GREATER OHIO Group's aim: Slam brakes on sprawl

By ROGER G. SMITH
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
Critics of sprawl -- the spreading out of people and investment from core communities -- tend to focus on practices such as turning cornfields into housing subdivisions.
But a new statewide group formed recently is taking a much broader, economic view.
Greater Ohio is out to reverse public policy it says promotes sprawl in favor of what it calls new, pro-development policies.
The policies will focus on redeveloping communities, strengthening regional cooperation and improving quality of life, said Gene Krebs, director of Greater Ohio. Such an approach would make the state -- including Northeast Ohio and the Mahoning Valley -- more competitive nationally in economic development and save taxpayers money, he said.
The goal is to make such policy changes an issue and a priority for candidates in the 2006 election for governor, said Krebs, a former conservative Republican state legislator from southwest Ohio.
A half-dozen foundations, most of them Ohio-based, are funding the nonprofit group.
Cites outdated approaches
Many state policies associated with growth and redevelopment are relics of the 1930s, Krebs said.
The archaic state polices have left Ohio lagging nationally in economic development and residents with unnecessarily high state and local taxes, he said.
Greater Ohio will spend the next three years explaining why to residents and local leaders. The group has hired a Northeast Ohio director to do that in the region.
"It's going to really raise the level of debate at the state and local level. It's really progressive," said Pat Rosenthal. She is executive director of Common Wealth Inc. in Youngstown and a member of the Greater Ohio steering committee. Common Wealth is a nonprofit community development corporation focused on building affordable housing.
A statewide effort is needed to gain traction for the issue because Ohio has so many urban centers with differing self-interests, Rosenthal said.
Greater Ohio wants citizens and local politicians to persuade candidates for governor to embrace development policy alternatives, Krebs said. Examples include overhauling the tax code and targeting growth for communities. Details are on the group's Web site, www.greaterohio.org.
Current policies
State policies encourage spending tax dollars on building new roads, water and sewer lines and schools in outlying areas, Krebs said.
Such sprawling practices create ever-rising taxes in places that are expanding in size, he said. The approach also often robs communities of the tax bases they need to maintain what they have, Krebs said, such as in Youngstown and Warren.
Meanwhile, empty rural land becomes housing subdivisions, roads clog with commuters and pollution mounts, sprawl critics say.
Krebs saw little movement on reforming outdated development policies when he was a state legislator. That shows major change needs leadership from the top, he said.
"It takes a governor willing to burn political chips to get this done," Krebs said.
Keith Schneider, founder and deputy director of the Michigan Land Use Institute, said he thinks governors can make the difference.
Governors' input
Schneider pointed to Oregon, Maryland and Michigan as places where governors successfully pushed for changes in state policies that move away from sprawl, which he and others refer to as smart growth. Michigan's governor won on a smart-growth platform, he said.
"There's a bully pulpit aspect to it," Schneider said.
Many state spending priorities come from the top, meaning change requires leadership from the governor's office, he said.
A governor also can create consensus in a state's business community, which must buy into smart growth for the concept to succeed, Schneider said.
Smart-growth supporters might have a hard time convincing business leaders in Ohio that major change is the answer.
Businesses that already take financial risks every day hesitate when major change is proposed, said Vincent J. Squillace, a Youngstown native and executive vice president of the Ohio Home Builders Association.
It's unlikely the business community will embrace state policy overhauls, he said.
"The more uncertainty you throw into the system, the more fearful they become," Squillace said. "It's not what Ohio needs at this time."
The state needs to drop regulations that get in the way of business, not make new regulations, he said.
Local support needed
Selling local government on the smart-growth concept is important, too, said Larry Long, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio and a Greater Ohio steering committee member.
County, city and township leaders are central to decisions on where, when and under what conditions their areas grow, he said. They are the ones deciding zoning laws, building codes and where to build roads and sewer and water lines, he added.
The notion of more regional cooperation will be a touchy one, Long said.
Ohio's dominant government form is city and township, not county, he said. Smart growth has been better received in states such as Maryland, where the county is the overarching local authority, he said.
The term regional strikes fear into Ohio politicians even though it doesn't need to, he said. The state already has much regional government, he said, pointing to transportation agencies that manage road funding.
Nonetheless, Greater Ohio will be best off if it pushes for tweaking governmental structure, not suggestion radical change, he said.
"You have to be real careful," Long said.
rgsmith@vindy.com