According to USA Today, Bakersfield, Calif. has become the anti-smart growth city:
At a time when many areas of the country are trying to contain sprawl, the City Council won approval this year to expand an area chosen for development outside city limits that could nearly double Bakersfield’s size in the years ahead.
Critics see the expansion as a green light to builders that will encourage more suburban sprawl, gobble up more prime farmland and aggravate traffic congestion and air pollution.
Many developers and politicians, however, see a way to satisfy a feverish housing demand that has turned a once-conservative backwater into one of the state’s fastest-growing cities.
Mayor Harvey Hall says Bakersfield has little appetite for higher-density developments and other urban design trends. “I certainly respect the interests of the smart-growth people,” Hall says. “But as the mayor, I support prosperity. You just can’t stop growth.”
