‘Smart planning pays for itself,’ expert tells Baton Rougeans

To compete in the 21st century, regions must link economic development and land-use planning, says Mitchell Silver, chief planner for Raleigh, N.C., and president of the American Planning Association. Silver kicked off the 2012 Louisiana Smart Growth Summit with an opening address Monday evening. The success of North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park came from cooperation among government, business and higher education, he says. Plans for the Research Triangle envision an urbanized, mixed-use future. “Office parks are now a dinosaur of the 20th century,” Silver says. Young professionals seek the excitement of an urban environment, he says. Besides, the cost of building infrastructure and the shrinking inventory of available land mean that low-density sprawl is no longer an option. And while Raleigh and the Research Triangle continue to attract highly educated young adults, Baton Rouge is losing them. “You’re educating them, and they’re coming to our region,” Silver says. “To this generation, place matters, not the job.” He says Raleigh keeps taxes low and gets better value through downtown, as opposed to suburban, development. Major capital investments must be subjected to an ROI analysis; simply widening a road so people can get home a little earlier isn’t good enough. “We owe the taxpayers a return on investment,” he says. The summit continues in downtown Baton Rouge today with a number of seminars. Click here for the full schedule; and click here for a larger story from Business Report on the summit. —David Jacobs