Urban Sprawl & Greener Communities

What is urban sprawl? How has urban sprawl affected Pennsylvania? What is sustainable development, and how does it work? What has Pennsylvania done to promote greener communities?

Urban sprawl is the irregular and often poorly planned spreading of urban development into adjoining lands. Many suburban residential developments are examples of urban sprawl. Poor community development not only disrupts natural ecosystems, but it also often procures unnecessary costs on residents.

A recently published report, The Costs of Sprawl in Pennsylvania, commissioned by 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania with several sponsoring organizations, examined different types of communities in Meadville, Williamsport, the Lehigh Valley, York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. The study highlighted the major impacts to rural regions, which included road costs, air pollution, the increased collective tax burden, and damage to streams and lakes. Sprawling development imposes high costs on Pennsylvania residents and communities. These costs range from more than $100 million per year in capital construction for local governments to mushrooming traffic in suburbs, and the decline of cities, boroughs, and townships across the state.

Sustainable development is one way to achieve compromise and enhance the quality of life for everyone in these communities by developing local assets to revitalize economies, limiting waste and pollution, improving the status of all people, conserving natural resources, and promoting efficiency. Achieving sustainable communities requires new physical forms for our rural regions, a commitment to planning, and community cooperation. Additionally, new economic models, new transportation models, and new values for the existing resources, revitalization, and community development are needed. Members of a sustainable community realize that long-term economic security depends upon having a sound, functioning ecosystem and a healthy social environment. Without farmland there would be no food, and without greenfields, the land would become would be a never-ending plain of malls, unneeded stores, and parking lots.

Some state governments have created programs to protect open spaces and farmland, such as the Growing Greener and Growing Smarter programs in Pennsylvania. The Growing Greener program aims to invest more than $650 million in land protection, and provide grants to organizations with ideas on how to protect Pennsylvania's natural resources, while the Growing Smarter program encourages effective land-use planning while respecting the rights of property owners.

http://www.great-lakes.net/teach/pollution/sprawl/sprawl_5.html, http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/landcenter/tracker/spring2003/SmartGrowth.html,