Title: What’s to Become of Small Towns? | RRM
Headings: What’s to Become of Small Towns?
What’s to Become of Small Towns?
Acting Regionally
Plan Locally

Content: City-centered growth is a planning paradigm that recognizes the benefits of concentrating populations to leverage efficiency, functionality and proximity of services in large metropolitan areas. This model for growth virtually precludes small town living as a viable growth option. Nonetheless, the principles of city-centered growth can be applied to assist small towns in eliminating sprawl, preserving agriculture and natural resources, and improving mobility and walkability. However, there are challenges: Small towns have limited resources, and the promise of assistance from state and federal grants is quickly fading. Staffing levels at public agencies are often insufficient to provide the range of services necessary for comprehensive planning and implementation. There is a greater resistance to higher density housing options. Lower population numbers make transit opportunities infeasible. Zoning regulations are often difficult to change and become obstacles to city-centered growth practices. Small towns tend to try and act like their “big city” relatives and compete for independent economic growth (to the detriment of small town character), rather than recognize their integral place in the regional landscape.