CBF Says Sprawl Threatens to Overwhelm Chesapeake Bay Restoration Efforts

In 25 years, more than 3,500 square miles of forests, wetlands, and farms--an area 50 times greater than Washington, D.C.--will be converted to urban land in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, according to a report issued by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The report, Land and the Chesapeake Bay, details how suburban sprawl, if continued at the rate experienced during the 1990s, threatens to overwhelm progress made to date to improve the health of the Chesapeake.

"The report paints a sobering picture of what we have lost and what we won’t be able to give our children if development patterns don’t change," explained Lee Epstein, director of CBF’s Lands Program. "It strongly reinforces the urgent need for the Bay states, localities, the private sector and individuals to take specific steps toward changing how land is used, and toward better stewardship of open space."

Land and the Chesapeake is the first comprehensive collection of Chesapeake Bay watershed land-use and sprawl statistics. It presents a year 2000 snapshot of the state of the land as it relates to protecting and restoring the Bay and builds a strong case for the need for better ways to manage growth and development in the watershed. It details trends toward the destruction of natural lands, increasing population, declining water and air quality, grid-lock, and rising costs to local economies. The report uses a variety of measures to examine how and why the resource base is changing. The startling findings include:


Sprawl has increasingly reduced the open spaces that are vital both for people and the Bay. In the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area, the rate at which land is being consumed exceeds the population growth rate by almost 2.5 times.

Sprawl has helped increase traffic by distancing people from jobs, shopping, and travel. From 1970 to 1994, the population in the Chesapeake Bay watershed grew 26 percent while vehicle miles of travel (VMT) in the watershed increased by 105 percent.

Sprawl hurts local economies and increases taxes by exponentially increasing demands for fundamental public services like roads, classrooms, firefighters, and police. Each new sprawl-designed home costs Virginia’s Prince William County $1,600 more than is returned in taxes and other revenues.
The report follows the June 28, 2000 signing of a new Chesapeake Bay Agreement, in which a major sticking point had been a disagreement among signatories-including Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia-about how to curb uncontrolled sprawl.

CBF is asking the Commonwealth of Virginia to create a permanent funding source for land conservation and to support local government efforts to better manage growth. “The General Assembly needs to provide localities more avenues for managing the unintended consequences of haphazard growth and support new incentives for preserving vital open space, forests and agricultural land,” said Joseph Maroon, CBF’s Virginia Executive Director. “A simple but important step would be a state requirement that local zoning conform to local comprehensive plans.”

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.”

According to CBF’s Pennsylvania Executive Director Jolene Chinchilli, “Pennsylvania should continue to fund land conservation programs. The state legislature recently passed amendments to the Municipalities Planning Code, and the Commonwealth should now encourage municipalities to plan land use jointly and cooperatively, using modern planning tools such as traditional neighborhood development, transfer of development rights, designated growth areas, and protection of rural and natural resource lands.”

In addition, CBF is asking developers to seriously consider opportunities to build in and strengthen existing communities, while taking advantage of the many strategies and techniques available to limit the impact of development on the local environment. Private citizens can play a powerful role by working with their elected officials to ensure that low impact development is encouraged, buying in existing communities, and locating new businesses in already developed areas.

The new Bay Agreement provides a goal and an impetus," said CBF President William C. Baker. "Our new report shows us where we are now. Today we're calling on governments and citizens to take the bull by the horns with positive, definitive steps as soon as possible."

Land and the Chesapeake Bay - Quick Facts

Controlling sprawl and focusing development in and around existing communities to accommodate current population trends and settlement patterns prevents the destruction of the watershed’s natural filters such as wetlands, forests and underwater grasses:


Current population of the six-state Chesapeake Bay watershed, already over 15.5 million, is expected to reach almost 18 million by 2020.

Between 1987 and 1997 the population of Loudoun and Stafford Counties in Virginia each increased over 70 percent. Meanwhile, the population declined in Washington, D.C. (17 percent) and Richmond, Virginia (7.5 percent).
Promoting Smart Growth will preserve and restore vital resource lands that are currently being converted at a dangerous rate:


Every year approximately 90,000 acres of “natural” lands (forest, farm and wetland) are converted to “urban” lands (residences, commercial and office use, industrial space and roads).

In the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, the rate at which land is being consumed exceeds the population growth rate by almost 2.5 times.
Changing the character and the location of new development can minimize air pollution washing into the Bay:


Vehicles are the second leading airborne source of nitrogen oxides in the Chesapeake Bay region, at 31 percent, while utilities are responsible for 47 percent.

According to American Forests, canopy loss in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area alone represents an annual increase of 9.3 million pounds of air pollutants.

By the time a local watershed consists of 20 to 25 percent impervious surface, the local stream is virtually devoid of complex life.
Directing funding to transportation plans that invest in mass transportation, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and incentive programs that promote transportation alternatives and smart growth can change the landscape:


From 1970 to 1994, the population in the watershed grew 26 percent while vehicle miles of travel in the watershed increased by 105 percent.

Federal spending on roads in fiscal year 2000 exceeds that for all other forms of transportation (public transit, bike and pedestrian access) by roughly 6 times.
Fully utilizing investments already made in public infrastructure will minimize increases in service demands from road and school construction to fire and police protection, and protect natural lands so valuable to area economies:


Virginia’s Loudoun County is struggling to build 23 new schools in the next 6 years, while in Buckingham, Pennsylvania (Bucks County), road-maintenance costs rose more than 400 percent between 1980 and 1995.

Local governments in Pennsylvania could save an estimated $120 million annually by implementing more compact forms of development

Posted: 7-18-2000