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Jewish
Perspectives on Urban Life and the Environment
Jewish Council for Public Affairs Agenda for 2000-2001
Urban Sprawl
The JCPA supports policies to contain urban sprawl;
protect open spaces, wildlife habitats, and agricultural
lands in developed areas; and revitalize cities
and older suburbs through environmentally responsible
development of "brownfields" and other
areas with existing infrastructure.
Each year in the U.S., 400,000 acres of farmland,
woodland, and other undeveloped areas are bulldozed
for subdivisions, shopping malls, and roads. Urban
sprawl is destroying farmland and wildlife habitat,
reducing open space for recreation, increasing
air pollution, and causing unprecedented traffic
congestion across the U.S., prompting a groundswell
of local initiatives to preserve open space, increase
public transit, and redevelop "brownfields"
(former industrial areas which are environmentally
contaminated, abandoned, or underutilized). In
November 1998, three fourths of all environmental
ballot proposals passed, although the results
in the West were somewhat less favorable. The
Clinton Administration has proposed a change in
the tax code to enable communities to raise over
$10 billion for open space protection through
a new bond program. In addition, the President
requested for fiscal year 2000 a $1 billion Lands
Legacy initiative to help communities protect
farms, forests, urban parks and other local green
spaces. Congress authorized only a third of the
President's request, which will constrain grassroots
efforts to fight sprawl and save open space. |
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Jewish communities
will have increasing opportunities to join with
a wide range of religious and other civic groups
to advocate "smart growth" planning
to contain urban sprawl and promote economic development
in urban centers and older suburbs by rehabilitating
brownfields and other areas with existing infrastructure.
Furthermore, Jewish institutions and individuals
living in urban areas will be called upon to ensure
that their own building plans and residential
choices are consistent with the containment of
sprawl and the redevelopment of cities.
Resolution
on "Brownfields"
Legislation
Adopted by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Plenum February 23, 1998, Fort Lauderdale, FL
At the state and federal level, numerous new
programs have been proposed or initiated, and
a variety of new laws have been passed in an effort
to spur the development of "Brownfields,"
or former industrial sites, primarily clustered
in and around older urban areas, which are environmentally
contaminated, abandoned, or underutilized. Brownfields programs and laws seek to encourage the cleanup
of these contaminated sites and their subsequent
development in order to revitalize America's
many troubled and underutilized urban areas. Many
Brownfields are found
in predominantly low income and minority neighborhoods
which lack both employment opportunities and safe
public spaces.
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