Healthy Communities

Seeing the Connection: How Blight Affects Pennsylvania's Cities And Promotes Sprawl

2002-04-08

Executive Summary

Between 1992 and 1997, Pennsylvania lost more acres of farmland, forests, and open space than almost any other state, while ranking nearly last in population growth. This explosive destruction of Pennsylvania’s landscape—largely due to suburban “sprawl”—has not been a sign of robust growth but an indication that people and resources are leaving the state’s older communities. In fact, while there are a myriad of factors that contribute to sprawl, a look at Pennsylvania’s urban and downtown areas reveals one of the biggest causes: blight.

In large cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, smaller cities like Allentown and York, boroughs like Norristown and rural communities across the state, the presence of deteriorated housing and infrastructure—“blight”—has decreased livability and discouraged further investment. While this might seem like a zero-sum game with a set of winners (the suburbs) and a set of losers (cities), the truth is that no one is really winning. As cities and older communities fight to retain jobs and repair infrastructure, Pennsylvania’s fast-growing suburbs are struggling with higher taxes, loss of open space, increased traffic congestion, and lost sense of community. Over the past few decades, urban and downtown disinvestments have fueled an inefficient pattern of development that creates a host of negative environmental, economic, and social consequences for Pennsylvania.

Many public policies such as low-interest mortgages, improper planning, and rampant highway construction have encouraged disinvestments in Pennsylvania’s older communities. In order to reverse this trend and stop our current pattern of sprawling development, PennEnvironment urges the General Assembly to adopt a comprehensive strategy towards efficient land use. Specifically, we recommend a four-point platform:

• Redirect growth into existing communities through a combination of stronger land use planning requirements, increased public participation, and reinvestment in cities.

• Increase funding for rail, bus, bicycle, and pedestrian transportation options. Oppose highway projects that encourage sprawl.

• Protect farms, forests, open space, and wetlands by purchasing land and development rights.

• End taxpayer subsidies for sprawl by requiring developers to pay for new roads, water, and sewer infrastructure, and public services.

In 1995 the Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution to examine blight throughout the state and draft remedial legislation—some of which is currently before the state Senate. These bills address several problems associated with blight and provide a common sense, fiscally responsible opportunity to spur reinvestment. PennEnvironment recommends passing this anti-blight package as part of a larger commit- ment to curb sprawl and promote more efficient land use policies. If Pennsylvania is to retain a high quality of life for the 21 st century, we must protect our agricultural and natural heritage— and we must do so by increasing the livability of our older communities and town centers.

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