Sprawl Southern Style

We set out on our Cornbread and Sushi road trip to look for the changing South, and driving through Charlotte, Chapel Hill, Roanoke, and Charlottesville we found it-towns changed to edge-cities, farmland changed to suburbs, two-lanes changed to four-lanes, small-scale farming changed to corporate agriculture, mom-and-pop businesses changed to chain stores.

Last week when our two vans arrived in Charlottesville we noticed that construction was everywhere and the cover of the local weekly paper asked, "How Dense Can we Get?" One student pointed out that sprawl is one of our themes, and it seemed to be following us from town-to-town.

In Charlottesville we did get some good news and see at least one land use battle that has been won. Dan Jordan, president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, hosted us at Monticello. He assured us that one of the most beautiful houses in America isn't under threat of a subdivision moving in next door.

Jordan met with our group in his office for an hour. He talked about Monticello, Thomas Jefferson, and his 22 years working with the foundation. He explained how they have 16 Ph.ds on the staff, and how they've held 22 conferences and funded 8,000 people to do work on Jefferson. "But this is not a Jefferson chamber of commerce," Jordan told my students. "We are also the national leaders of bringing the ugly topic of slavery to the forefront."

What really impressed us though was what Dan Jordan said about the important work of protecting the "viewshed" of Monticello. Jordan pointed out his office window and explained that even though Charlottesville is growing, the entire mountain behind Jefferson's home is protected by easements and good county planning.

How have they fought the encroachment of what most would call progress? "We've got to be willing to get in the trenches and battle. We've got to be proactive and look for allies. And it takes bringing in the real experts— lots of planners," Jordan said. "You've got to work hard and work smart. Never hope for the best. You can't keep a place from being developed but you can influence the type of development. You can change what will happen. Hallowed ground is more than often lost to neglect."

Today, when we pulled into Charleston a long story on the local paper's front page explored the growth along the new I-526 corridor all the way to John's Island. "The Road to Urban Sprawl?" the headline asked.

For two days we'd driven the Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina coasts along U.S. 17 and passed miles and miles of shabby strip malls, big box development blocks, and back-to-back burbs. As we clicked off bulging coastal county after coastal county it felt as if the whole South had sold out to the asphalt contractors and the burger merchants.

The only places that seemed safe from the ugly changes brought about by millions still rushing to the coast were where the government has set land aside as national forest or sea shore or monument. If land along the coast is privately owned, it all seems up for sale at this moment to the highest bidder. The only thing more common than road kill on the coastal highways are real estate signs.   

We'd have to admit to Jordan that we've seen our share of neglected landscapes on this trip. Everywhere we've looked along our route there are counties without comprehensive plans to control their growth. These are the places that use the term "economic development" as if it's a gospel text. These are the places where people trust only the invisible hand of the market to sort out what should develop and what should not.

Drive south like we did from Wilmington on U.S. 17 and one thing is clear: It's a bad idea to turn the whole future of a region over only to people with money to make.

After this road trip is over I don't think these 12 students will ever look at the edges of Southern cities quite the same way again. Maybe in the future they'll influence the way their hometowns grow.

Maybe it will be that protected view Dan Jordan showed us from his office at Monticello that they remember and not U.S. 17 south of Wilmington.