Growing Smarter Means Growing Safer
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Michael Paul Williams is to be commended for his keen insight in bringing the need for smarter growth to the attention of readers. In his recent column, "Remnants of Malls Point to Need for Smarter Growth," he relays the Partnership for Smarter Growth's effort to highlight how regional development patterns have caused inner suburbs to decay while sprawl continues to devour the Richmond region's outer suburbs.
Driven by market forces intent on reaping short-term gains and enabled by an automobile-dependent transportation system, defunct malls display acres of empty parking lots in our inner suburbs while dysfunctional land use patterns consume farmland and forests at the edge of our city. If this pattern persists, we may witness the evolutionary decline of Short Pump Town Center, Stony Point Fashion Park, and White Oak Village, while we drive ourselves further to shop in the counties of Goochland, Louisa, Dinwiddie, or New Kent. Scary, isn't it?
Sheila Sheppard, coordinator of the Partnership for Smarter Growth, is asking the right questions and offering promising solutions. She asks, "How many more dead malls do we need before we realize this isn't good economic development strategy?" She suggests the initiation of an inclusive regional visioning process based on the successful charrette model used to facilitate citizen participation in the planning process for Richmond's Downtown Master Plan. Soliciting citizens' input on alternative modes of transportation for the region would be a good beginning.
It is heartening to learn that Richmond's City Council may be listening. Recently announced plans for making Jahnke Road safer with sidewalks, a bike path, and a way to separate traffic on this busy two-lane road attest to an effort to stabilize and reinvest in older neighborhoods.
Growing smarter means growing safer, healthier, and more prosperous.
Jane C. Koontz.
Henrico.
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