Sprawlbusters!

"Poorly-planned suburban growth is the largest challenge New England faces and it will continue as such for a good long while. It's degrading our environment, it's fiscally inefficient and it's undermining our social fabric. In short, it's a bona-fide threat to New England's environmental and economic future. Action to curb it is long overdue," DeVillars said, in opening remarks at the conference. "With this action plan--and with the help of New England's many creative thinkers in the business, environmental and political communities--we can begin reversing this destructive trend so that we can rebuild our cities and preserve our rural communities and landscapes."

The EPA says unplanned and unchecked development is eating up more than 1,200 acres of open space, farmland and wetlands each week in New England--including nearly two acres an hour in Massachusetts alone, according to statistics compiled by EPA and the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

DeVillars had outlined the sprawl strategy at an EPA-sponsored conference, "Smart Growth Strategies for New England," at the Hynes Convention Center. Co-sponsors of the conference included the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the New England Chapters of the American Planning Association, the New England Governors' Conference, the Nature Conservancy, the Trust for Public Land and the Urban Land Institute.

The action plan includes:

• Greatly expanded Brownfields investments to accelerate economic redevelopment in urban areas.
• A significant financial investment to develop and implement training programs for local officials in 20 New England communities most vulnerable to sprawl.
• More aggressive use of EPA's statutory authority to oppose and reshape development and infrastructure projects that contribute to sprawl.
• More than $2.5 million in grants over the next two years to New England state and local officials to support smart growth projects.
• Creating a New England Smart Growth Partnership--comprised of non-profit organizations from the conservation and development sectors, local, regional, state and federal agencies, educational institutions, developers and others-to ensure effective implementation of EPA-New England's smart growth strategy.

"In Vermont, we have been successful in coordinating so-called "smart growth" by focusing not on the disincentives to developing farmland and open fields, but instead promoting "incentives" for maintaining the vibrancy of our small downtowns," said Governor Dean, who delivered the keynote address at the conference. "Sprawl is more a problem of maintaining communities than it is a problem of wanton development. Working with developers and our communities, we can maintain our traditional villages and rural landscapes."

Developers, too, were well represented at the conference, which included panels on such topics as "Siting Commercial Development and Promoting Urban Redevelopment" and "Incentives for Smart Growth: Where and How Should Development Occur."

"The issue of growth management is going to be the most important issue debated over the next five years," said David Begelfer, executive director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, a co-sponsor of the conference. "It is extremely important that all parties get together to work out real solutions to legitimate problems that will still allow for growth, while meeting the concerns of local municipalities."

DeVillars kicked off the conference by sharing a number of sprawl-related statistics and trends--all of which could undermine the region's environmental, economic and social future if they continue unchecked. Among the statistics:

• From 1982 to 1992, Massachusetts lost 233,000 acres of land to development--the equivalent of one-third of Rhode Island.
• Rhode Island's population has been stable the past 10 years, yet 26,000 acres of land was developed--an area the size of two Providences.
• From 1970 to 1995, Maine's public school population fell by 27,000 students, yet it spent $727 million on new school construction, nearly half of it on new buildings in fast-growing towns.
• For every $1 of revenue a low-density housing development brings a New England town, it costs the community as much as $1.45 in increased expenses to pay for schools, roads and other costs.

EPA began offering a "Fundamentals of Smart Growth" training program for local officials from communities across New England the same year and established a New England Smart Growth Challenge Grant Program to aid communities in applying new tools and approaches for preventing sprawl and encouraging infill and redevelopment.

In New England's urban areas, EPA is devoting substantial resources to help revitalize urban core areas which, in turn, helps discourage suburban sprawl. Much of this work is being done through EPA's Brownfields and Urban Environmental Initiative programs.

"EPA will oppose projects that contribute to sprawl and, where appropriate, require mitigation measures to address sprawl-related impacts," DeVillars said. "We've done this several times already for environmentally damaging highway projects proposed in New Hampshire--specifically in Nashua, North Conway and Manchester. We intend to intensify these efforts."

Press release from the Environmental Protection Agency