Development and Sprawl

THE ISSUE
Development and sprawl, also known as urban sprawl is the spreading of a city or community usually suburbs of a larger city over a rural land that is most often located at the boundary of the community.

PRO

Citizens within a community usually prefer lower density neighborhoods
Urban sprawl increases the amount of quality schools, less crime, and has a slower lifestyle than in the city

CON
Urban sprawl creates a number of environmental and health concerns consisting of:

Communities tend to emit more pollution per person and increase traffic within the area
Linked with increased obesity of the people within the area since urban sprawl increases dependency on automobiles leaving bicycles and walking as an unrealistic commuting option
Negatively impacts land and water quantity and quality
Consumes more land than traditional urban developments
Reliance on automobiles increases the reliance on fossil fuel

BRIEF HISTORY
With the constant development within the United States to create new highways, strip malls and housing developments causes a significant loss of land. This loss of land ultimately translates into the United States reduced ability to grow food, and timber. In many areas, urban development pressure and increased property taxes are forcing farmers out of business which led them to sell their farms to provide financial security.

Nationwide - More than 13.7 million acres of farmland in the U.S. were converted to non-farm use just between 1992 and 1997, according to United States Department of Agriculture. This figure is 51% higher than between 1982 and 1992

HERE IN WISCONSIN
Wisconsin Farms - In 1950, Wisconsin had 23.6 million acres of farmland, but 32.6% of this farmland has disappeared, leaving us with only 15.9 million acres in 2002, according to the Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics Service. The number of Wisconsin farms has dropped from 178,000 down to 77,000, from 1910 to 2002. Some of this farm loss is due to consolidation into much larger factory farms.

WHAT CAN YOU DO
Citizens within a community can advocate to their elected official to implement a “smart growth policy” which is an urban planning theory that concentrates growth in the center of a city. This theory avoids communities appeal to grow outwards by advocating for a compact city center that would create a walk able community with a environmental friendly public transit system that would decrease the dependency on automobiles and most importantly preserve and enhance the communities environment and resources while promoting public health.

LINKS
For additional information on Development and Sprawl check out these sites:
The Costs of Sprawl
Sprawl Development

jgardner422	Latest page update: made by jgardner422 , Mar 30 2008, 10:41 PM EDT (about this update About This Update Edited by jgardner422 1 word added view changes - complete history)
	Keyword tags: community population expansion resource management More Info: links to this page

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