Plans: Policy Geographies of Sustainable Growth

Abstract

This chapter focuses empirically on the “intercurrence of intentions” that characterizes the policy geographies of smart growth across Greater Seattle. Focusing methodologically on the substantive content of adopted plans at various territorial scales of authority, from the neighborhood to the federal government but especially local plans, I argue for the ideational and institutional coexistence of multiple orders as Greater Seattle seeks to reshape the uneven geography of local metropolitan life into putatively more sustainable forms and functions in the coming years. Local public plans, whether comprehensive, sub-area, or sectoral, are key governance spaces through which diverse values and interests in visions of urban sustainability inevitably emerge. Accordingly, the discussion considers various multi-scalar policy efforts to reshape the location, connectivity, design, and procedures associated with the uneven growth dynamics across the Greater Seattle city-region.