AN EX-URBAN VIEW: Rural- Living, Now that's the Life!

- Bill Ashton, MCIP

They're movin' to the country fast and furious, would be a typical news headline in New Brunswick, with the following facts:

Travel almost anywhere in the province and one can find development along the highways and into the rural areas. This type of development is so common that it has become a way of life, especially around larger urban centres. For example, the city planning department recently concluded that the metro area of Fredericton grew by over two thousand people since 1991 - that is equivalent to a New Maryland village every five years.

Only forty-four people were added to the city's total population.

For individuals seeking the rural ideal it happens right outside the cities. Often I hear the benefits: Land is cheaper, yes. Property costs less, yes. We're only minutes away on good highways, yes. We require less local services and so our taxes should be lower, yes.

And we create jobs by taking the money saved and investing it in the- home or an improvement in the property or in car expenses. In addition, once we get established, we buy groceries, gas, repairs, gifts, and all sorts of goods and services that make cities work! In fact, I've been told, and I'm sure many have heard, that if it were not for the rural folks many of the shopping malls and the industrial and commercial parks at the city's edge would not exist.

A counter point to the economic, social and labour force truths mentioned above, was recently discussed in the Commission on Land Use and the Rural Environment. In New Brunswick, urban sprawl was of suchb importance, it was targeted as requiring a provincial land use policy. Sprawl was defined as development scattered along the roads or in isolated subdivisions away from serviced areas. Often it is non-continuous and unserviced and unplanned.

Well, from a controlling, centralist point of view these could be true. But from individuals living in the area, each lot is planned in the vernacular - by the owner.

Each lot is approved by transportation people, the health authority and sometimes by a building inspector. "That's government in your face", I'm told.

The Commission also stated sprawl is inconvenient and costly, it destroys farms and woodlands, it can block future development, and it is often haphazard and unattractive in appearance.

To that, individuals have retorted: "These highways are built with our tax dollars too, so where is the problem? if there were a problem, the government would not let me build here."

The bottom line is that there is a problem when hundreds and thousands of people start doing the same thing. The Commission was right in calling for a policy to manage sprawl.

Bill Ashton is a Senior Policy Planner at Municipalities, Culture and Housing, Fredericton, NB. He chairs an inter-departmental committee responsible for a settlement policy in New Brunswick and can be reached at ashtonb@gov.nb.ca

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