Strategies for growing competitive communities require an understanding of growth trends and an assessment of growth impacts on economic, social and environmental health. The Urban Land Institute (ULI), the South Carolina Real Estate Center (SCREC), and the South Carolina Quality Growth Initiative’s Statewide Committee issued a 2003 report: Growing by Choice or Chance, State Strategies for Quality Growth in South Carolina.

Among the statewide trends explored are: Growth and development projections to 2025; demographic trends; housing trends; hotel trends; shopping center trends; office/ industrial trends; infrastructure needs; urbanizing land use trends; and environmental trends. By looking at anticipated population growth and anticipated settlement patterns certain projections can be rationalized about needs for the future. Based on the number of new residents there are several square foot rules of thumb can be applied:

·One new housing unit for every 1.5 new residents
·20 to 30 square feet of retail per person
·15 to 20 square feet of office space per person
·60 to 80 square feet of industrial and warehouse space per person
·One hotel room per 40 to 70 residents

Assembling such square foot data for your community will narrow the range of these growth measures. Utilizing such projections is a means for determining public cost to support growth and for making land use decisions that affect future generations for the next 100 years. The report is also instructive in comparing the state to national trends. Some interesting national trends for comparing your community include:

·Growth is fastest in suburban counties, followed by urban with least growth in rural counties.
·19% of the nations children live in poverty
·The median household income in 1999 was $41,944
·Approximately 63% of housing is single family
·Manufactured housing is 7.6% of all housing
·15% of households have critical housing needs based on affordability
·65% of all households can afford median priced new housing
·6-10% of Americans own second homes
·The national average is 105 hotel rooms per facility
·The average hotel rooms per capita is .014
·The average shopping center size is 124,000 square feet
·Shopping Centers capture 50% of all retail sales
·7% of the nation’s retail malls are greyfield sites and another 12% are anticipated to fall into this category

The following is an excerpt from the summary of recommendations that includes 10 guiding principles:

“The Statewide Committee believes that growth should be accommodated in ways that are economically sound, environmentally responsible, and supportive of community livability. A quality growth strategy for South Carolina should seek to remedy many of the problems caused by growth that is haphazard and inefficient. These problems include increased traffic congestion, lack of affordable housing, a jobs/housing imbalance, loss of prime farmland and natural resource areas, and shortfalls of public funds to provide needed capital improvements and public services.

Principle 1: Preserve and enhance South Carolina’s quality of life.
Principle 2: Encourage comprehensive land use planning.
Principle 3: Enhance and revitalize existing communities.
Principle 4: Develop mixed-use communities.
Principle 5: Coordinate transportation investments with land use decisions.
Principle 6: Preserve open space, natural resources, and the environment.
Principle 7: Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost-effective.
Principle 8: Respect private property rights.
Principle 9: Foster governmental collaboration and coordination.
Principle 10: Encourage education and community participation.

A high quality of life and economic vitality do not come about by accident: they require a clear vision and effective planning.”

The report also provides a good list of the benefits of planning for quality growth. Embracing comprehensive planning as a strategy for the future is a challenge. This report places great responsibility on the state to guide these efforts. The dialogue required to shape competitive communities requires greater involvement of citizens in shaping plans and accepting responsibility for implementation. In several previous entries - Connecting the Dots, Growing in for the Future and Politics of Place - we have described the value of community involvement and placing responsibility for implementation of specific area comprehensive plans in the hands of a non-profit development corporation.