Article from the Butler Eagle
Butler, PA
March 25, 2003

Forum seeks answer to suburban sprawl

 “Smart Growth” 
sought in region

By Bob Schultz
 Eagle Staff Writer

CRANBERRY TWP – Government officials and planners gathered Thursday evening to talk about how to develop cooperative projects that would foster “smart growth” and help get a grip on suburban sprawl.

 The forum, sponsored by Sustainable Pittsburgh, Cranberry Township and the Butler County Planning Commission, focused on ways to attain livability standards and growth that would benefit the region.

“Cranberry has been the poster child for urban sprawl,” said township supervisor Dick Hadley.  “We are described as what not to do.  But, we feel we have used every tool at our disposal.  You can’t stop growth.  You have to deal with it and manage it.”

Hadley pointed out that through the township’s management practices, it has created more than 7,0000 new jobs in five years and has become an economic hub for the entire region.

“People say they don’t want to be like Cranberry, but in reality, they do,” said John Skorupan, chairman of the supervisors. 

Gould said regions could be improved by breaking down municipal boundaries.

But that is easier said than done, pointed out township supervisor Bill Ambrass, who said he has bee frustrated for 15 years over the lack of cooperation between neighboring municipalities,

“It seem to be impossible for some reason,” Ambrass said.  “We need something bigger, maybe even bigger than the county, to get the parties to the table.  It seems every time we extend our hand.  It’s ‘we don’t want to be like you.”  It’s a frustration on my part.”

David Johnston, county planning commission director, pointed out the county is updating its comprehensive plan for growth while several communities are beginning to work together to develop comprehensive growth plans.  Those include Muddy Creek and Lancaster Townships and Middlesex Township in butler county and Richland Township in Allegheny County.

Court Gould, the executive director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, said communities must do a better job of working together to plan for development.  The Group issues a report last year on the growth and economic health of the region.

Despite some urban sprawl and a declining population – the population has stabilized in the past decade – the Pittsburgh region isn’t in that bad of economic shape because it has a diversified economic base, Gould said.

“We didn’t profit as much with the boom of the dot-com industries, but we didn’t lose as much either,” said Gould.

He outlined some of the points of the Sustainable Pittsburgh report about the growth and economic vitality of the region.  That report is the first attempt to gauge the overall sustainability for the six-county region.

“And the answer?  In some ways, yes … and in some ways, a resounding no.  We can celebrate our successes in areas like employment, air and water quality, the health of our citizens.  We have positive trends to build on,” the report concluded.

But in other areas which range from a growing gap in affordable rental housing prices and falling voting rates to increasing fossil energy consumption, raise troubling questions about the future.

Gould said the indicators suggest four key areas where southwestern Pennsylvania needs to improve to help its long-term sustainability:

  • Slowing, stopping and then reversing the inefficient and increasingly wasteful use of land and resources.

  • Building on a foundation of economic stability in the region.  That would attract talent, stem the outflow of the young generation to other cities, and improve the security of the region’s poorer citizens.

  • Investing in education and social capital, all of which are good ways fro improving economic performance.

  • Looking deeper into the factors that relate to a high quality of life, to see if we are achieving them.

Here are 10 key findings in the Sustainable Pittsburgh’s 2002 Sustainability Indicators Report:

P       The “brain drain” is real.  There are more than one fifth fewer people in the 20-to-35 age bracket here today than there were in 1990.

P       Urban sprawl is out of control.  Urbanized land grew by 42.6 percent between 1982 and 1997 even though population declined by 8 percent.

P       Some parts of nature are recovering.  Mussels and great blue herons, which had essentially disappeared from the region, have made a comeback, and the air is cleaner than it has been in decades.

P       Use of resources is becoming less efficient.  Energy use suggests it is continuing to rise, and recycling efforts are hardly keeping up with growing garbage production.

P       Poor families face a housing crisis.  The gap between what a low-income family can afford and what a reasonable apartment costs to rent is growing.

P       The economy is in surprisingly good shape.  Wages are keeping up with inflation, unemployment has been low, and houses have remained affordable by median-income families.

P       Too few of us are engaged as citizens.  The state’s “social capital” is low.  Many people don’t vote.  The region needs a sharp upturn in volunteerism and civic engagement to improve.

P       Some citizens face stark inequities.  The region remains highly segregated, and minorities continue to experience some harshly discriminatory conditions.

P       We know too little about equity in general.  We know equity is important to a sustainable region, but we know little about it, relative to its importance.

We know too little about many critical trends – energy consumption, community connectedness, regional cooperation, adult learning, access to health care and culture and amenities.