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Sprawling Is When Residents Commuting To Workplaces Across State Lines

Over the next 20 years, Maryland will grow by more than a million residents, resulting in the loss of another half-million acres to development and an almost 50 percent increase in Central Maryland’s developed land. Under Maryland’s Smart Growth program, every county has had to designate growth areas. But most Baltimore-area counties aren’t fulfilling the intent, which is to limit growth. Over the next 20 years, 75 percent of the region’s newly developed acreage is expected to be outside designated growth areas. From 1982 to 1997, the developed areas of the Baltimore and Washington regions increased by 32 percent and 47 percent, respectively.25

In Howard County, final build-out (the point at which further building isn’t feasible) fast approaches after the county grew by 32 percent in the 1990s; in Frederick, where water shortages forced the city and county to restrict building; in Harford, where there’s been talk of making builders pay new impact fees or excise taxes; in Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties, where slow-growth candidates swept incumbents in 2002 elections.26

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