For two decades, members of the Natural Resources Trust have been a voice in the wilderness, trying to convince Plainville voters to support conservation measures. Sadly, there has been very little political will to prevent Plainville from being swallowed up by sprawl. Time is running out!

The Case Against Sprawl

excerpted from The Trust for Public Lands

Sprawl development not only consumes more land than high-density development, it requires more tax-supported infrastructure such as roads and sewer lines. Police and fire services and schools also must be distributed over a wider area.

One study found that New Jersey communities would save $1.3 billion in infrastructure costs over 20 years by avoiding unplanned sprawl development.

Another predicted that even a modest implementation of higher-density development would save the state of South Carolina $2.7 billion in infrastructure costs over 20 years. And a third found that increasing housing density from 1.8 units per acre to 5 units per acre in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area would slash $3 billion in capital infrastructure costs over 20 years. Many community leaders expect that the taxes generated by growth will pay for the increased costs of sprawl, but in many instances this is not the case.

• In the island community of Nantucket, Massachusetts, each housing unit was found to cost taxpayers an average of $265 a year more than the unit contributed in taxes. "Simply stated, new dwellings do not carry their own weight on the tax rolls," a town report concluded.
• And in Loudoun County, Virginia--the fastest growing county in the Washington, D.C. area--costs to service 1,000 new development units exceeded their tax contribution by as much as $2.3 million.
• Studies in DuPage County, Illinois, and Morris County, New Jersey, suggest that even commercial development may fail to pay its own way. In addition to making its own demands on community resources, commercial development can attract costly residential sprawl.

  The Benefits of Land Conservation
  Instead of costing money, conserving open space as a smart growth strategy can save communities money:

Smart Growth Links:

Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance

Massachusetts Smart Growth Toolkit

Smart Growth Strategies for New England