BOSTON (AP) — New England’s economy, environment and spirit are threatened by suburban sprawl, says the regional head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which plans to fight it.
The agency prepared a plan to spend more than $3 million during the next two years to help state and local governments in New England develop better growth patterns.
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”Poorly planned suburban growth is the largest challenge New England faces, and it will continue as such for a good long while,” John P. DeVillars, the EPA’s regional administrator, told The Boston Globe.
”And there is a spiritual cost to all this, a psychic cost that is hard to quantify but is every bit as real as the environmental and economic impacts,” he said.
DeVillars said 1,200 acres in New England undergo development every week, and sprawl is “a bona fide threat to New England’s environmental and economic future.”
Sprawl is regarded as poorly planned, low-density growth outside of downtowns or village centers that increases dependency on cars.
The EPA would like to shift development toward cities and community centers, saving open space and reducing the need to use cars.
The Globe said the EPA plans to grant more than $2.5 million during the next two years to help the six New England states and local planning councils improve zoning and transportation planning.
The agency also plans to spend up to $800,000 to guide growth toward abandoned urban industrial sites that already have roads, sewers and water supplies.
That would reduce the need to develop virgin land.
The EPA also would assign two staff members to advise local communities on ways to protect open space.
The agency also plans to increase efforts to spend money from fines paid by polluters to buy open space and wildlife habitat.
”The solution to sprawl is not entirely within the federal EPA’s grasp or capacity to handle,” DeVillars said, because in New England, local zoning and planning boards control most regulations on the use of land.
