With unemployment and interest rates low, people who postponed buying homes during the recession are now diving into the real estate market. Home construction keeps the economy strong. But as development helps drive the economy, it brings pain to communities. The pain is minimal when homes are built in already developed areas. It is most severe when development comes in the form of sprawl.
Sprawl takes two forms.
Regionally, it pushes development out from cities into small, rural towns. Locally, it reaches out from a town's central, populated neighborhoods to cover outlying areas. Both forms are occurring in southern Maine, and in other cities, counties and states around the country. Sprawl is now one of the nation's most significant land-use issues, said Robert Burchell, a Rutgers University professor who has studied the trend in five states. Schools feel the pinch Elizabeth Stover has seen residential growth negatively affect the education of her two daughters.