‘Smart Growth’ Is Focus of Urban-Planning Symposium

It may seem that any campaign to fight suburban sprawl in Southern California is about a century late. The region already stretches for 100 miles in many directions, jammed with a mishmash of shopping malls, parking lots, warehouses and tract homes.

However, a group of Southern California government officials, planners and real estate industry representatives will gather Wednesday in Los Angeles to start working on a plan to promote “smart growth” as an antidote to the problems--from traffic congestion to blight--that many urban planners say are the result of uncontrolled sprawl.

Smart-growth principles include focusing development in existing communities, protecting open space and creating viable transportation alternatives to the automobile. The recommendations generated by the daylong symposium at the Regal Biltmore Hotel will be used as part of a campaign to change state policies to encourage smart growth.

“If most of your investment energy is going out on the fringe, what you are not doing is investing in the existing urban fabric,” said Steve Sanders, executive director of the California Futures Network, a coalition of civic groups that will sponsor the conference. “Smart growth is not really about stopping suburban development. It’s how we create workable regions.”

Suburban sprawl has become a topic of discussion as many elected officials--from California Gov. Gray Davis to Vice President Al Gore--have taken up the campaign to corral suburban development. In addition to government leaders, many business executives and corporations, including Bank of America, have publicly raised concerns about the costs of uncontrolled sprawl.

“The reason it’s an issue is because it affects people in their daily lives,” Sanders said, referring to everything from traffic congestion to water quality.

One of the participants in this week’s event will be a representative from the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California. The trade group has expressed its concern in the past that many advocates of smart growth are also supporters of government policies that restrict growth.

Richard Lambros, executive vice president of the builders group, said smart-growth policies must recognize that the need for building new and affordable housing is paramount. “Smart growth is still an evolving term and evolving philosophy. We believe very strongly that smart growth begins with the concept that growth is inevitable.”