Coalition Spreading Message of Smart Growth

Nov 02, 11:53 PM

Current Headlines: By LIBBY KEELING, Courier & Press staff writer 464-7450 or keelingl@courierpress.com

Ounce for ounce, a spider web is five times stronger than steel. Webs are water soluble, Jim Daniels said. They also are produced from "fly guts" at room temperature.

"We can learn from nature how to make things," said Daniels, president of the Sustainable Communities Coalition. "You're not going to have a bird destroying its nest, but that's what we're doing."

The coalition, formerly called Sustainable Evansville, is a nonprofit organization promoting environmentally sustainable economic development in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey and Gibson counties.

Daniels and Robert McCormick, project leader for Planning with POWER, brought the message of smart growth, also called smart development, to Evansville on Saturday in a program sponsored by the coalition and the League of Women Voters of Southwestern Indiana.

Planning with POWER (Protecting Our Water and Environmental Resources) is a project of the Forestry and Natural Resources Department at Purdue University.

"The goal is to strike a balance between growth and development," McCormick said during the presentation at Central Library. "This is about how we grow, not if we grow."

Smart growth provides communities with a framework for making informed decisions, McCormick said. It creates more transportation and housing choices, decreases traffic and promotes vibrant cities, towns and suburbs while preserving natural resources.

He identified five steps in the planning process for communities: inventory natural resources, prioritize areas for protection, target development to areas where infrastructure already exists, incorporate open spaces and develop a plan to revise zoning and subdivision regulations.

The effect of development without long-term planning includes habitat fragmentation and loss, increased runoff, loss of open space and increased pollution, McCormick said. In Indiana, roughly 10 acres of farmland are developed every hour.

"We're not making any new farmland," McCormick said. "It's where houses are going up."

Development is outpacing population growth in much of the region, Daniels said. Forest and farmland are on the decline, he said, and Gibson and Warrick counties ranked in the top five Indiana counties for toxic chemical resources in 2001-2002.

States with the strongest environmental laws have the strongest economies, Daniels said. Planning development will allow the region to optimize land use, maximize resource efficiency, minimize waste, and improve overall quality and competitiveness.

"We want to meet the needs of today without screwing up tomorrow," he said.

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