The recent, excellent article on sprawl by Colin Woodard vividly portrayed the conflicts over sprawl on the mainland and how that impacts us culturally in Maine. Along with many of the New Urbanists, he seems to believe that the solution is in concentrated “cluster housing” to reduce fragmentation. This may be true. There is no question that, as the article states, we need only look at maps to see where development can work and where it can’t. The balancing element in this approach to urban design has to be adequate provision for natural resources, most notably: water. This can create tension between people’s desires for familiar entitlements and providing for basic future needs.
“It is impossible to devise effective environmental policy unless it is based on sound scientific information,” wrote UN Secretary General Kofi Annan several years ago.
GIS maps can show us overlays of soils, underground and surface waters and wetlands in relation to roads, wells and buildings. Because an area is undeveloped, it is not automatically an opportunity for building. What is left out, for the most part by New Urbanists, is the depth of this relationship between sprawl and water resources.
On Vinalhaven, water concerns are part of daily life, as are questions about uncontrolled growth, which may result in sprawl. In the summer, when a well goes dry, or when a new well is drilled deeper than the last on the same property for less yield, we have to look at two factors: how many adjacent wells are drawing water and what other elements might be contributing to water loss. Besides individual consumption of water, the most important reason for losing water has to do with vegetation. Lawns and exotic plant species, in a garden for example. can consume as much as 80 percent more water than indigenous plants. Indiscriminate forestry that cuts too aggressively can cause soil runoff that blocks the flow of water. Building in fragile areas close to wetlands and shorelines can reduce water’s capacity to restore itself dramatically. Growth that is not regulated consistently by our ordinance creates precedents that can lose us precious cover that would conserve our water supply.
As long as global and local populations were relatively small and the use of resources was limited by limited technologies, these concerns were not public domain. Individuals could make private decisions about water use, development and gardening choices with impunity. Now we must question such choices.
On Vinalhaven, we are even more aware of the these questions because our water is finite in our sole source aquifer. The Vinalhaven Comprehensive Plan, mandated by the state, is now trying to address, study and balance some of these questions in our own small town, as are towns throughout the state. As in any small community, these questions are complicated further by personalities and personal connections. The impulse to be helpful in a particular case is human nature, but it is not going to solve serious questions about zoning recommendations as we all study our maps. The islands, like many small communities, have historically been ruled by personal loyalties. Now those same loyalties are being tested by the pressure that growth puts on us all. The answers are not arbitrary: it isn’t growth vs. non-growth. Careful planning is a large part of it. Being fully informed about the reasons for those plans is arguably even more important. This is a form of personal as well as community growth: to recognize and explore options that are unfamiliar but perhaps crucial.
Aviva Rahmani is a resident of Vinalhaven.