Guidebooks

Ahwahnee Principles for Smart Economic Development: An Implementation Guidebook
This guidebook will help communities to implement a comprehensive set of principles for building prosperous and livable places.

Better Models For Development in California: Ideas for Enhancing Small Towns and Suburban Communities
This manual shows how to revitalize older parts of these communities and also how to shape new development so that it can improve quality of life.

Building Livable Communities: A Policymaker's Guide to Infill Development
Helps to answer two of a policymaker's most frequently asked questions: "Why build in town?" and "What can local government do to encourage infill development?"

Building Livable Communities: A Policymaker's Guide to Transit-Oriented Development
Addressing the questions of "why build near transit" and "why should elected officials, land use agencies and developers pay more attention to development near transit than to any other kind of development."

Compact Development CD (CD²)
A Toolkit to Build Support for Higher Density Housing.

Creating Great Neighborhoods: Density in Your Community
This publication provides readers with an understanding of the connections between smart growth and density; highlights the success of nine community-led efforts to create vibrant compact neighborhoods; and introduces five time tested design principles to ensure that density becomes a community asset and not a liability.

Emergency Response: Traffic Calming and Traditional Neighborhood Streets
This manual addresses the concerns that fire departments and other emergency responders have about efforts to calm traffic and build narrower streets.

Participation Tools for Better Land-Use Planning
This informative guidebook describes ways to improve the level and quality of citizen participation in land-use planning.

Real Towns: Making your Neighborhood Work
This is a handbook for real people — people who live in small towns, new suburbs or big cities; in downtown neighborhoods, historic districts or high-rise condos.

Revitalizing Older Suburbs: Strategies and Case Studies from Southern California
This guidebook was designed for use by local government officials and community leaders interested in identifying strategies for revitalizing older suburbs.

Smart Growth Zoning Codes: A Resource Guide and CD
This guidebook will help planners design a zoning code that encourages the construction of walkable, mixed use neighborhoods and the revitalization of existing places.

Street Design Guidelines for Healthy Neighborhoods
This guidebook will help communities implement designs for streets that are safe, efficient and aesthetically pleasing for both people and cars.

Streets and Sidewalks, People and Cars: The Citizen's Guide to Traffic Calming
This hands-on guide gives citizens the tools they need to evaluate and improve the safety of their neighborhood residential and commercial streets.

Guidelines

20 Questions to Ask Your Staff
Questions for elected officials to ask their staff.

Building More Livable Communities: Design Considerations for Multifamily Housing
An elected official's checklist for compact residential projects.

Designs and Codes that Reduce Crime around Multifamily Housing