The Blueprint for a Better Region is a technically sophisticated answer to the "how" of the Smart Growth debate. The Blueprint defines and promotes a positive vision to citizens, business community, local and state officials, media, and opinion-makers, and demonstrates the feasibility of the policies necessary to make this vision a reality. Instead of pursuing isolated responses to sprawl, the project is a coordinated and comprehensive strategy that helps put "growth in the right places."

• To protect open space, farmland and the Chesapeake Bay watershed, you must target growth into existing town centers;
• Utilization of existing infrastructure is more cost effective and sustainable than the creation of new development in rural areas;
• Future job creation is going to remain largely within a 20 mile radius of the metropolitan core;
• Communities centered around mass transit, rather than construction of new highways, are the solution to traffic congestion;
• Providing a fair share of affordable housing in each jurisdiction allows people to shorten their commutes;
• Construction of livable communities next to mass transit stations must increase to meet demand; and
• Viable economic development is possible without further degradation of open space.

To read the full Blueprint for a Better Region, or for more information, visit www.betterregion.org.