Something governments in Johnson county should consider.
From the Gazette
Come the new year, Cedar Rapids plans to use a "smart-growth" score card to grade development projects brought in front of the city for approval.
Such a move is a new direction for City Hall, and it is intended to encourage developers to design projects in line with the City Council's goals and vision for the city.
In broad terms, the council has talked at length over many months about trying to discourage urban sprawl, which is costly for cities because it requires them to extend police and fire and other services to a wider and wider area. In-fill development that builds in the existing city is less costly to service.
As now proposed, the score card will give a project a score on 32 particular goals in six categories: proximity to infrastructure and city services; protection of the land; housing options; mix of uses; transportation options; and character and design.
"This will be very controversial," City Manager Jim Prosser advised the City Council at its noon discussion Thursday of the proposed development score card. "It certainly will be viewed by some developers as more bureaucracy, more paperwork."
In recent years with other city councils here, City Hall task forces made up largely of members of the development community have focused on streamlining the development approval process. More
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