Runaway Sprawl Not Just a Bay Issue

For residents of the Chesapeake Bay region, where the signing of a new Chesapeake Bay Agreement earlier this summer was initially threatened by a disagreement among the states over making a firm commitment to curb uncontrolled growth, sprawl-related issues have had a particularly high profile of late. Now, a recent poll strongly suggests that, throughout the country, Americans are fed up with traffic worsened by runaway sprawl. They favor “smart growth” to reduce traffic congestion, preserve existing communities, and protect the environment and open space.

Commissioned by Smart Growth America, a new nationwide coalition of more than 60 public interest groups, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the poll released today shows that 78 percent of Americans support specific policies to curb sprawl, the haphazard and wasteful spread-out development that is damaging the environment and draining resources from established communities. More than 80 percent of respondents think government should give priority to maintaining services and infrastructure in established communities before subsidizing new sprawl. Sixty percent of respondents favor investing more in public transit even if it reduces funding available for highway construction. Seventy-seven percent support making neighborhoods more pedestrian-friendly instead of building new highways.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation believes these poll results should serve as crucial reminders to state and local legislators in the Chesapeake Bay region of the importance of their commitments to reduce sprawl. In June 2000, the governors of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and the mayor of the District of Columbia, agreed to reduce by 2012 the rate of harmful sprawl by 30 percent and to permanently preserve 20 percent of the watershed from development by 2010.

“In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, approximately 90,000 acres of forests, farms, and wetlands are developed every year,” said Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William C. Baker. “The progress made to date to improve the health of the Chesapeake will be overwhelmed if we can’t slow the rate of suburban sprawl. Smart Growth America’s poll confirms that Americans realize we must use land more wisely.”

CBF encourages the State of Maryland to make good on its earlier promises to fully and adequately implement its Smart Growth Initiatives and the Governor’s Executive Order. “State capital agencies should invest strategically in smart growth areas in priority locations, and the Maryland Department of Transportation should create more transportation choice in those same places,” said Theresa Pierno, CBF’s Maryland executive director. “Local governments should encourage improvements in, and direct growth to, existing communities while discouraging the conversion of open lands.”

In a report accompanying the release of the poll results, Smart Growth America also cites other evidence that Americans’ attitudes towards growth are changing: rapid growth in the use of public transportation, strong voter support for smart growth ballot measures, and increased demand for housing in cities and close-in suburbs. For a copy of the report and the poll results, go to www.smartgrowthamerica.com.

In September 2000, Smart Growth America commissioned the opinion research firm Belden, Russonello & Stewart to conduct a geographically-balanced telephone poll among 1,007 adults aged 18 or older. The results were then weighted by gender, age, region and race to achieve a representative sample. The Smart Growth America poll follows a 1999 survey by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, which found that Americans rank traffic and urban sprawl as their top local concern, tied with crime and ahead of jobs and education.

Posted: 11-1-2000