This flight continues to this day. More and more people continue to move farther and farther away from urban and older suburban centers. Nationwide, sprawl is creating a hidden debt of unfunded infrastructure and services, social dysfunction, urban decay and environmental degradation. Simply put, sprawl is a disease eating away at America. Maryland had not escaped this disease.
Sprawl is devastating communities in every region of the state.
In Central Maryland alone, 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. Statewide, Maryland could lose another 500,000 acres of farm and forest land. Tackling the sprawl problem requires efforts at every level of government. We must make changes in policies and attitudes, and in the way we govern. Maryland already has begun to move in that direction by taking a long, hard look at how we allocate taxpayer resources, and we have made improvements.