North Carolina is working out details of a proposed statewide growth-management plan. And some states have formed commissions to come up with sprawl-fighting ideas. Weitz considers the two strongest growth-management tools to be boundaries that separate growth areas from rural ones, and laws that slow growth until schools, roads and other services are in place. Growth boundaries are unpopular with Virginia lawmakers, who fear they impinge on property rights. The General Assembly has also declined to give localities the right to slow growth until services are in place, saying localities already have sufficient power to handle growth.
Localities deny that.
Weitz said Oregon, where cities are ringed with growth boundaries, is doing a good job of limiting sprawl. Land just outside urban areas that would be developed in other states is still being farmed in Oregon, he said. Developers could still build in other areas, but the state wouldn't provide money for roads and other services. Most anti-sprawl measures across the country have been enacted in just the past three years, said Amy S. Liu of the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. The sprawl symposium, held in Richmond, drew about 75 people.