Efforts to plan for responsible growth are occurring in many communities around the nation.  In part, these efforts stem from years of unmanaged, unplanned growth that have adversely affected the way in which many Americans live.  Unmanaged exurban growth, or sprawl, has severe consequences on everyday life.  A result of unmanaged growth is that precious open space, once used for growing crops, grazing, or recreation is being converted into homes, office buildings, and shopping centers at an alarming rate as development sprawls from city centers.  When growth marches into the countryside, often it becomes less dense and therefore requires automobilese as the dominant means of transportation.  Commuting and time spent away from home and family increase, which leads to a decline in quality of life.  While open spac in the periphery disappears, unmanaged growth also continues to blight the urban core.  New development shifts away from cities, weakening the tax base and leaving city managers with most of the social responsibilities of the region and few resources to address them.  Sprawl development is an economic as well as a social issue.

 

Without some effort to manage growth, cities and regions will face all of the aforementioned problems.  Communities that make an effort to direct growth in planned areas benefit the region without adding to costs such as traffic, pollution, and a depressed tax base.  Communities that fail to take proactive measures to guide growth in a responsible manner will repeat many of the mistakes of sprawling regions.  These regions, in fact, are realizing that the costs of sprawling developments have far outweighed their initial benefit. 

 

This web site provides information about growth management so that cities, counties, regions, and states are better prepared to grow smartly in the new millennium.  The site is divided into the following sections:

 

  Community Design - Looks Do Matter

  Economic Development - Getting the Most for Your Dollar

  Environment - Clean Air, Clean Water, Places to Play

  Housing - Dwellings for All

  Public Facility Management - Forcing Sprawl to Pay for Itself

  Transportation - Moving Forward to Responsible Growth

 

Specific Issues Related to Virginia

           

            Virginia is a high growth, urbanizing state.  In 1960, Virginia had four metropolitan areas, containing eight percent of the Commonwealth’s land.  By 1993, there were eight metropolitan areas, occupying 37 percent of Virginia’s land.  In 1960, 45 percent of Virginia’s four million citizens lived in rural areas. Today 75 percent of Virginians live in urban areas.  In recent years the Commonwealth has experienced considerable expansion in jobs and construction.  Governor Gilmore foresees a continuation of this trend and has assumed a 6.2 percent annual increase in Commonwealth tax revenues.  So more growth is expected.

 

Though many localities perceive growth and development as a good thing, there is naturally a downside.  Development has consumed farmland and open space in Virginia.  Between 1965 and 1997, 3.8 million acres of farmland, nearly one-third of the Commonwealth’s land in farms, were lost to development.  Between 1976 and 1992, 370,000 acres of forest were lost and a projected 17 percent of current forest cover will be lost to development over the next few decades.  Construction also has the potential to negatively impact neighborhood.  One result of increased construction is that Virginians are spending more time on the road because of increased traffic congestion. Between 1980 and 1990, Virginia’s population increased by 16 percent, while vehicle miles traveled increased by an astounding 60 percent. Virginians currently spend more than 200 million hours in traffic congestion every year, which affects quality of life issues.  While open space decreases and car congestion increases, Virginia is losing its natural resources as well as clean air, clean water, open space, and neighborhood characteristics. 

 

The Commonwealth will continue to grow.  At the same time Virginians are increasingly concerned with ensuring a high quality of life.  The consideration of how and where to grow and what to save is a balancing act that citizens, legislators, and the development community must engage in.  The challenge is for Virginians to plan for and manage growth and its many impacts in a fair, equitable, legal, and responsible manner.

 

Who We Are

 

This site was created by a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Virginia, enrolled in a growth management class in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning at the School of Architecture in the Fall of 1999.  This web site was designed to be useful to a broad audience, including both citizens and decision-makers from Virginia, as well as across the country.  It provides information on a variety of growth management topics, offering best practice examples from around the nation, as well as recommendations for making progress in your community.  Because growth management has become such an important topic, everyone can benefit from learning more about it.