Development pressures lead to building on floodplains and the destruction of wetlands, natural flood-absorbing sponges. Much of this flooding occurred in places where weak zoning laws allowed developers to drain wetlands and build in floodplains. Sprawl destroys parks, farms, and open space. Sprawl destroys more than one million acres of parks, farms and open space each year. This threatens America's productive farmland, and turns our cherished parks and open spaces into strip malls and freeways.
Sprawl wastes our tax money.
Our tax money subsidizes new sprawling developments, rather than improving our existing communities. Sprawl costs our cities and counties millions of dollars for new water and sewer lines, new schools, and increased police and fire protection. Those costs are not fully offset by the taxes paid by the new users. Instead, sprawl forces higher taxes on existing residents and hastens the decline of our urban tax base. Sprawl crowds our children's schools.