PORTLAND (AP) – “Sprawl, Smart Growth & Maine’s Future” will feature workshops this week on revitalizing cities, regionalization and the effects of big-box stores on existing businesses.

“We want to re-frame sprawl,” said Alan Caron, president of GrowSmart Maine, an advocacy group based in Yarmouth. “It is certainly a threat to the environment and the rural economy and landscape. But it’s more than that. It’s a threat to our taxpayers and our future workers.”

Property rights advocates are wary.

“They are hopping on a bandwagon that is already there, which is a property tax revolt, and it won’t work,” said Mary Adams of Garland, who is circulating a state petition to cap spending on local and state levels. “It’s like there’s a parade, and they are trying to get in front of it.”

Evan Richert, former state planner and chairman of GrowSmart Maine’s board of directors, says the rise of outlying communities requires tax-financed construction and hiring to meet increased demand for services.

According to state education officials, Maine’s public school enrollment has fallen nearly 3 percent over the last eight years and over the next eight years is projected to fall almost 10 percent. Yet, since 1995, state and local governments have been spending from $67 million to $90 million annually on state-approved school construction projects.

A 1997 state report found that local and state spending on highways increased by one-third during the 1980s while the population rose by only 10 percent.

“Sprawl drives redundancy everywhere,” Richert said. “We cannot afford that redundancy because we are not a fast-growing state.”

The Legislature passed laws in the 1980s calling for towns to plan and direct growth but zoning still encourages sprawl, said Charles Colgan, an economist at the Muskie School of Public Service.

Rick Bennett, a former Republican senator who commutes to Portland from his Norway home, said GrowSmart Maine is raising important issues but that proposed solutions raise popular concerns.

“You are dealing with human desires at the most elemental level,” Bennett said. “This is about human beings making decisions of where they live and work. That is what defines Maine. It is difficult, if not impossible, to regulate that in a democracy.”

Friday’s daylong “summit” will be held at the Augusta Civic Center.