INSIDE WASHINGTON/GAO report calls for federal help on sprawl

A new Congressional report suggests that city and county leaders believe the federal government can play a key role in helping to curb sprawl without becoming overly intrusive in their communities. Authors of the 161-page report, “Local Growth Issues – Federal Opportunities and Challenges,” argue that the federal government would be most helpful to local governments if it focused its energies on investing in infrastructure, revitalizing local communities and preserving natural resources.

The bipartisan report was commissioned by two senators, Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.), and two representatives, Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), who directed the General Accounting Office (www.gao.gov), the investigative arm of Congress, to gauge how the federal government might better help cities and counties combat sprawl. The GAO surveyed nearly 2,000 cities and counties and conducted site visits to metropolitan areas as diverse as Albuquerque, N.M.; Atlanta; and Fresno, Calif.

“As our local governments try to manage development and growth in a more fiscally sound and livable manner, the federal government’s investments in America’s cities, suburbs and rural areas should help, not hinder the efforts already under way to create more livable communities,” Levin says.

Among its many findings, the report indicates that sprawl is of “high” or “very high” concern for 53 percent of the counties and 35 percent of the cities surveyed. The numbers are supported by the fact that, between 1970 and 1990, the amount of developed land in cities across the nation increased by 74 percent, while the population grew by just 31 percent. With the Census Bureau estimating that the nation’s population will increase from 273 million to 404 million in the next 50 years, the report’s authors note that it is becoming increasingly important for federal and local authorities to work together to combat sprawl.

“This report highlights that this growth surge … in communities across the nation is a cause for concern and a call to address an issue that will be with us for years to come,” says Jeffords, who, along with Levin, co-chairs the Senate Smart Growth Task Force.

While many people associate sprawl with growing suburban centers such as Atlanta, Jeffords points out that smaller communities such as Burlington, Vt., also are dealing with its consequences. “My home state of Vermont is one of the last states that would make you think of sprawl,” Jeffords says. “Yet, in Burlington, the smallest metropolitan area that GAO visited, the rate of land consumption was more than three times the rate of population growth between 1980 and 1990.”

The report points to several areas in which the federal government could help cities and counties deal with the problem. For example, in terms of infrastructure, local officials told GAO investigators it would be beneficial if federal officials consulted with them when deciding where to locate transportation projects – whether they are highways or rail corridors.

Those consultations would allow city and county leaders to tell federal planners the likely population growth in the region under consideration. They also would provide local leaders an opportunity to express their long-term land use goals for the area.

Preservation of open space and farmland also is cited as an area in which local governments could use federal help. The report notes that, even though the federal government manages national parks and forests, it does not help local and state governments preserve open space and farmland. Consequently, the burden of preserving those amenities falls to cities and counties. The GAO suggests that Congress investigate whether “a more comprehensive federal farmland protection policy is warranted.”

The report can be found at: http://www.gao.gov.