Simultaneously, the state will make it much more difficult to spend public dollars for new development in farm fields, forests, and natural areas. Notably, Maryland chose to put the brakes on sprawl by not restricting development. The law does not add new layers of bureaucracy and more government. It did not mandate regional planning, growth boundaries, confusing zoning, or prescriptive land use rules that have proved so politically troublesome in Michigan and other states. Maryland just said it won't use taxpayer money to subsidize building a new subdivision or a new mall or a new school or a new road in an inappropriate area, like a corn field five miles from town.
People understand what's happening.
They understand we can not go on with sprawl eating up every acre of farmland and forest land. We can not go on with programs that constantly cause deterioration in central cities and inner suburbs. In enacting Smart Growth, Maryland became the latest state to take steps to reverse the damaging consequences of runaway development. Even more crucial, though, is that in using the state treasury as a lever to curb sprawl, Maryland seized on a politically feasible strategy that is already attracting the attention of the Clinton Administration, and is likely to be embraced by other states. In effect, Maryland's Smart Growth program is the most promising new tool for managing growth in a generation.