By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Columnist

A new national study finds that Hawai'i joins the nation in losing rural land to urban sprawl, with nearly all that development in the Islands directly related to population growth.

That means, essentially, that we're not using much more land on a per capita basis — not putting our homes on bigger lots, for example. Rather, we're using more land almost entirely because there are more of us here. It also suggests that as Hawai'i grows, its new residents are moving into apartments and subdivisions in about the same numbers as longer-term residents did.

The Center for Immigration Studies report, "Outsmarting Smart Growth: Population Growth, Immigration and the Problem of Sprawl," is available at www.cis.org/articles/2003/sprawl.html.

It concludes that no matter how communities try to plan their growth to preserve rural land, dramatic population increases can overcome those efforts. The report says that across the nation, 90 percent of population growth is coming from immigration and the children of immigrants.

The center has an immigration-control agenda. "The Center is animated by a pro-immigrant, low-immigration vision which seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer welcome for those admitted," the organization says on its Web site.

Its study, based largely on U.S. Census data, found that Hawai'i's population rose 19.7 percent from 1982 to 1997. During the same period, the amount of land used for urban purposes grew by 20.4 percent, covering nearly 31,000 acres.

The numbers show there was very little change in the acreage per person. Per capita land use was 0.150 acres per person in 1982 and 0.151 acres per person in 1997. The numbers are calculated by dividing the number of acres of developed land by the population.

Hawai'i has the lowest acreage per person in the country. New York with 0.175 and California with 0.169 developed acres per person aren't far off. At the high end of the scale are Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, all with more than an acre of developed land per resident. The national average is .493 — about a half acre per person.

The study says more than half of immigrants live in suburban areas, and that when children of immigrants buy a home, only a quarter of them do so in central cities.

"The suburbanization of immigrants and their children is a welcome sign of integration. But it also means they contribute to sprawl just like other Americans," the center said.

Jan TenBruggencate is The Advertiser's Kauai bureau chief and its science and environment writer. Reach him at (808) 245-3074 or jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.