Engaging Older Adults as Smart Growth Advocates

Emily Salomon, Center for Housing Policy

Peter Kirk Senior Center participants agree: “smart growth” helps older adults to remain active and healthy in the community! ________________________

As local governments grapple with growth and development pressures to meet the changing needs of their populations, residents often react with resistance and anxiety. Because of the controversy that so often accompanies debates on growth, local government leaders should seek community input early in the planning process, and they need to communicate clearly at every stage to inform residents as changes unfold.

The coming boom of older Americans presents a whole new take on these challenges. Older residents are much more likely to get involved in public debates on growth than are younger adults who are juggling work and family life. Older people often are more vulnerable to many of the environmental impacts of growth, and some are unable or unwilling to drive. They also have unique housing, transportation, health, and recreational needs.

Why Smart Growth Matters to Older Adults

Many of the past decade's smart growth development trends—which emphasize walkable neighborhoods that include a mix of housing, shops, civic buildings, and businesses—translate to communities that work well for people of all ages. The challenge for local governments is to build support from older residents to continue these development trends and to engage them in discussions about how new development should be designed so that it allows them to age in place.

By 2030, the 65-and-older population in the United States will double in size to more than 70 million, or 20% of the nation's population, according to U.S. census projections. Challenges inherent in these changing demographics demand heightened attention to environmentally sensitive development approaches and community design that can support older adults. "We know the 65-plus community is doubling, and this is an opportunity to help all generations," says Kathy Sykes of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Aging Initiative. "A lot of smart growth changes take time, and we see this as a window of opportunity to plan for the future."

By creating communities where people can choose to live within walking distance of their favorite café, library, or post office, local governments can enable older residents to continue to live independently. By increasing bus service and other transit options, cities make it possible for older people who cannot drive to live on their own and stay involved in community life.

Older adults benefit from smart growth because it helps them remain active and healthy and enables them to take care of themselves wherever they choose to live.

Engaging Older Adults in the Planning Process

The degree to which people get involved in smart growth planning can determine the success or failure of a project. If local residents do not participate in expressing development principles for themselves, in their own words, it is much more difficult for them to support the development.

The 2008 Kirkland Senior Council. (front) Sheryl Henry, Chair Barbee Pigott, Doris Ford (middle row) Art Mussman, Bob McCrory, Penny Kahn, Yanin Gaytan, Vice-Chair Don Bartleson (back) Dan Montgomery, Secretary Kathy Iverson, Diane Umayam, Joan Luster, Debbie Sinick. (Not Pictured: Bhaj Townsend) ____________________

By communicating with residents early about development plans and giving them the opportunity to be heard, local leaders promote a sense of fairness and set the tone for the entire approval process. The goal should be getting citizens to understand, support, and even demand smart growth solutions.

Older adults in Kirkland, Washington, have an established outlet to advocate for the development changes and choices they would like to see. The city supports the award-winning Kirkland Senior Council (pictured above), an advisory group made up of 13 older adults who advise the city council on the needs of older residents, thus giving voice to that community. Safety, loneliness, transportation, and affordable housing are among the most frequently raised concerns, reflecting the desire of many older adults to remain active and independent as they age.

Carrie Hite, deputy director of Kirkland Parks and Community Services, says Kirkland is focused on creating options for active aging and safe walking routes that, among other things, support the older adult community in its need for physical activity. Several new mixed-use developments have been built in Kirkland, and the new communities have promoted more pedestrian traffic and physical activity because the homes are in close proximity to stores, restaurants and other destinations. Having the advisory group to articulate these concerns has helped reinforce the idea that these are changes that residents would like to see.

Helping Older Adults Visualize Smart Growth

The way in which growth and development are communicated to the public by local government leaders is just as important as making sure community members help define their needs during the planning process.

Smart growth development approaches are more familiar to people today than they were even five years ago. But, to many, smart growth is still a relatively new and unfamiliar approach to development that breaks with what they have known for the past 50 years.

Kathryn Lawler, project director of Aging Atlanta, of the Atlanta Regional Commission, warns against using professional jargon to describe smart growth because it does not always resonate well with community members. The best way to communicate and market such ideas to the public, she suggests, is to translate the concepts in a way that relates to everyday life. If people can relate specific smart growth goals to their daily routines, they are that much more likely to become advocates, because they grasp what it actually means for them.

Here’s an example: When talking about increasing transportation options or promoting mixed-use development, local government leaders might talk about how these things improve air quality by reducing driving time and the number of trips. But advocates will find it more helpful to just speak in terms of traffic, something that matters to people every time they drive to work or to the grocery store. (Lawler's research indicates that older adults dislike the time they waste sitting in traffic and the feelings of insecurity and frailty it brings.)

When development practices are described as smart growth without a shared understanding of what that means, fear and mistrust can sometimes set in. Many visual tools such as models, photographs, and blueprints can be effective in communicating how smart growth looks and feels.

Culpeper, Virginia hosted a two-day community visioning process in 2006 to involve town residents in decisions about changes to revitalize the downtown. Rather than using industry and professional jargon to describe possible changes or worrying about the language used, town officials conducted a visual design preference survey to query residents about the landscape and physical environment by comparing images of what different development approaches look like. (See example at left.)

By asking people to rate different visual images, the town was able to warm them up to smart growth concepts without labeling the concepts as a certain type of development technique, suggests Noah Simon, former assistant town manager of Culpeper. (See Simon’s article in the November 2007 issue of Getting Smart! about this visioning process and how it contributed to Culpeper’s downtown revitalization.)

The important message to get across is that smart growth is not a radical new approach to development that tells people where and how they must live or that they must get rid of their cars, which were once common misconceptions. Culpeper's approach of using visual images to tell the story illustrated for residents that smart growth development can provide them with more choices that meet diverse needs and wants.

The message of “choice” may be the most important message for local government leaders to get across about smart growth. As an approach to development, it is all about providing lots of different choices: ways to get around, types of homes to live in, types of neighborhoods, and ways to structure work and family lives.

Older adults see a number of advantages in smart growth—namely, the variety of personal choices that facilitate aging in place and healthy living. Articulating smart growth as something that can enhance quality of life and using common language, images, and public involvement will help build support from residents of all ages.

Emily Salomon was assistant project manager of ICMA's Livable Communities Team until 2007. She is now a research associate with the Center for Housing Policy.

This article was adapted for Getting Smart! by Meghan Sharp, editor, from an article that originally appeared in the September 2006 issue of Public Management Magazine.