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Review the recent 'urban sprawl' news at Google.com. |
Good News
GA Campaign Pushes Atlanta to Walk, Not Drive
- "The average Atlantan takes more than three car trips a day. Metro Atlanta's 3.6 million residents drive an average of 35 miles each day."
Developers Sue Fort Lauderdale
- "City officials have said that the site plan did not conform to city building codes, pointing to the length
and height of buildings, as well as some setbacks."
U.S. Military Is Fighting Urban Sprawl
- "Military bases throughout the country, many of which were once located in isolated areas, now find
themselves enveloped by the inexorable spread of suburbs whose residents then complain about noise
from planes or artillery, dust, and danger of accidents."
CA - Oakland Bans Wal-Mart Style Superstores
- "...banned mega-stores like Wal-Mart super centers from opening there, saying they would threaten smaller stores and depress wages."
CA - South County Greenbelt Envisioned
- "Galt and Elk Grove officials talk of preserving thousands of acres."
Houston, TX - Planners Seek Pedestrian-Friendly Growth
- "Amid election-season politics and opposition from the real estate industry, city officials are poised to debate a measure that
would empower civic groups to set development guidelines for certain parts of Houston."
Las Vegas, NV - City Has Atypical Vision for Land
- "It will tap alternative energy sources to power homes and vehicles. Schools, jobs, stores and parks will be within walking distance.
One-third to one-half of the land will be left open. There will be none of Las Vegas' trademark cinder block fences walling off residences and no gated communities.
The city should look at vacant areas closer to downtown that would required shorter commutes...."
Smart Growth on UT Rural Agendas
- "commit to providing affordable housing, preserving open space and
creating economic and infrastructure plans that put a premium on quality of life"
Fees' Impact Not So Negative - "Study (67 counties of Florida) shows economic benefit of add-ons that builders hate"
GA - Palmetto Puts Brakes on Subdivision Boom
- "The City Council has placed a moratorium on residential development, blaming sewer capacity."
Santa Fe, NM - Impact-Fee Proposal Needs Careful Advocacy
- "For years, local government took its sweet time assessing new subdivisions, shopping centers and other "progress.' Over the years, that neglect
led to unduly heavy burdens on people whose medium-sized town turned into Sun Belt sprawl - with its expensive stretches of public-service lines,
pavement, police/fire protection and all the rest."
Miami, FL - Plan for America's new diet: Less sprawl, less fat, less frenzy
- "When researchers from Rutgers University and the Centers for Disease Control recently analyzed development, transportation and health
data, they found a link between urban sprawl and obesity."
Cleveland, OH - Church, State Find Common Opponent In Urban Sprawl
- "How many farms and local forests can we lose before we lose a part of ourselves?"
Garden a 'Noah's Ark' for U.S. plants
- "Native American plants by the hundreds are close to extinction because of a decades-long process of suburban sprawl,
loss or alteration of habitat, and a wave of invasive species, which quite literally smother the natives into oblivion."
Florida's First 'Green Development' Earns Certification
- "The Bonita Bay Group team preserved wildlife
habitat, restored historic flow ways and created a protective conservation easement along the community's 1.75-mile
stretch of riverfront. Nearly 65 percent of the property will be open space, including natural preserve areas, parks,
wetlands, lakes, golf course and more than nine miles of walkways and fitness trails."
CA - Clearing A Path To Survival - "We're going back and reversing 100 years of degradation."
Tucson, AZ - No Freeways On Washes
- "Promoting urban infill so people don’t need to drive so far will not only reduce
the need for freeways, but will cause people to spend less time on the road....The time has come,
however, to look at solutions that will bring results unlike Los Angeles and Phoenix."
Las Vegas, NV - HALTING DEVELOPMENT: Red Rock Proposal Unveiled
- "...use tens of millions of dollars from the sale of public lands to buy and rehabilitate scarred mining property next to scenic Red Rock
Canyon and prevent the area from ever being developed....A lot of us feel ouchy about Rhodes buying the land, and we would hate to see him milk the
public for more than it's worth...."
Ottawa Canada - Ottawa Council Ready For Legal Fight
- "The plan, which was approved by a 19-2 margin at an all-day council meeting, promises to revolutionize
the way Ottawans live. It has been dubbed the blueprint for building the city over the next two decades,"
NM - Land authority shifts from Albuquerque to Bernalillo County
- "The people in the extraterritorial zone have had no say."
Death by Sprawl
- "On a statistical basis, what's most likely to get you killed in the next
year: (A) living in Israel during the Intifada; (B) living in crime-ridden, inner-city
Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Philadelphia, or
Pittsburgh; or (C) living in the bucolic outer suburbs of those cities? The answer is
overwhelmingly C. ... Sprawl also leads to high levels of social isolation, which has its own public-health implications.
NJ - Anti-Sprawl Map Becoming A Blueprint For Revolt
- Northern, southern Jersey counties, long at odds, unite to fight land plan
San Francisco CA - Transformation Of South Bay Salt Ponds Into Natural Tidal Marshes Is Part Of A Habitat Restoration Of Grand Scope
- With 8 million people encroaching on the bay -- and 3 million in the South Bay -- the room for restoration is narrow and fragmented.
CA - They Put Birds On Par With Birdies
- golfers peacefully coexist with the hawks, quail and magpies that live a club's-length away in patches of environmentally sensitive oak woodlands and riparian habitats.
San Diego, CA 280-Home Project Rejected; Endangered Toad Cited
- The wildlife service proposed a plan .... The developer did not accept the alternative.
More Americans Want To Walk, But It's Not That Easy
- Americans might have an enduring love affair with the automobile, but the idea of walking is becoming more attractive as gridlock grows and waistlines expand
Nevada Red Rock Restrictions
- A Clark County Commissioner wants to enact a law immediately that would restrict development near a scenic recreation area.
James said he decided to push for new zoning controls after facing off Thursday with about 100 anxious residents of the nearby village of
Blue Diamond, who for the second time since August are battling a developer they believe wants to put thousands of homes on 2,400 acres
that border Red Rock.
VA County To Keep Chancellorsville Battlefield Intact
- Spotsylvania County supervisors early yesterday morning (Mar.27) overwhelmingly rejected plans
to build a massive development on the site of the Chancellorsville Civil War battlefield.
Homestead, FL Gives Builders a Cold Shoulder
- While the officials welcome the prospect of middle-class home buyers returning to Homestead,
they worry about the potential effects of a flood of new residents crowding schools and overwhelming services.
Elk Grove, CA Seeks Path Less Traveled
- With a couple of big new housing sites on tap, advocates say the next few years of building -- when thousands of houses will
spring up from open fields -- may be Elk Grove's last chance for an interconnected, citywide trail system paid for by development.
Great Swaths of Vacant Land Still Exist on the Salt Lake Valley's West Side.
- South Jordan and other cities are listening to Envision Utah's ideas on creating pedestrian-friendly, walkable communities with an emphasis on open space.
NJ - Stem Sprawl With Incentives
- "We must stop subsidizing sprawl. We must focus on redevelopment,..." Governor
Oakland Taking Steps for Smart Growth
- "Three years in the making, the Regional Livability Footprint Project calls for
higher density housing in cities, fewer homes on the urban fringe, revitalized downtowns and development
along transit corridors."
Florida Democratic Candidate for Governor McBride: Control Growth To Shield Environment
- "We've got to get a handle on our growth ... everything ties back to growth,'' McBride said, arguing that species protection,
water and air purity, and quality of life are endangered by the failure to use ``smart growth'' approaches."
Shaping a Better Future:
- California Smart Growth "The public is clamoring for solutions to traffic and housing problems, and for ways
to improve their quality of life. All of us have a responsibility to help turn the tide,"
- A set of recommendations to improve the economic and social well-being of California's
communities through better growth patterns has been released by a diverse public-private
coalition organized by the Urban Land Institute (ULI).
Washington's King County Leads in Fighting Sprawl
- "If the counties, and the cities within them, choose to accommodate the region's next
million residents the same way they added the last million, greater Seattle-Tacoma's growing network
of roads will fill with even more traffic while rural lands, farm fields and open space will continue
to turn into sprawling neighborhoods," the report concluded. |
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More Articles/Publications @sustainable.doe.gov |
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Washington's King County Buys Development Rights on Tract, Saving Forest
"It was our goal not to encourage or allow sprawl to continue," |
Urban Villages Sprout Near Metro Stations
Across the country, as communities from Portland to Boston look for
alternatives to sprawling suburbs, planners say Arlington is setting a standard.
"We have 95 percent of our development on 5 percent of our land," said County
Board member Jay Fisette (D). "If that's not a good way of developing, I don't know what is."
Where frayed auto repair shops, used car lots, strip malls and big-box stores once
lined the streets, the modern trappings of urban development now stand: apartment complexes
with shops and restaurants on the ground floor, office buildings and an array of trendy
chain stores. The corridor hit another milestone with the recent addition of Market Common,
an apartment, restaurant and shopping palace in Clarendon. |
A Move to Protect Wild Salmon Disappoints Property-Rights Advocates
"the Endangered Species Act protects species in their natural ecosystem," |
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Madera, CA Farmers' $4.6 Million Deal -- Land Near Town Saved From Any Development | |
