Greenbelt Alliance Origins-Preserving Agriculture and Promoting Smart Growth
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Greenbelt Alliance Origins-Preserving Agriculture and Promoting Smart Growth |
Greenbelt Alliance * The Newswire
Volume 2, Issue 6, June 2003
2003 marks the forty-fifth anniversary of Greenbelt Alliance's work to protect open space and promote livable communities. Throughout this year we are highlighting our history in the Newswire.
In the late 1970s and early 80s, People for Open Space (the forerunner of Greenbelt Alliance) undertook two major projects that remain part of Greenbelt Alliance's work today.
In 1978, People for Open Space initiated the Farmlands Conservation Project—the first comprehensive look at agricultural land in a major U.S. metropolitan region. The study, completed in 1981, affirmed the economic, social, and cultural benefits of agriculture in the Bay Area, but determined that urban sprawl consumed an average of 24,000 acres of agricultural land between 1949 and 1980. The project's final report, "Endangered Harvest," received widespread and favorable news coverage and helped raise awareness about the need to protect agricultural land and open space.
In 1981, People for Open Space began a second major study addressing how to balance housing and open space needs. The Housing/Greenbelt Program identified ways in which the region's housing needs could be met by focusing development within existing and committed urban areas. This approach—now known as "infill" - remains at the core of Greenbelt Alliance's work to protect open space and promote livable communities.