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 dysfuntion, urban decay and environmental degradation. Simply put, sprawl is a disease that is eating away at America. Unfortunately, Maryland has 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. Sprawl has been supported by an avalanche of federal, state and county policies. The G.I. Bill, school funding forumlas and the construction of the Interstate Highway System, for example, have had a dramatic effect on American living patterns. It is almost as if we have tried to devise a system that is wasteful of tax dollars. Tackling the sprawl problem requires efforts at every level of government.