The Smart Money Is On Smart Growth

"In Hartford, for example, growth and development issues emerged as never before in the late 1990s as the region gobbled up some 5,800 more acres of rural and undeveloped land between 1990 and 2000, according to Census Bureau data analyzed by the Capital Region Council of Governments. Coming at a moment of negligible population growth in the area, such inefficient land consumption has prompted serious dialogue across the Hartford region (and in this newspaper) over how to protect the area's traditional town centers and leafy quality of life.But when the economy slows and tax collections sag, another rationale for reform comes to the fore: the significant costs to state and local government of providing new highways, new schools and new water pipes to ever more far-flung subdivisions."