Clinton Land Scheme
Self-Defeating Plan

WASHINGTON — The federal government's plan to buy private property for public use may be self-defeating, warns one Washington think tank.

The Clinton administration wants more open space for parks and wilderness areas. The proposed program is supposedly aimed at curbing urban sprawl.

According to the National Center for Public Policy Research, however, urban sprawl is more likely to be a problem with the program than without it.

Dr. Samuel R. Staley says that less than five percent of the U.S. has been developed. According to Staley, 75 percent of the nation lives on 3.5 percent of the land. In more than three-quarters of the states, more than 90 percent of the land is used for forestry, pasture, wildlife preservation and parks.

The loss of farmland to development, he says, has declined from 6.2 percent from the 1960s to 2.7 percent in the 1990s.

Americans need less farmland today, he says. Demand for agricultural land has been declining due to technological advances such as fertilizers, biotechnology and pesticides. Agricultural output increased more than 28 percent this decade alone, he notes

If the federal government buys rural land for open spaces and parks, they could bid up land prices in already developing suburban areas, placing home ownership out of reach for many Americans, Staley cautions.

He says that is precisely what happened with such a program in Portland, Oregon. The city went from being one of the nation's most affordable cities to one of the least affordable.

The National Center for Public Policy Research claims that families may move to more rural areas beyond the reach of the administration's program, which would mean longer commutes and more automobile emissions. They also predict that such a program would force homeowners to dwell in higher density, creating more urban problems such as smog and increasing government services.