our national and state conservation efforts to establish such a linkage that would ensure that conservation dollars are spent wisely and the investment is protected” says McElfish. “This new conservation funding presents a significant opportunity to leverage the adoption and implementation of smart growth tools by linking them to the receipt of the conservation funds.”
The report was also sponsored by the Smart Growth Network, a nationwide coalition of business, environmental, and public policy organizations dedicated to quality of life, economic development, and conservation.
Smart Links: Turning Conservation Dollars into Smart Growth Opportunities may be ordered from ELI by calling (800) 433-5120, or via email to orders@eli.org. Or click on the title above to order online. For more information about this report or the Environmental Law Institute please visit our website at http://www.eli.org, or call ELI at (202) 939-3800.