Community Scorecards and Audits
A community scorecard or audit is a qualitative monitoring tool used by citizens and public officials to evaluate how well existing policies, projects, and plans meet a set of defined principles or to monitor progress in selected topic areas. One use is to evaluate a local government’s service in selected areas (for example, fire protection, public safety, land use planning practices, or provision of open space and parks). A scorecard can also be utilized to evaluate community livability, using factors such as neighborhood walkability, the quality of civic spaces, protection of natural systems, and the usability of transit, or to examine the potential benefits and drawbacks of development proposals. The livability factors evaluated are generally drawn from features that residents have said that they value in their community. A scorecard project, which should be designed for easy citizen use, can be sponsored by a variety of organizations, including a local or state government, regional agency, or a nonprofit civic organization. A number of entities provide information on community scorecards that evaluate how a community grows. They include the Growth Management Leadership Alliance, Smart Growth America, the Smart Growth Network, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which publishes the Smart Growth INDEX (SGI). SGI can be used to increase community understanding of the effects of development alternatives on the local and regional quality of life, provide input for new development alternatives, and demonstrate the environmental benefits of pursuing smart growth strategies.
More information on community scorecards is available from the American Planning Association [www.planning.org], the Growth Management Leadership Alliance [www.gmla.org], Smart Growth America [www.smartgrowthamerica.org], the Smart Growth Network [www.smartgrowth.org], and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [www.epa.gov].
