States Combat Urban Sprawl With Smart Growth Strategies

Presidential hopefuls for 2000 are talking about urban sprawl, but it is state legislatures across the country who are taking substantive steps to solve the problem. For the last few years, many states have witnessed a large number of city residents move to suburbs. This urban sprawl destroys green spaces and overcrowds schools in the suburbs while at the same time depleting city resources.

Maryland’s Smart Growth Initiative is a landmark plan for redefining healthy growth. It includes:

• SB 389 to create Priority Funding Areas for economic development projects including infrastructure projects, economic development and housing programs and other related projects.

• SB 388, the Rural Legacy Legislation, which reallocates state funds to purchase agricultural, forest and natural areas subject to development pressure.

• SB 229, which introduces a job creation tax credit designed to encourage mid-sized and smaller businesses to invest in Priority Funding Areas. It provides income tax credits to business owners who create at least 25 jobs in the Priority Funding Areas.

Maryland’s initiative serves as a model for other states, including Utah.

"Urban sprawl was the most visible issue of the 1999 legislature," according to Utah state Representative Ralph Becker (Flemming Fellow ’99). "The Quality Growth Act of 1999 met considerable debate but, with a focus on addressing needs of local communities, the bill eventually passed due to a bipartisan effort which included a wide range of players."

Utah built on the Maryland model by adding HB 119, the Quality Growth Act, to establish a quality growth commission, a critical land conservation fund and a state building energy efficiency program.