Rural Sprawl

Rural America's newest big problem is how to handle sprawl.

1 minute read

December 10, 2002, 11:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"While struggling rural communities welcome such growth, they face unfamiliar challenges. Their governments are ill equipped to control the new development. And some local observers and officials worry the housing boom will erode natural areas, challenge the infrastructure and finances of their communities, and destroy the rural character. "You almost have to rename sprawl," says Harry Rogers, executive director of the Harry S. Truman Coordinating Council, a regional association of local governments here in Joplin, Mo. "There's urban sprawl. This is rural sprawl."

Thanks to Chris Steins

Tuesday, December 10, 2002 in The Christian Science Monitor

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