"We don't want to become another Atlanta"

[The_sandlapper]

I guess they are really expecting quite a bit of growth in those areas (Columbia, & Knoxville) in the near future. I know Columbia gained quite a bit in its MSA since 2000 just a little over 56K. That is not as much as some of the larger cities but Columbia hasn't seen that type of growth in its metro in quite some time. Iv'e always said though that it would be only a matter of time before other cities outside of the I-85 corridor were discovered largely because they offer much of the same as the rest of the cities in the "corridor". This is only the beginnig.

The report defines "to be considered as a candidate for megapolitan inclusion, an area must be a string of contiguous metropolitian and micropolitan counties, uninterrupted by non-metropolitian counties" (p. 7).

With Columbia that would include the Greenville MSA running into the Newberry micropolitian area into the Columbia MSA. Not sure with Knoxville but it looks like it is connected because of its proximity to Chattanooga.

[krazeeboi]

Thats two different things. When you talk about mitigating sprawl, I think about manging new growth and its impacts in such a way that it improves the current situation.

[Spartan]

As a metro in its entirety then I agree. There are, however, individual examples of good policies on how to deal with sprawl. This is where Charlotte comes in to play.

[The_sandlapper]

Also another thing I thought about is that Columbia's CSA is directly connected too both Charlotte's & Greenville's CSA's this may be another consideration as to why Columbia was included in the Peidmont Megalopolis.