BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 15, 2024
“Smart growth” is an approach to community planning that aims to cull the housing sprawl that defined the last half of the 1900s. For decades, rural communities took an “any growth anywhere” approach to housing development that has ended up costing them, Nancy Smith, the executive director of GrowSmart Maine, said. “It’s awfully tempting to say ‘we’ll just take anything’ as rural communities lose their population,” Smith said. “But we need to ensure communities develop and grow in ways that make sense for the long term. All around Maine, sprawl has strained municipal budgets and increased local and state taxes. It has cost communities socially and environmentally, too.