Free Republic

Things began to unravel in 1973, when the Oregon legislature required cities in the state to set development boundaries with the goal of preserving farmland from “leapfrog development”​—​that is, new subdivisions not adjacent to established developments. Portland became the first major city with an “urban growth boundary.” This fact opened up a world of possibilities that are still being inflicted upon us. “Urban planners have long believed in a land-use-transportation connection that would allow them to manipulate one through the other,” writes Cato Institute senior fellow Randal O’Toole in a damning policy paper on the failure of Portland’s growth policies....

Just last month, this fashionable San Diego enclave was ground zero in the war against urban sprawl. In one of the United States' most destructive acts of environmental terrorism, investigators say, members of a group calling itself the Earth Liberation Front crept onto a construction site here in the middle of the night and set it ablaze. They left a banner that read: "If you build it, we will burn it. The E.L.F.s are mad."

State Plans Offensive in Sprawl War Land use: Gov. Davis backs bill linking grants to efforts to steer growth to developed areas. Cities fear loss of local control. By EVAN HALPER, TIMES STAFF WRITER Once at the forefront of the so-called smart-growth movement, California has been sitting on the sidelines for years, thanks to a state planning agency that has no control over local land-use decisions