Smart Growth: How South Florida cities are building without sprawling By Eleana Teran Key points: - • Broward County municipalities are deploying free electric bus networks, bus rapid transit expansions, and commuter rail designations to align residential growth with existing transportation capacity. - • Cities including Miramar and Hollywood are using density bonuses and P3 structures to negotiate affordable and workforce housing units inside market-rate developments — without waiting for federal dollars. - • Mayors across the region frame smart growth as a coordination strategy: stack transportation investment, reduce parking mandates, and concentrate density along corridors that can already carry the load. May 2026 — Broward County has reached a turning point that no additional lane-widening will solve. Its municipalities have hit roadway buildout, housing costs have outpaced middle-income earners, and federal subsidies are shrinking. Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Miramar, and Sunrise are each responding by stacking transit investment, housing partnerships, and streamlined development policy in the same corridors. Their approaches are locally tailored, and the underlying logic driving each one points in the same direction is smart growth, which in Broward is now a regional operating strategy. Join us at the Invest: Greater Fort Lauderdale 8th Edition Leadership Summit! This premier event brings together hundreds of Atlanta’s business and regional leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities for businesses and investors. Buy your ticket now! Broward County is one of the most densely developed counties in the United States, with little vacant land remaining for conventional suburban expansion. The Broward MPO has long identified transportation demand as the county’s primary infrastructure constraint. Its long-range plans prioritize transit investment, signal coordination, and multimodal connectivity over roadway expansion, a framework that municipal governments are now translating into local land-use and housing policy centered on smart growth principles. Funding pressure The affordability pressure