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District of Columbia
Greater Washington's Open Space in Jeopardy as Developers Bulldoze Up to 43 Square Miles Daily
The developed acreage in the 3,000-square-mile greater Washington region jumped from 12.2 to 17.8 percent from 1986 to 2000, and developers are still bulldozing 28-43 square miles (17,920-27,520 acres) each day, according to the joint Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project study, prepared for release by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and the National Park Service.
COG senior environmental planner and urban forester Brian LeCouteur tells Washington Post writer Elizabeth Williamson that saving large tracts from developers who avoid higher-density rules near cities and splinter outer habitat with homes and shopping centers is not only about preserving wildlife, but also about ''breathing clean air and drinking clean water.
National Park Service's Partnerships office assistant regional director Glenn Eugster concurs. ''We tend to do a little park here, a wetland there,'' he says, expressing hope that ''at some points all these dots will be connected,'' as in the federal highway system. ''It's a coordinated, connected system that clarifies the role of the feds, state and local governments and the private sector,'' he explains. ''That's a good model for green infrastructure, too.''
Area developer Michael T. Rose, whose Laurel (Maryland) company has earned high marks from conservationists for its green construction methods and materials, drives the point further, zeroing in on outdated zoning laws. For its amenity-rich Northridge community built in 1988 in Bowie, he says, the company had ''a three-inch book requesting (development-related) waivers, and it took three-and-a-half years to get approval,'' and officials in many areas still ''don't know how to respond when the developer says, 'I want to save a tree and have open space'.''
He also calls for revision of building codes to allow more cluster housing in population centers, stressing, ''We've got roads and transport and sewer and water (lines) that could be upgraded, instead of pushing people over the Pennsylvania line.'' -- Washington Post
5/22/2004
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