The Smart Growth Leadership Institute Policy Audit (2004/2005) template, produced by the Smart Growth Leadership Institute Exit and funded in part through a cooperative agreement with EPA, allows communities to assess their development policies. The audit evaluates a community's policies compared to generally accepted smart growth best practices, organized according to the Smart Growth Network's 10 smart growth principles.Exit

• Issue categories covered:
  • Provide a variety of transportation choices
  • Mix land uses
  • Create a range of housing opportunities
  • Create walkable neighborhoods
  • Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration
  • Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place
  • Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective
  • Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas
  • Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities
  • Adopt compact building patterns and efficient infrastructure design
• Number of questions: 10 sections with up to 11 questions per section
• Scale of each rated component: Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor
• Summary score: No

See more scorecards to help evaluate municipal-level policies, specific projects, and community components on EPA's Smart Growth Scorecards page.

• SGLI Policy Audit (PDF)(8 pp, 132 K)