PlaNYC and Smart Growth: New York City's Urban Strategy

Introduction: PlaNYC and the Case for Smart Growth

In 2007, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg initiated PlaNYC. Based on the principles of Smart Growth, PlaNYC aims to prepare for and balance New York City's population growth, economic development, and environmental challenges. By 2010, the city of New York received the National Award for Smart Growth Achievement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with an overall excellence designation. Taking the direction of a greener and more efficient development means that it is time for the city that never sleeps to rest.

One of the main concerns of American urban governments today is to limit urban sprawl, expand revenue sharing, and increase affordable housing — and Smart Growth fits squarely within these objectives. Bloomberg's approach to New York's development is an example of how American metropolitan governments have returned to regionalism, yet with a newer perspective and updated strategies. A city with a long history and a strong economy, such as New York, shifting toward and focusing on a greener and greater plan sets a good model for many developing cities in the U.S. and around the world. PlaNYC is structured for long-term success, as it is updated every four years.

This paper examines the efforts of PlaNYC with respect to instituting the principles of Smart Growth. The progress the city has made thus far will be analyzed critically for its successes and for the areas where improvement is still needed. Furthermore, there have been critics of the plan, and some of what they have to say will be taken into account as well. The conclusion will effectively identify the current state of Smart Growth in New York and highlight potential areas for improvement.

Methodology and Variables

This paper is research-intensive, first seeking to understand what Smart Growth is and how PlaNYC fits within that framework. The successes that New York has enjoyed will then be examined using Smart Growth measures. A variety of sources are used, including sources specific to Smart Growth and to PlaNYC, as well as academic journals, media articles, and other publications that provide background and insight into the topic. Academic journals proved largely inadequate — for some reason, scholars have not treated this as an important subject of study. As a result, government sites and .org sites were the most commonly used sources for this information.

The Smart Growth website (2015) highlights the areas taken into consideration in Smart Growth. These include "health, schools, taxes, traffic, the environment, economic growth, fairness, and opportunity" as key categories where success can be measured. The underlying principle is that these are the ideas that citizens care about most — they reflect what goes into building happier lives in a civic environment. These concepts are adapted from the ICMA/EPA circular first published in 2006. Growth is considered "smart" when it improves communities across a wide variety of categories, allowing not just for better communities but for the ability to sustain those improvements.

Some of the key tenets of Smart Growth are mixed land uses, compact building design, a range of housing types, walkable neighborhoods, and fostering distinct communities with a strong sense of place. Increased density allows for better transportation options, greater efficiency in development, and a reduced impact of growth on farmland, open space, and areas of natural beauty (EPA, 2014). The EPA created the concept of Smart Growth and supports it through research, the production of reports, benchmarking, and facilitating partnerships. In essence, the EPA is a thought leader in this area, but it remains incumbent on communities to do the real work of Smart Growth through their powers of taxation, land-use zoning, public transportation, and the creation of a centralized vision for their communities — rather than allowing development to become haphazard and unplanned.

According to the official EPA website (2015), the concept of Smart Growth "covers a range of development and conservation strategies that help protect our health and natural environment and make our communities more attractive, economically stronger, and more socially diverse."

Analytical Discussion

As a large, dense city, New York City was always well-positioned to demonstrate Smart Growth principles. As Feuer (2010) notes, in 2005 New York had 1% of total national carbon emissions despite having 2.7% of its population, highlighting the inherent efficiency that large cities enjoy. In that respect, New York was always going to be a good model for Smart Growth — the potential is built into its transportation networks and dense neighborhoods. At the same time, there are also significant challenges. One tenet of Smart Growth is to improve green space, and this is difficult in so built-up a city. One of the things New York has been able to do is contribute to the East Coast Greenway, with a 44-mile stretch winding through the Bronx and Manhattan that will eventually encompass parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island as well (Greenway.org, 2015). This pathway links New York with the rest of the Eastern Seaboard, while also increasing recreational opportunities and residents' access to green space throughout the city.

Another project has been the conversion of a disused rail line into the New York High Line. By repurposing this industrial corridor into green space, the city is reclaiming land where parkland would otherwise be impossible due to the density of surrounding buildings. This is innovative land use, and because it is a city park, it was driven specifically by the City — work beginning even prior to PlaNYC as a showcase of what could be done.

All of this is part of the city's 400-mile greenway plan. There are now 72 miles of greenway routes throughout the city, off the roads. This not only makes excellent use of public land in keeping with Smart Growth objectives, but it also pulls more people out of vehicles. While New Yorkers have always been users of public transportation, they have been hesitant to embrace cycling as a means of transport, in part because of the inherent dangers of cycling in traffic. These cycling routes will encourage more people to cycle rather than drive, because they are safe, pleasant, and represent an efficient alternative to driving in a traffic-choked city. The city has built these corridors through a mix of revenue sources at the city, state, and federal level (Transalt.org, 2000).

The pedestrianization of Times Square is another example of Smart Growth in action, reflecting the principle that vehicle traffic need not always take primacy in public planning. Tourists love it, but pedestrianized areas can be implemented in other parts of the city as well, benefiting residents who prefer a quieter environment and where there is sufficient business density to support going car-free. This idea is not revolutionary — it is common throughout Europe — but it remains an important element of Smart Growth in America, and New York is actively seeking ways to embrace it.

New York's population growth must also be discussed. Where many cities along the East Coast are struggling to maintain their populations and may be dealing with urban blight, New York was at the forefront of confronting these issues. The city was not immune to blight — particularly in the 1970s and 1980s — but it embarked on a long-term strategy to restore itself. Areas that were once no-go zones are now thriving neighborhoods, and the result is that the city has remained vibrant and growing. The population of New York in 2010 was estimated at 19.378 million, growing to 19.746 million in 2014, a 1.9% growth rate. This may not seem like much, but New York is already a highly dense city with no room for outward growth — only growth through increased density.

This highlights one of the key tenets of Smart Growth. If the city needs to accommodate more people while also increasing green space and alternative transportation corridors, then something has to give. This is where smart building design comes into play. The City has the ability to influence building design through its powers of taxation and zoning. The City can create incentives — financial or otherwise — to encourage smart building design. New York's existing building stock has always relied on small flats as a means of achieving high density and efficiency, so the next step is to encourage new buildings to maintain these principles while improving liveability, green space, and energy efficiency. Rooftop gardens and solar panels, for example, are means by which a building can be smarter. Green building materials are another area where tax incentives can encourage their use in new construction. New construction areas can be better planned to reduce haphazard sprawl. All of this allows New York to better achieve its Smart Growth objectives.

For its part, PlaNYC continues to be a component of the city's urban planning — a natural fit, given that implementing such concepts typically takes a long period of time. City Hall created the Mayor's Office of Sustainability in order to develop, guide, and implement PlaNYC. This is a necessary component: resources must be allocated to strategies such as this in order to give them any hope of succeeding. The office has set a number of target metrics across several areas.

For example, New York is seeking to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from 2006 levels by 2050. Carbon emissions are a key element of Smart Growth for two reasons. First, carbon emissions impose a terrible cost on the environment, ultimately threatening human comfort and safety. Second, they represent a negative externality that has not been adequately priced into our economic system — a cost that will eventually be paid regardless. There is thus significant imperative for New York to reduce its carbon emissions and show the rest of the world's cities a pathway for doing the same. Reducing carbon also means rethinking the way life is designed. This is a core element of Smart Growth: the idea that a traditional, lazy growth model of sprawl, strip malls, and concrete is antithetical to a high quality of life. New visions of living must be created, and these will typically reflect a shift away from carbon dominance.

An 80% reduction is highly ambitious. There are many personal trips that can and should be made without cars, but many commercial trips are more difficult to decarbonize, and public transportation still relies on carbon. However, the City believes that by creating better non-carbon transportation infrastructure — walkable communities, commonplace bike lanes, and viable public transportation options — carbon use in transportation can be substantially reduced. The City's PlaNYC website (2015) points out that carbon emissions in NYC have thus far been reduced by 19%, putting the city on track for its 2050 target. The early reductions represent the low-hanging fruit that can be achieved most easily; future reductions will be more difficult. However, when there is a genuine shift in way of life, sustained reductions become possible because the design of communities and the mindset of their residents have fundamentally changed. Under such a philosophy, the 80% target remains achievable.

The City has also added 950,000 trees and 6 million square feet of reflective rooftop gardens and parks to the landscape. Such additions help to reduce carbon and beautify the city (NYC.gov, 2015). Trees function as a carbon sink, increase the liveability of the city, and improve the greenness of the urban environment without requiring any new parkland. Furthermore, they improve neighborhoods and encourage residents to put down roots in places they genuinely enjoy living in. Such an initiative may sound simple, but it works in terms of meeting both Smart Growth and PlaNYC objectives, and in building communities that people genuinely want to live in.

As part of PlaNYC, New York has also needed to respond to the environmental risks the city faces. Since initiating this plan, New York has experienced Hurricane Sandy and several major snow events. There is also an ongoing issue with shoreline erosion that threatens both the city's green spaces and its broader environment. Heat waves are common, especially in areas with few trees, so planting more trees and increasing green space helps to provide shade and reflect heat away from the city. The urban heat island effect causes temperatures in the city to be significantly higher than those in surrounding areas, but increased green spaces and reflective rooftops will reduce this effect substantially (NYC.gov, 2015).

Climate change has become a central part of PlaNYC's initiatives as well. The realization that approximately 800,000 people live within the 100-year floodplain of New York has created an imperative to relocate people away from those lands by 2050. There are also a number of projects to strengthen shoreline barriers, which will improve liveability and reduce environmental risk to residents. Buildings are encouraged to incorporate the principles of smart design and are also mandated to withstand environmental risks such as flooding and power outages. These requirements are implemented at the city level through building code changes, zoning regulations, and incentives (NYC.gov, 2015).

Overall, the city of New York has created a comprehensive plan implemented by multiple agencies within the city government. The City has created a centralized office to plan and manage these different initiatives, which succeed by pulling the resources of the city in the same direction, so that the actions of one agency are congruent with those of other agencies aiming for the same objectives. The Department of Transportation is involved in public transit, bike lanes, and the creation of pedestrian areas. The Department of Health can contribute valuable research, including design and construction studies. City Planning serves as a centralized authority that can guide policy. Tax policy and zoning requirements are among the civic-level tools driving change as part of PlaNYC.