Ted Koffman, a State Representative from Bar Harbor and director of government relations and summer programs at College of the Atlantic, sees a sociological and even a health rationale for smart growth. We used to be more careful and thoughtful about this before we became dependent on our cars. They get obese from sitting on the school bus and coming home after school to watch TV because there is nobody around. Environmental Impact Richert says that the great irony of suburban life is that it attempts to preserve the rural flavor of the land when in fact it destroys it forever. People tend to mistake rural for suburban, he points out, and there are major differences between the two.
Rural land is organized for active production of farms, crops and livestock.
It is a home for wildlife. Suburban land is organized for personal use and privacy. Tim Glidden of the Natural Resources Council of Maine cites a U. S. Department of Agriculture survey, which found that Maine lost 304,000 acres of undeveloped rural land from 1982 to 1997. That's an average of about 20,000 acres per year, but that rate is much higher now, and the long-range loss is clearly accelerating. According to Glidden, this has several implications for Maine.