The last three months have demonstrated just how closely Smart Growth and Sustainability are related. My last post was pre-Wall Street meltdown, but we now live in a new world – at least financially. If we’re smart we will give some thought to how our planning policies and decidedly “un-Smart Growth” have contributed to the financial crisis and what we can do to avoid a repeat in the future. Poor planning did not “cause” our current financial hardships, or course – part of the reason this crisis is so serious is that it was not caused by any one thing. But poor planning and land use controls did contribute to it.

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