American urban development is characterized by urban sprawl: the low-density, single-family housing and separated land uses that are dependent on automobile transportation. Sprawl has negative affects for the environment and for social health. In the last twenty years, planners and developers have adopted smart growth principles. Smart growth is a land-use philosophy and practice that promotes higher density housing, mixed-use neighborhoods, more open spaces, transit alternatives to the automobile, and social equity through mixed-income neighborhoods. It is viewed as an alternative to sprawl. The research project first examines the structural and cultural features of communities that both support and oppose smart growth development.

This dissertation then examines whether or not smart growth represents a break from the practices of conventional urban development, long theorized as a growth machine. The growth machine describes the collusion of land-use interests with local government to direct economic growth. The purpose of this inquiry is to determine if there is an empirically distinct smart growth machine.

A comparative approach is applied to twelve cities in Southern California and Oregon. Ten smart growth projects (SGPs) in four cities within California and Oregon were identified and semi-structured interviews were held with the respective developers, architects and civic officials, who were involved in the implementation process. Comparative, descriptive and grounded approaches were used to generate themes from interviews and other data sources. The dissertation culminates with a concluding chapter that briefly assesses the findings and their implications for social science, economic practice, and public policy.