Quality Growth

Welcome to the Quality Growth Forum. The Quality Growth Committee's mission is to provide information about and support quality growth strategies that ensure sustainable growth, livability, economic vitality, and the State's environmental quality. During the 2008 Summit for a Sustainable Tennessee, we met to begin to develop an overall policy agenda that addressed Quality Growth as a component of the overall agenda.

The following are the current items included in our agenda.

The State of Tennessee should enhance Public Chapter 1101, Comprehensive Growth Plan Act, to require long range comprehensive planning in support of the future sustainable growth and development, livability, economic vitality and environmental quality of Tennessee. Other state laws, regulations and policies dealing with zoning, subdivision regulations, infrastructure design and funding, and capital budgeting should also be evaluated and updated to support implementation of quality growth principles, comprehensive planning and sustainable design and development. Growth planning under PC 1101 and comprehensive planning under Title 13, Tenn. Code Annot. should be fully integrated.
New state, regional and local incentives and/or requirements for quality growth, comprehensive planning, infrastructure design and funding, and sustainable design and development projects should also be researched and implemented as part of a comprehensive approach to re-frame Tennessee's growth and development decisions, patterns and investments.
New actions by local governments and state-level departments will be necessary to accomplish these recommendations. The State of Tennessee should build on the "Quality Growth Toolbox" developed and piloted by Cumberland Region Tomorrow and encourage all regions of the state to adopt similar principles and elements of effective comprehensive planning. Application of updated community development and planning concepts, sustainable design and development strategies, and focused tools and incentives will allow local governments to make appropriate changes to city or county local regulations that promote new, best practices to get quality growth outcomes. These efforts will also support related state, regional and local initiatives such as regional planning for mass transit, sustainable infrastructure investments, and open space and natural resource conservation.

If you would like to be a part of the Quality Growth Committee, please contact Brian Phelps, 615.255.5218, email, b.phelps at hawkinspartners.com (replace "at" with @).