Listed below are some 1998 highlights of the growing national movement to curb suburban sprawl and restore communities.

       New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman devoted her inaugural address to the problem of urban sprawl and proposes to raise $98 million annually over 10 years to protect open space and farmland.

       Senators Jim Jeffords (R-VT) and Carl Levin (D-MI) requested a General Accounting Office study to examine the extent to which federal policies contribute to urban sprawl.

       Tennessee passed a law in May requiring local governments throughout the state to draw urban growth boundaries to contain sprawl.

       Utah Governor Michael Leavitt declared in October that his state "will not continue to subsidize urban sprawl" and announces support for the "Quality Growth Act of 1999."  The new legislation is intended to protect Utah's open spaces and to redevelop or fill in its older communities.

       Over 200 measures aimed at curbing sprawl appeared on state and local ballots in November 1998.  Among the measures approved:  urban growth boundaries in seven California towns; a "land bank" to protect lands threatened by sprawl in five towns on the East End of Long Island; and $98 million annually to acquire open spaces threatened by sprawl in New Jersey (not counting numerous local ballot measures approving still more acquisition funds.)

       Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge's 21st Century Environment Commission released a report calling sprawl a "reckless, almost random" type of development that "wastes open land, damages habitat and natural diversity, and destroys historic sites."

       The Urban Land Institute and the Smart Growth Network of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency held the second annual "smart growth" conference in Austin, Texas.

       A public opinion poll commissioned by the Metropolitan Planning Council of Chicago found that 74 percent of the people living in the Chicago metropolitan area believe that when businesses move to the edge of suburban areas, this hurts older communities.  The same poll found an astonishing 71 percent favor zoning boundaries to protect farmland and open space from development.  These and other numbers "virtually hum with apprehension over the rapid consumption of the region's undeveloped areas," said the MPC in announcing the poll in April 1998.

       Sierra Club released a report identifying ten cities as being threatened by sprawl:  Atlanta, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, Kansas City, Denver, Seattle, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Ft. Lauderdale, and Chicago.

       A "Smart Growth" agenda for Ohio was launched in October.  Religious leaders of various denominations and mayors of older suburbs join environmentalists, historic preservationists, and efficient government advocates in supporting the agenda.

       Illinois House of Representatives formed a "Smart Growth Task Force" to examine the causes of farmland losses and to recommend ways to keep land in agricultural use.  The resolution creating this study group declared that "increased urbanization, government policies, and environmental trends are resulting in more pressure upon our agricultural lands and Illinois' 76,000 farms.

       Vice-President Al Gore delivered a major address on sprawl in September 1998 at the Brookings Institution.

       Legislation directing the U.S. Postal Service to give local citizens a say in decisions to close or relocate post offices passes the U.S. House of Representatives.  While it fails to clear the Senate before Congress adjourns, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Senator Jim Jeffords (R-VT) pledge to reintroduce and push for similar legislation in 1999.

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