Infill and redevelopment planning tools enable communities to direct more of new development and the accompanying investments into existing urban and suburban areas that already have services. They do that by developing, redeveloping, and re-using existing sites and buildings in neighborhoods and commercial corridors and centers. Communities use infill (which applies to filling in vacant parcels) and redevelopment (which applies to constructing new development on previously developed land) to make more efficient use of existing infrastructure, such as streets, water, and sewer lines, and to lower the cost of public services, such as fire, police, and emergency service providers. Infill and redevelopment are also used to provide affordable housing, reduce pressures to expand urban and suburban areas further into the countryside or nearer to environmentally sensitive lands, and reduce traffic congestion by shortening commuting distances or eliminating the need to commute by providing houses closer to jobs. Infill and redevelopment programs also help revitalize downtowns, conserve energy through more compact development patterns and the reuse of materials, and enable greater use of transit and alternative modes of transportation.
Resources
Information on infill and redevelopment tools is available from a number of organizations, including, in Florida, the Florida Redevelopment Association [www.redevelopment.net]. At the national level, information is available from the American Planning Association [www.planning.org], the Congress for the New Urbanism [www.cnu.org], the National Trust for Historic Preservation [www.nationaltrust.org], Smart Growth America [www.smartgrowthamerica.org], the Smart Growth Network [www.smartgrowth.org], and the Urban Land Institute [www.uli.org].
