What Have We Learned?
Nearly 75 years of land-use planning has demonstrated that goals for development, conservation and sustainable quality of life are interdependent. Independent initiatives by the State or local governments won't achieve the goals. Rural resource lands, including farms and forests, cannot be sufficiently protected from development through the State's preservation programs unless local zoning and related tools limit adjacent development consistent with the programs' objectives. Greenhouse gas emissions from mobile sources cannot be effectively controlled if the majority of the workforce can reach their jobs only by driving automobiles from homes so widely dispersed that they cannot be served by public transportation.