Origins
In the early 1990s, the Disney Corporation proposed to locate its third U.S. theme park near Manassas National Battlefield in rural Virginia. The prospect of historic landscapes paved over like the Orlando region in Florida galvanized local citizens, environmentalists, and historic preservationists. Prominent national historians added their weight and helped to defeat the theme park. The groups involved in the Disney fight saw that the issues of regional growth and transportation were bigger than this one debate. They founded the Coalition for Smarter Growth in 1997 to coordinate a campaign for a better way to grow in the Washington D.C. Region.
A New Vision
Building on a series of reform reports (see below for list), the Coalition issued "Highway Robbery" in 1997 to challenge those who were pushing the outer beltway and continued outward sprawl as their preferred approach for the region. In 2002, the Coalition consolidated past reports into a vision captured in the PowerPoint "Blueprint for a Better Region."
"A New Approach: Integrating Transportation and Development in the National Capital Region" (WRN, 1992);
"A Better Way to Grow" (CBF, 1996);
"A Network of Livable Communities" (CBF, ED, 1996);
Campaigns and Cooperation
The Coalition went on to coordinate campaigns against the outer beltway and sprawl in rural areas, and for transit-oriented development, urban revitalization, transit, walkable/bikeable communities, affordable housing, land conservation, and balanced regional economic investment. Recognizing areas of agreement, the Coalition and Chesapeake Bay Foundation partnered with business groups - the Urban Land Institute, Greater Washington Board of Trade, and Metropolitan Builders Council, to found the Smart Growth Alliance in December, 2000. The SGAlliance now includes a jury that reviews and endorses smart growth developments, a jury that endorses land conservation initiatives, Enterprise Community Partners and other joint activities.
A Winning Record
In 2002, the Coalition challenged the transportation sales tax referendum in Northern Virginia because of its failure to tie funding to better land use planning. The voters agreed and rejected the tax package. In 2005, the Coalition joined with the SGAlliance, Urban Land Institute and others to sponsor the Reality Check regional conference. Over 300 government, non-profit, civic and business participants proposed allocations for regional growth, endorsing land conservation, transit-oriented development, more jobs and investment for the east side of the region, and mixed-use development -- concepts prominent in our "Blueprint for a Better Region." Since 2005, regional jurisdictions have made these principles central to their agendas.
