What does a massive project like the 138-acre Atlantic Station, which includes 12 million square feet of retail, office, residential and hotel space in an upscale section of Atlanta, have in common with a small, 66-home property in Hopkins, Minnesota?

Both are among a dozen cutting-edge real estate projects that have been honored by the Sierra Club for positively transforming neighborhoods. But perhaps more laudable than the winners is the Sierra Club itself.

The nation's oldest and largest environmental organization is long known for its efforts to combat certain forms of development. But while the group does oppose poorly planned, sprawling development on natural areas and farmland, it also supports "quality investment" in areas that already have a history of development.

And in honoring projects that produce healthy neighborhoods and livable communities, the group wants to make the point that there is a better way to build.

"Too often, local governments accept poorly planned development, and the traffic that goes with it, because they believe they have no other choice," said the Sierra Club's Executive Director Carl Pope. "Our hope is that Americans will look at these winning projects and demand better projects in their own communities."

As part of its first-ever "Guide to America's Best New Development," the Sierra Club applauded a diverse set of projects, from cities large and small, to suburbs, to small towns in every corner of the nation.

To be considered for the club's top development honors, projects had to:

• Offer a range of transportation choices, including walking, biking, and public transportation;

• Redevelop existing areas as opposed to developing natural areas, working farmland or wetlands;

• Locate homes, retail shops and offices close to each other;

• Preserve existing community assets by re-using older buildings and protecting rivers, woodlands and farms;

• Minimize storm water pollution and handle runoff in an environmentally responsible manner; and

• Be the product of meaningful input by local citizens and reflect a broad set of local values.

The Sierra Club also considered "green building" techniques and housing affordability in compiling its list of the country's best new developments. But "the single most important factor" in all of these projects is that neighborhood residents actually had a say in how they were built, according to Pope.

"When you ask people what they want, they ask for ways to get to and from work without sitting in traffic, and they want walkable neighborhoods, clean water, and green space," he said.

By reinvesting in existing neighborhoods and creating more walkable, transit accessible places to live and work, a select subset of the nation's development leaders are raising the bar for neighborhood design, according to the development guide. "The point for state and community leaders is to not just rebuild, but to rebuild smarter and better. We think there is a lot to learn from these successful projects," Pope said.

The projects which made the Sierra Club's list of America's Best New Development Projects are:

• A historic renovation of four warehouses and a former transformer house to create a downtown campus in Tacoma for the University of Washington.

• A historically industrial area is now known as the Pearl District, a thriving mixed-use neighborhood in Portland, Ore.

• In collaboration with a private developer, the town of Windsor, Calif., has created a new downtown out of a 10-acre redevelopment area known as the Town Green Village Project.

• In Oakland, Calif., the Fruitvale Transit Village Project sits on a nine-acre parcel that was previously a parking lot.

• Bay Meadows, an ambitious mixed-use property near a rail station in San Mateo, Calif.

• Three years after the Winter Olympics stimulated redevelopment of Salt Lake City's central business district, the expansion continues.

• In Albuquerque, N.M., the heart of the East Downtown Redevelopment Project is an old high school that has been converted into loft apartments, condominiums and live-work spaces.

• In Hopkins, Minn., 13 miles from the Twin Cities, a blighted torpedo factory has been turned into a mixed-use commercial structure called Excelsior Tech Center using all recycled construction materials.

• The Milwaukee, Wisc., housing authority has replaced old buildings with new single-family houses.

• In affluent Manchester-By-The-Sea, Mass., a mixed-use, mixed-income infill project on 2.2 acres includes the redevelopment of a rundown 21-unit apartment building and the construction of a new 18-unit, owner-occupied condominium.

• The preservation and restoration of Southside, one of the most historically affluent neighborhoods in Greensboro, N.C.

• Atlanta's Atlantic Station, one of the largest brownfield redevelopments in the country.