Sensible Tools for Healthy Communities

Livable, attractive communities are created as a result of hundreds, even thousands, of development decisions. How can local elected and appointed officials increase the odds that they make the right decisions? This Workbook was created to meet that need.

Sensible Tools for Healthy Communities uses U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 10 Principles of Smart Growth as the framework for development review. The step-by-step guidebook is written for municipal officials — planning commissioners, zoning boards, and city councils. The Sensible Tools format and process — aided by the expertise of a broad-based technical advisory team — provides the template for future guidebooks and the interactive exercises for training community leaders that accompany them.