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Sierra
Club
If limiting sprawl saves money and resources and people prefer more compact
development, why do we continue to expand into the countryside? Glen Besa, the Club's
Appalachian regional representative in Flintstone, Md., suggests a look at public
officials' campaign contribution records for the answer. "Local elected officials can
make land speculators into millionaires just by changing the zoning on a single tract of
land.
"All too often we fight sprawl in a piecemeal fashion," he says,
"opposing a zoning change here and a special exception there. Even when we put
substantial energy into comprehensive planning, often the plan draws dust on the shelf
while developers convince local officials that sprawl means an expanded tax base. As they
say, money is the mother's milk of politics and, we might add, of sprawl as well."
The solution, says Besa, is a vigilant and active electorate. In Maryland, one way the
Club has helped make elected officials accountable is with a "report card"
showcasing their votes. (See sidebar "Giving Politicians
Report Cards.") "Bad land use decisions are a potent campaign issue and one
on which environmentalists can run and win election to public office," says Besa.
Because so much of the fight against sprawl is necessarily local, the Club's Challenge
to Sprawl campaign will focus on nurturing and supporting group and chapter programs.
Among the initial goals of the campaign are to inventory existing chapter and group
programs, develop a library and clearinghouse of literature and ideas that have worked,
create a network of experts in urban planning and local land use law, and provide
training, model grant proposals and small grants.
There is also a need to educate the American people (and our own members) about how
low-density, auto-dependent development leads to inner-city and economic decline,
congestion, air pollution and the loss of farmland, forests and wildlife habitat.
It may seem like a no-brainer to those of us who pay attention to these issues, but for
many, understanding the costs of sprawl, the factors that contribute to it and the ways
individuals can have a voice in stopping it remain a mystery. At a recent press conference
in Houston, where the Club is fighting a proposed highway and its attendant sprawl, one
reporter asked, "Wouldn't it be better for air quality if people were more spread
out?" (He now knows better.)
Campaign Co-chair Tim Frank says we have many reasons to be optimistic. "We've
already seen what can be done with good state and local laws such as those in Oregon. The
benefits of smart growth over sprawl are compelling and we have a broad range of logical
allies Ñ residents of declining inner-city neighborhoods, farmers who want to farm,
people who can't drive, historic preservationists, taxpayers Ñ the potential constituency
is huge.
"The Sierra Club's unique strength over the past 104 years," says Frank,
"has been the strength of our grassroots volunteers. Your local group or chapter
either has a transportation and land use committee looking for your help, or it's looking
for a volunteer to organize one. Give a call."
Back to the start of this sprawling article
For contacts, publications and more information, see the
resource box on the following page.
Back to The Planet (April 1997)
Back to Sierra Club home page
http://www.sierraclub.org/planet/199704/sprawl.asp
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