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From Sprawl to Smart Growth
Americans love to buy new homes and naturally everybody wants a bit of land to call their own. But the demand for so much new construction in recent decades has led to an environmentally destructive trend known as “sprawl.”
“Sprawl” is what happens when subdivision after subdivision crops up, spreading further and further into once-rural areas that move so far beyond urban centers they are no longer even suburbs but exurbs. Poor planning often means these areas become highly dependent upon automobile traffic, which leads to increasing carbon dioxide emissions and headache-inducing traffic jams. To serve these areas, “big box” stores such as Wal-Mart often take over local shops and markets and expansive parking lots appear where open spaces once provided habitat for wildlife.
Now a growing number of developers and city planners are recognizing the need for “Smart Growth,” a wiser and more environmentally sound kind of planning that gives homeowners access to mass transit, walkable neighborhoods and hiking and biking trails that encourage them to leave their cars at home. Open spaces are being built into developments to provide continued wildlife habitat. Neighborhood schools are going up that mean children don’t always have to ride the bus.
And ecological harmony is becoming a bigger part of the picture. In Jackson Meadow, MN, for example, one community uses natural ponds to provide water filtration and runoff. In Tucson, AZ, an 802-acre traditional neighborhood development utilizes technologies that allow home building with reduced energy and water needs. In Hartford, CT, playing fields and open spaces are incorporated into declining urban areas.
Growth doesn’t have to be a bad word. But unless it’s “Smart,” it can sometimes do more harm than good.
To learn more about “smart growth,” visit Smart Communities, NRDC, or the EPA.
To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org
