Sprawl

A system of political values is useful if it helps us manage the complexities of real-world practical problems. Here's a good one: sprawl. It's hard to define sprawl, but we know it when we see it: street after street of big, standardized, self-absorbed boxes. More than an aesthetic problem, sprawl is a cultural, environmental, and economic problem.

The cultural aspects of sprawl aren't obvious until you actually live in it, until you drive home, click the garage door opener, park, and click the door closed. You've made it from your workplace to your home without ever breathing an ounce of outside air, let alone interacting with a neighbor. Is this really convenient if you have the longest commute of any county in the state? Being confined to your car isn't Freedom.

And if you wanted to interact with neighbors, what would you do? You could go out your front door and stand in the street, but not another human will hear the echo of your voice in the long string of blank-faced garage doors. You could visit your subdivision's community building, but no one will be there unless a group has it reserved (in which case, you're not welcome). You could go knock on a neighbor's door, but that would disturb their privacy. And besides, do you know their names? Loneliness may be Freedom for a few people, but not for most.

When I lived in a compartment in the typical sprawl tract of Clarke Farms, the highlight of my stay was after a big snowstorm on a Saturday morning, when everyone was out shoveling. I met more neighbors that day than any other time in my residence there. People had to meet, because they were stuck and couldn't get away. A sprawl tract is not really a community: it's your own little world, neatly stacked among thousands of other people's little worlds.

Sprawl is an environmental and economic problem because it puts miles between you and every other place you want to go: your workplace, grocery store, school, recreation center, coffee shop, etc. Sprawl makes it impossible to walk to any place useful, or any place with any sense of community. Sprawl can't allow commercial land uses such as coffee shops or stores anywhere near the houses, any more than a small child can allow a single pea anywhere near his mashed potatoes. Sprawl makes Opportunity more distant, robbing us of the time and energy to pursue it.

Sprawl is just about the least efficient form of housing known to man: too dense to allow open space, services, or outdoor enjoyment near people's homes, but too sparse for public transportation or efficient utilities. Land use policy that encourages sprawl is very expensive in commute time, pollution, and public services. Every public service costs more: water pipes, power lines, pavement, police and fire response, snow removal, and especially transportation. Government that allows sprawl is irresponsible, wasting the taxpayer's money.

So why does our county government deprive residents of Freedom by confining them to their cars, show lack of fiscal Responsibility by necessitating overly expensive public services, and create such separation between us and Opportunity? It's because they don't have the strength and skill to promote citizen values in their dealings with developers and employers. I think my Freedom and Opportunity are far more important than a developer's ability to make a quick buck. I want elected officials who think so, too.

People move to our county because of the excellent schools and natural beauty, and would live in a large cardboard box if necessary to get into the county. If only one kind of house is available, people will buy it. Developers build one kind of house because, being good businesspeople, they can optimize their profit in that way. Developers don't build great, community-friendly and kid-friendly neighborhoods because no one holds them responsible to do so.

What can we do about it? Two major things to promote sustainable development:

First, strengthen and defend our planning boards, and provide them the training, expertise, and standards they need in order to recognize and mandate great neighborhood designs in new developments. Don't let developers get away with building more garage streets, and don't let them turn our county into smog heaven. Require compact development, best for efficient public services, with stores, schools, and day care close by. Maximize the number of kids who can walk to school. The nation's wealthiest, fastest-growing county has no excuse not to be a leader in this.

Second: entice quality employers to locate here in our county, near where the state's best-educated workforce lives. Encourage the growth of local small businesses. Don't force us to waste our county's brainpower stuck in traffic in the state's longest commutes. Bring the jobs here so we spend less time in our cars and more time playing with our children.