How Walkable Communities, Better Planning, and Smarter Growth Can Reduce Sprawl Pressure in Prince William County and Beyond
May 28th | 7pm – Free via Zoom – Registration Required
As development pressure continues to intensify across Prince William County, residents in rural and exurban communities find themselves fighting projects threatening farmland, forests, drinking water resources, and quality of life. Conversations focus on the immediate local impacts i.e. more traffic, crowded schools, loss of open space, and strain on infrastructure.
But these local fights are also part of a much larger regional growth challenge. Understanding that regional growth can inform local fights.
Join the Prince William Conservation Alliance (PWCA) for a virtual conversation exploring how smart growth, walkable communities, and better regional planning can help protect rural landscapes and reduce pressure for sprawl development. This program is part of PWCA’s ongoing series highlighting our 3Rs: Reaching Our Potential vision for a more sustainable future in Prince William County.
At its core, the program will explore a simple but overlooked idea: good urban density helps protect rural lands. Rural residents and urbanists are not opponents. Rather, they are natural allies in the effort to direct growth toward designated places while preserving critical environmental resources and cherished community character.
The discussion will examine how disconnected land use patterns, automobile dependency, and poorly planned suburban expansion create long-term costs for both urban and rural communities alike. Speakers will also highlight how compact, walkable development in existing activity centers can reduce traffic, infrastructure burdens, housing pressure, and development encroachment into the Ag and Arts Overlay District and the Occoquan watershed.
The program will connect these broader regional ideas to local challenges facing Prince William County today, while offering residents new tools and perspectives for understanding and responding to sprawl development proposals.
Program
- Kevin Parker, PWCA Board of Directors and published columnist:
‘Fighting Sprawl and the Big Picture’
- Stewart Schwartz, Coalition for Smarter Growth:
‘A Blueprint for a Better Region: How Smart Growth Can Protect Rural Communities and Improve Quality of Life’
- Discussion and Community Q&A