Additional Resources and Links

Our Sprawl Guide includes a listing of sprawl-related reports prepared by a variety of organizations. By clicking on a report's title, you will find a short summary of each report, and information on whether the report is available online or can be ordered. The Sierra Club "Challenge to Sprawl" Campaign Tool-Kit includes a number of interesting pages providing advice, for example, on how to make sprawl an issue in local elections, and how to conduct a "tour de sprawl." Also links to other Sierra Club pages on highway projects and sprawl. -- The Sierra Club has also prepared several excellent reports on sprawl and its impacts, including, The Dark Side of the American Dream: The Costs and Conseqences of Suburban Sprawl and Sprawl Costs Us All: How Your Taxes Fuel Suburban Sprawl. Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town is a fascinating documentary covering the battle over a proposed Wal-Mart in the small (pop. 7,000) town of Ashland, Virginia. It is especially interesting in its close-up look at the interactions between the community and the local planning commission and governing body. According to filmmaker Micha Peled: "I think of it as a parable for our times, when multinational corporations with their huge PR machines are virtually unstoppable. They are unstoppable unless communities bother to educate themselves about the true long-term implications of allowing these big-box stores in their towns, and unless town councils act democratically to include all residents in the decision-making process. ... These battles determine the quality of life in the town for years to come, but they also leave behind divided communities and at times neighbors who no longer speak to each other. ... I hope this film can become a valuable tool for small town officials to make better decisions about big-box stores." Background material and clips from the broadcast are available at the PBS web site, and on the Independent Television Service (which produced the documentary) web site. Subdivide and Conquer: A Modern Western won the 1999 Telluride Film Festival's award for best environmental film. While the film focuses on the consequences of sprawl in the West, it should be of interest to citizens from across the country given the many common problems caused by sprawl. The script for the film is available online, as is information about using the film as an educational tool. The Smart Growth Network provides useful information about the economic, environmental, and fiscal advantages of planned growth. Sustainable Development is closely linked to fighting sprawl. Two excellent on-line resources that will connect you to much other useful information both on and off the Web are: The U.S. Dept. of Energy's Smart Communities Network, and, in particular, their Sustainable Development ToolKit. The Planning Commissioners Journal Summer 2002 issue featured an article by Sarah James, Moving Towards Sustainability in Planning and Zoning (read excerpts; full article can be ordered & downloaded) providing a good overview of the principles underlying sustainable development, and examples of how these principles are being implemented. In the Trenches: Preserve Net: Stopping Suburban Sprawl includes links to groups working to combat sprawl. Sprawl-Busters Web Page, established by the leading anti-Wal-Mart activist Al Norman, provides an excellent list of publications and information sheets available for order. Norman is the author of the book Slam-Dunking Wal-Mart! How You Can Stop Superstore Sprawl in Your Hometown. International Bulldozer Blockade is a global community action guide and resource to save communites from sprawl. Misc: Urban Sprawl Blues. Lyrics by Terry Hardy.