Sustainable Pittsburgh, seeking to spark public discussion and guide political leaders as the region plans for growth, wants state funds and other public subsidies to be withheld from projects that encourage sprawl.

The recommendation was contained in a report whose release coincides with a 30-day public comment period on the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission's long-range transportation and development plan for the region.

The Citizens' Vision report by Sustainable Pittsburgh suggests that public funds be used to redevelop brownfield mill sites, dilapidated city centers and other existing infrastructure. "Our region needs to embrace the concepts of Smart Growth," says Court Gould, director of the nonprofit group, which was formed in part to push for environmentally sensitive development policies.

Past development in the region has been anything but smart, the group says. The report cites U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics that show a nearly 50 percent increase in the amount of developed land in the region the last two decades despite an 8 percent decline in total population.

Gould blames the region's sprawl on the "growth-at-any-cost mentality" of local municipalities that hold control of land-use policy. These municipalities compete with one another for the expanded tax base that accompanies development and don't typically consider regional sustainability.

The costs of sprawl range from traffic congestion to increased water runoff and flooding to the segregation of communities along racial and economic lines, with poverty concentrated in abandoned city centers.

Sustainable Pittsburgh proposes limiting the cost by focusing public dollars in designated "Growth Areas," which it defines as areas currently served by sewer systems. Local areas with sewer service are located overwhelmingly in Allegheny County, which raises the question whether outlying counties will sign on to a plan that restricts their development.

That's just what they'll need to do, Sustainable Pittsburgh says, if the region is to limit sprawl. As Gould puts it, "It's time to hold the line."

The Citizens' Vision report is available free at www.sustainablepittsburgh.org The SPC's Transportation and Development Plan for Southwestern Pennsylvania can be read and public comments can be submitted at www.spcregion.org