LEON KOLANKIEWICZ: Help preserve the Piedmont by reducing immigration

Greater Atlanta lost far more open land to urban development than any other U.S. metro area from 2000 to 2010, and the sprawl continues as any resident of the metro area can attest. Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina ranked sixth and eighth, respectively, on a list of the top 10 metro areas affected by sprawl.

In fact, the entire southern Piedmont region — the roughly 500-mile-long, 100-mile-wide stretch of foothills running from north-central North Carolina down through northern Georgia — is developing so fast, in just a few decades more it could become one nearly continuous swath of strip malls and subdivisions by midcentury, a megapolis almost identical to the heavily urbanized corridor to its north that stretches from Boston to Richmond.

The Piedmont’s residents detest this explosive sprawl — and the congestion and pollution it brings. Just 13 percent are happy with the current rate of growth, according to a study conducted by my organization, NumbersUSA. Three in four would prefer slower or zero growth

There are several factors that are driving sprawl in the southern Piedmont.

Operating with a “grow at any cost” mentality, state and local officials offer tax incentives and other enticements to developers and multinational corporations, paid out of the taxes of local residents, to encourage rapid development without paying heed to the true long-term costs of these policies.

In addition, the southern Piedmont is an attractive place to live for many who move to seek job prospects, escape population density and sprawl in other regions, and increasingly as a retirement destination. The adage “build it and they will come” truly applies to the region.

The other factor causing sprawl in the Piedmont is U.S. population growth, most of which is driven by immigration. This factor is one many of those opposed to sprawl often neglect, understandably because it has become one of the most controversial political issues of our time.

In 1965, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, which made the immigration of non-Europeans to America much easier. The American people were promised at the time that the numerical level of immigration would remain the same, but immigration has quadrupled, adding about 72 million people to the U.S. population between 1965 and 2015.

If current trends continue, immigration will add another 103 million people to the U.S. population by 2065, accounting for almost 90 percent of total future growth, according to Pew Research. Developers will inevitably bulldoze vast open spaces in the southern Piedmont to construct houses, offices, shopping centers and roads for these newcomers.

Between 1982 and 2010, the Piedmont’s population rose from 9 million to 15.7 million, a 74 percent jump. Immigration drove roughly 40 percent of that increase.

This rapid growth has transformed the landscape. Developers have converted forests, wetlands and farmlands into roads, strip malls and housing tracts. Each additional resident necessitates the destruction of roughly half an acre of natural habitat.

All told, the Piedmont has lost nearly 4 million acres of open space — an area roughly the size of New Jersey — over the last few decades. In particular, wetlands, which filter pollutants out of groundwater and mitigate flooding, are disappearing at an alarming rate.

This sprawl has virtually wiped out certain habitats, and the longleaf pine tree ecosystem, home to scores of threatened and endangered species, now covers just 5% of its historic range.

Losing these wild places isn’t just bad for the environment; it’s bad for people, too. Spending time in open spaces reduces the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and a variety of other illnesses. It also improves people’s mental health.

Smarter immigration policies would humanely reduce population growth. They’d also prove popular with voters. When presented with Census data that show immigration is a key driver of the regional population explosion, nearly two-thirds of Piedmont residents favored reducing immigration.

We can’t preserve our precious natural habitats unless we curb immigration. As the President’s Council on Sustainable Development put it, “Reducing immigration levels is a necessary part of population stabilization and the drive toward sustainability.”

That’s not President Trump’s council, by the way. That’s President Bill Clinton’s advisors, writing way back in 1996.

It’s time to act on their advice.

Simply put, Americans can continue admitting more than 1 million legal immigrants to the U.S. population each year. Or we can choose to preserve our remaining open spaces. But we can’t do both.