Sparked by a series of federal and state government policies, including home buying subsidies provided by the GI Bill, massive road building projects and community planning designed around the car, Americans abandoned the cities for greener pastures in suburbia. It is clear that public spending can, and does, affect private decisions about where to live, where to work, and where to build. The trend has been to rapidly develop farms and forests into housing developments or strip malls. And the rate of development is accelerating. The American Farmland Trust reports that an astounding 70 percent of prime or unique farmland is now in the path of rapid development.
Population growth is the most significant factor effecting urban sprawl in the Mid-Atlantic region.
As population size increases, so does the amount of land required for residential and commercial needs. If these trends continue, Maryland could use as much land for development in the next 25 years as it has used in the entire history of the state. Likewise, in Northern Virginia, development is expanding beyond the current service areas of public water supplies provided by the Potomac River. Specifically, Northern Virginia s Loudoun County s population has increased by nearly 150 percent from 57,000 in 1980 to nearly 140,000 today, with the landscape changing from rural to suburban. Ground water is being utilized to support the uncontrolled growth.