Sierra Club 2001 Population Sprawl Ballot Question

Sprawl, population growth, and the Sierra Club

SUSPS

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Looking for the root cause

In November 1998, American voters passed overwhelmingly approximately 200 state and local ballot initiatives designed to contain sprawl. Citizens are concerned with growth run amok and their communities becoming unrecognizable. The Sierra Club has made curbing sprawl a national priority campaign.

Manhattan The press, the Sierra Club and the home-building industry all tout "smart growth" as the answer to the problem. But this reincarnation of urban planning offers only short-term palliatives, while the root cause -- uncontrolled population growth -- goes unnoticed and unaddressed. The Sierra Club's Sprawl literature, barely mentions population stabilization as an essential component in the effort to curb sprawl. SUSPS finds this omission appalling from one of the nation's most influential environmental organizations.

In order to inform members, leaders, and the public about the role population growth plays in our everyday lives, SUSPS has supported population - sprawl resolutions, which have been passed by over 15 Sierra Club chapters over the course of the last year recommending that the Club include a realistic discussion about population growth as an intrinsic component of sprawl.

SUSPS has pressed the Sierra Club to include population in the Club's Sprawl campaign. Members and the public intuitively understand this crucial linkage and it is therefore important that Club materials acknowledge population growth as a contributing cause of sprawl. To accomplish this goal, SUSPS qualified the following ballot question, which was voted on during the annual Sierra Club 2001 spring election.

"WHEREAS the Sierra Club has made reducing sprawl a national priority campaign; and

WHEREAS population growth is an important driving force of sprawl development in most areas; and

WHEREAS stabilizing the U.S. population has been Sierra Club policy since 1969;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: The Sierra Club shall emphasize both regional and national population stabilization as essential components in all Sierra Club sprawl materials and programs."

Woops - the Club deliberately dropped over half of the above petitioners' ballot question from the printed ballots. Is this Democracy in the Sierra Club?

*Information on Sprawl*	*The Sprawl Ballot Question*
The Overlooked Factor in Sprawl	The Sprawl Ballot Question - Looking for the Root Cause
Facing the Future and Sprawl	What you can do to help
Sprawl and Population	Supporting statement (short)
Census Adjusted Upward	Supporting statement (long)
Sprawl: It's Too Many People	Sprawl resolutions passed by Club Chapters
www.SprawlCity.org shows population-sprawl relationship	Frequently Asked Questions
	Democracy in the Sierra Club?

SUSPS Home Overview What You Can Do History Democracy Misc