People are spreading out and moving into the suburbs and the countryside.
Growth is inevitable, even desirable.
A packed room of business people and community leaders heard John DeVillars, former regional administrator of the EPA and currently with Brownfields Recovery , give the keynote. DeVillars pointed out the sprawl doesn't refer to all growth, just to the growth that we see spreading into suburban and rural areas and eating up open space at an appallingly rapid rate. He says that not all growth is sprawl. Through spending, planning and development decisions government has effectively subsidized sprawl. According to DeVillars in New England 1200 acres of open space are lost every week to development.