What We Do

Lean Urbanism is an international campaign to facilitate small-scale economic development and enable neighborhood revitalization. Lean Urbanism recognizes the value that vibrant, thriving networks of small businesses, small spaces, and small developments bring to their communities. They provide housing at lower costs. They make local markets more diverse, robust, and sustainable. They provide more jobs and keep wealth in communities. They create shared prosperity by enabling participation in economic development. And they strengthen local tax bases by contributing more property and sales taxes per acre while costing less for infrastructure and services.

Lean Urbanism also recognizes that placing the same requirements on all projects regardless of scale puts a disproportionate burden on small projects. Unleashing the power of small actors and small projects enables community-driven growth and revitalization, with residents and business owners not only participating in, but also leading and benefitting from the efforts.

The nonprofit Project for Lean Urbanism provides free tools, low-cost strategies, and technical assistance to level the playing field for small projects, allowing more people to participate in building their homes, businesses, and communities. We’re Making Small Possible.

Need help creating a Pink Zone?

We provide the Pink Zone Manual for you to create a Pink Zone yourself. The Manual walks you through the process with step-by-step instructions, and you can download it for free.But if you need help, we’re here. Whether it’s answering a question, coaching you through the process, or on-site project management, we can help you enable Lean Urbanism in your community. Fill out this form and we’ll discuss how we can be of help.