Excerpt
ONE promising avenue for protecting farmland in the 1990s comes under the broad umbrella of growth management. Nine states have now turned to comprehensive growth management programs, including six states in the past six years. Several others are considering jumping on the bandwagon. Why? Growth management offers a big-picture solution to several troubling problems—urban sprawl, farmland and forestland loss, traffic congestion, high housing costs, vanishing open space, and so on. In short, growth management may be a way to more effectively balance growth and conservation objectives, at both community and state levels.
Yet, the new idea of growth management is based, in large measure, on a fairly old idea—land use planning. Over the years, the notion of land use planning has gathered more than its share of political baggage—some earned, much undeserved. In Oregon, we've had 15 years to study the pluses and minuses of land use planning, and for the most part, we like it. Now, as the eyes of the rest of the nation focus ever more closely on growth management, it may be a good time to take a hard look at some of the myths—and …
Footnotes
Kevin Kasowski is director of the National Growth Management Leadership Project based at 1000 Friends of Oregon, 534 S.W. Third Avenue, Suite 300, Portland, 97204.
- Copyright 1991 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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