On the Occasion of Earth Day 2010

Earth Day brings welcome reminders of the things we can do to live more environmentally friendly: use less energy, recycle, make more conscientious choices as consumers. But major decisions about how we’ve developed the land and where we live have had the greatest impact on our environment.

We’ve developed as much land in the last 30 years as in the previous 300 in Maryland. And if we don’t make a course correction, we’re on a pace over the next 20 years to lose another 560,000 acres. That’s the equivalent of all the land in Anne Arundel and Prince George’s combined.  Even though we all live daily with the impact of dispersed development, the statistics still startle. Marylanders are driving 40 percent more than in 1990. Rural lands have been lost for development at triple the rate of population growth since 1950.

Living in smart growth areas provides significant benefits to our communities, to the bay and, yes, to the Earth. The benefits add up across a region and over time, and include less land developed, less pollution of the air and from waste water, fewer greenhouse gases, less storm water runoff, and lower public spending on new roads and schools.

The General Assembly approved last week the O’Malley administration’s Sustainable Communities Act of 2010. The new program provides tax credits to incent growth where it belongs – in established towns and cities with existing public infrastructure. We’re also working with a wide array of stakeholders on a state growth plan called PlanMaryland to build on existing efforts and address gaps in planning. We’ve already met with hundreds of residents this spring in public forums about the initiative.  A list of future forums can be found at Plan.Maryland.gov. We need to grow smarter, especially for the sake of future generations of Marylanders.

Sincerely,

Richard Eberhart Hall, AICP, Secretary
Maryland Department of Planning