Smart growth supportsthe integration of mixed land uses into communities as a critical component of achieving better places to live.

• By putting uses in close proximity to one another, alternatives to driving such as walking or biking, once again become viable.
• It helps streets, public spaces and pedestrian-oriented retail to once again become places where people meet, attracting pedestrians back onto the street and helping to revitalize community life.
• Mixed land use can convey substantial fiscal and economic benefits. In today's service economy, communities find that by mixing land use, they can make their neighborhoods attractive to workers who increasingly balance quality of life criteria with salary to determine where they will settle.
• Smart growth provides a means for communities to alter the planning context which currently renders mixed land use illegal in most of the country.

Adopt comprehensive plans and sub-area plans that encourage a mix of land uses.

Encourage the redevelopment of single uses into mix-used developments.

Accommodate the reuse of closed, decommissioned, or obsolete institutional uses.

Provide incentives for ground-floor retail and upper-level residential uses in existing and future development.

Locate neighborhood stores in residential areas.