Smart Growth admits of no clear definition. It provides a popular label for a growth strategy that addresses current concerns about traffic congestion, disappearing open space, nonpoint source pollution, the high cost of housing, increasing local property taxes, longer commutes, and the diminishing quality of community life. To accomplish smart growth, government must take two related actions. The first is the designation of discrete geographical areas into which private market growth pressures are directed. The second is the designation of other areas for recreation, conservation, and environmental protection. This reduces a complicated subject to its two most essential features and leaves much for further discussion. This focus, however, permits a precise description of how smart growth can be implemented, if a consensus for it is developed.

The purpose of this Article is to illustrate the practical side of smart growth—the tools and techniques used by local governments in New York State to carry out smart growth strategies and, by example, to illustrate how communities in other states can do the same. New York is a particularly appropriate jurisdiction to use for such an exercise since its municipalities have been delegated ample authority to adopt creative land use strategies. The Article first discusses how local governments can encourage private sector development to occur in appropriate places. It then turns to an examination of how they can ensure the conservation of critical landscapes. If both are done effectively, smart growthobjectives are realized, at least at the local level.