HD40 - Population Growth and Development
Executive Summary: The 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement focused Virginia and the Bay community on the issue of population growth and development and environmental degradation in a very specific way. One stated goal of the Agreement is to: plan for and manage the adverse environmental effects of human population growth and land development in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. As part of the Agreement, the Chesapeake Executive Council commissioned a study to consider the consequences of anticipated population growth and land development patterns in the Bay watershed through the year 2020. This study was undertaken by a panel of experts, the Year 2020 Panel, which was requested to consider how to protect the environment while accommodating expected growth. The Report of the Year 2020 Panel was received by the Council in January of 1989. The Year 2020 Panel found that both population growth and an increasing per capita consumption of land are having a detrimental effect on the water quality of the Bay, the natural resources of the watershed, and the quality of life of the region. Further, it found many of the issues surrounding both land development and environmental protection to be, by their very nature, multijurisdictional. These are problems that cannot be resolved by local governments alone; states, the Panel said, must assume greater responsibility in this area. Foremost among its many suggestions, the Report recommended that each of the Bay states, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia: • establish a Task Force or Commission to promote the preparation and implementation of a state-level plan; and • create and fund a lead state planning agency with responsibility for preparing the state plan, coordinating planning and development activities, and achieving consistency among and with local plans and other state plans Thus, while mandated to study the consequences of population growth and development on the Chesapeake Bay, the Panel recognized that the issues involved were statewide and that meaningful state policies must apply statewide, as well. As part of the Report, Panel members from each jurisdiction created an Action Agenda of items recommended for immediate implementation. Virginia's Action Agenda included the creation of a Commission to evaluate and recommend a statewide planning process in support of the Panel's recommendations. Consequently, during the 1989 legislative session under House Joint Resolution 435, the General Assembly established a Commission on Population Growth and Development which was charged to "evaluate and recommend a statewide planning process for population growth and development in Virginia to the year 2020." (Appendix A) The nineteen-member Commission met in open sessions in Richmond once a month from July through September. At these meetings, the Commission heard from representatives of various state agencies, local governments, and other organizations on such issues as population growth, water resources, transportation, waste management, land use, and intergovernmental relations. (Appendix C) In October, having obtained a small grant from the Virginia Environmental Endowment, the Commission met for an overnight retreat to determine the direction that it wished to pursue. The final meeting of the Commission was in Richmond in late November. This report is presented with the hope that the Commonwealth of Virginia will undertake a leadership role in the patterning of future growth and development of this state so that its citizens may enjoy continued economic prosperity, appropriate protections for their natural environment, and equality of opportunity, wherever they live. |
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