What is Sprawl?

Sprawl . . . It's hard to define but you know it when you see it. Sprawl is new homes in fields where cows once grazed and in woods where wildlife once roamed. It is Walmarts and Rite Aids at the edge of town where parking is plentiful and sewer lines are not. Sprawl is partly to blame for the loss of vitality in our cities and town centers, it is a primary culprit for air pollution, non-point source runoff, and habitat loss. It is sapping the civic strength of our communities and is even bad for our health. Sprawl is making northern New England more like everywhere else and less like the place we're proud of being from.

Yet sprawl is us. It's a collective pattern of land use created by individuals, by towns, and by states. It is caused by people craving bigger houses, larger yards, less congestion, and by consumers seeking convenience and cost-savings. It is caused by builders and developers trying to satisfy a need in the easiest, most profitable, way. Sprawl is a rational response to growth in a society that lacks a vision for its future and its relation to its cultural and physical landscape.

How do we begin to shape that vision, and take the steps necessary to make it a reality as we begin the 21st century?

Livable Landscapes is a one-hour documentary for public television, with a viewers' discussion guide and teaching curriculum, that gives people a place to start thinking about the complex forces that shape our communities and our landscape. The program provokes us to question our personal decisions about how we live, and our collective decisions about how we organize ourselves and our landscape. It leaves us with profound questions about the kind of community we want to leave for those who follow.

To learn more about Livable Landscapes, choose from the "What is Livable Landscapes?" click HERE or follow the menu link above.

To find resources where you can learn more about sprawl and smart growth in general, click HERE or follow the menu link above.

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