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When Town Officials Are Bribed To Approve Spawl

Posted by: Joel S. Hirschhorn

26 July 2006 - 10:00am

Large home builders are increasingly able and willing to bribe local governments to approve new greenfield developments.

With big money to be made in the nation's strong housing market, developers looking to get new projects approved are coming to local officials with their checkbooks in hand.

In a recent case in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C., the town of Warrenton received $22 million dollars from Centex Homes in exchange for approving the construction of 300 new homes. While Centex positioned the development of clustered homes as "smart growth", the new homes, which will start at $850,000 and up, will likely attract workers from the capitol 40 minutes away.

Full Story: Sprawl bribery is beating smart growth
Source: Gristmill, July 24, 2006
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But why not just require basic accessibility, such as no-step entrances and wider doorways? It seems off the mark to argue that it's inappropriate to place this kind of requirement on homebuilders.
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