Sprawl
Sprawl is likely to increase
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Overview
Sprawl encroaches on the green spaces for which Vermont is known and loved. Spread far apart, homes and businesses create inefficiencies of travel and service provision. Between them stretch hundreds of miles of paved surfaces that collect toxins and inhibit natural water filtration. But sprawl is perpetuated, in many cases, by the same people who detest it, making it a difficult problem to resolve.
Fast Facts
- Acre for acre, urban development is the primary source of phosphorus pollution in Lake Champlain. Seventy percent of this contaminant derives from rain and snow melt runoff. The soil’s natural ability to purify drainage is cut in half when toxins are gathered and concentrated on pavement. Sprawl contributes to this problem because it generates more pavement and more pollutants due to lengthy commutes.
- In a 2005 poll conducted by the Vermont Forum on Sprawl, 90% of Vermonters polled believed that current trends of increasing sprawl will continue unless preventative action is taken.
- Two-thirds of Vermonters would like their new home to be located in an outlying or rural area, yet 90% of the same respondents believe that residential development should occur in or adjacent to existing downtowns or neighborhoods.
Read more about sprawl protection in Understanding Vermont or get a copy of the entire publication.