Read more from Mondale on light rail affordable housing polluted site cleanup expanding transit and the Smart Growth Twin Cities project . We're framing smart growth around three principles. Number one, economic growth is good. We need to accommodate where people live and not have a restrictive policy of trying to shut down growth. Many would say what we ought to do is shut down the infrastructure to growing communities and growth will come into the core of the Twin Cities.
Smart growth rejects that as a principle.
The second principle is about preserving the environment - most people want open space close to where they live. We have public amenities we need to preserve and government has to have a role in that or they're not going to be there. Third, we have to be fiscally conservative with our infrastructure - we need to determine what is the best use for the dollar. Because it degrades the environment and ends up costing us a great deal of money, much more than if we grow in a smarter way. Business gets the concept, too.