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Consultant Pokes Holes in Smart Growth Strategies

DENVER-It's irreverent, says the consultant, but it's true that smart growth promotes a density mired in traffic and congestion problems. Wendell Cox had leveled his claims before 150 business leaders of the Apartment Association of Metro Denver.

By John Rebchook | Updated on January 31, 2001

DENVER-Smart growth isn’t so smart. In fact, it’s downright stupid. At least that’s the controversial message from Wendell Cox, of Wendell Cox Consultancy in Belleville, IL.

Cox had been the keynote speaker at the 2001 Economic Forecast sponsored by the Apartment Association of Metro Denver. “I’m irreverent and I’ll probably tell you things you’ve never heard before,” says Cox, prefacing his remarks to more than 150 business leaders attending the conference.

He believes smart growth in Denver, and in other cities, typically promotes density as a replacement for urban sprawl. The problem, he says, is that smart growth solutions actually increase traffic congestion and air pollution, the very problems it is suppose to solve. “It’s like when our first president, George Washington, was dying,” Cox says. “What did the doctors of his day do? They bled him to death.”

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