Building Boom
Brings Controls
As construction surges,
some towns tap the brakes
by Kathy Price-Robinson
Growth controls are to a building boom as a gel
hammer grip is to a hammer — something to
cushion the impact. And with much of the
nation booming over the last year or two, communities
and states across the country have been creating
and applying growth-control regulations in a way not
seen since the 1980s.
"When there's a recession, people don't get
torqued about building," observes Bob McNamara, a
planner with the National Association of Home
Builders. But when building accelerates, the resulting
loss of open space, strained municipal services, traffic
problems, and "urban sprawl" generate much public
concern about growth's less