Senior Researcher Kennedy Smith explains why smart planning and zoning policies are so important for local economies — for a webinar hosted by The National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) and NADO Research Foundation. Watch the webinar above or here.
Kennedy Smith“One of the great ironies I have found over the years is that Main Street revitalization actually doesn’t take place on Main Street, it takes place in the community’s planning and land use policies and laws.”
Planning and zoning are sometimes overlooked and underemphasized in economic development efforts, but they have an enormous impact on the economic health — or failure — of a community’s commercial districts. Zoning codes that encourage mixed-use development, walkability, and business diversity, for instance, are much more likely to cultivate a vibrant, interdependent economic ecosystem than zoning codes that don’t.
In this webinar, ILSR Senior Researcher Kennedy Smith and Angela Brown, Metropolitan Area Planning Commission Chief of Economic Development, talk about how informed planning and zoning decisions are crucial to successfully revitalizing business districts in communities of all sizes. Watch the webinar above or here.
On Talking Headways, Stacy Mitchell talks with Jeff Wood about how the rules that govern our built environment have fueled corporate concentration and harmed democracy
Community leaders have good reason to be concerned about chain dollar stores. Here's an explanation of 17 ways dollar stores can hurt communities.
As dollar stores multiply rapidly across the U.S., cities are developing dollar store-specific policies to rein in their growth.
ILSR Senior Researcher Kennedy Smith talked to the Mayors' Institute on City Design about how to help Main Street businesses survive the pandemic.