Baltimore City's Can Company is featured by the EPA as a Smart Growth case study.
Smart Growth Priority Funding Areas are existing communities and places where local governments want State investment to support future growth. Development guided by smart growth principles can minimize air and water pollution, encourage brownfields clean-up and reuse, and preserve natural lands. Counties may designate Priority Funding Areas if they meet guidelines for availability, use, residential density, and infrastructure.
Smart Growth has four straightforward goals:
- Support existing communities by targeting resources to support development in areas where infrastructure exists;
- Save our most valuable natural resources before they are forever lost;
- Save taxpayers from the high cost of building infrastructure to serve development that has spread far from our traditional population centers; and
- Provide Marylanders with a high quality of life, whether they choose to live in a rural community, suburb, small town, or city.
Maryland has adopted the following principles of Smart Growth, which provide guidance for new development, infill development, and redevelopment:
- Mix land uses;
- Take advantage of compact building design;
- Create housing opportunities and choices;
- Create walkable communities;
- Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of plan;
- Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas;
- Provide a variety of transportation options;
- Strengthen and direct development to existing communities;
- Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective; and
- Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions.