The latest brawl over sprawl has spawned a national cry for "smart growth." After all, who could be against that?

Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening is credited with propelling the term nationally, after his state adopted its Smart Growth program in 1997. As this year's chairman, he's put smart growth atop the agenda of the National Governors Association.

In Maryland, Smart Growth was created to save rural lands threatened by development, reinvest in existing communities, and prevent unnecessary spending on roads and other infrastructure to support sprawl.

The program recognizes that growth will and should occur and uses economic incentives, rather than regu lations, to achieve its goals, said John W. Frece, special assistant to the governor for Smart Growth.

"What we're trying to do is to bring some common sense to our development patterns - so we're not squandering our rural areas, so we can have a balance of rural areas and urban areas."

State officials recognize that some government policies of the past encouraged sprawl by providing either direct or indirect subsidies for such things as roads, schools and water and sewer lines, Frece said.

As a result of Smart Growth, Maryland is directing more than $2 billion of its $19 billion annual budget to established communities or designated growth areas, which are set locally and eligible for expansion subject to state guidelines.

Frece draws a distinction between Maryland's growth areas and the land inside an urban growth boundary, such as in Portland, Ore. Development can occur outside Maryland's growth areas, but the state won't pay for infrastructure to support it.

So far, Frece gives only anecdotes to describe Smart Growth's impact.

In five communities, plans for highway bypasses were scrapped. Now, state and local officials are working with those communities to find in-town solutions to resolve traffic problems.

In other areas, new court and government buildings, as well as a satellite college campus have been directed to the heart of established communities rather than to their outskirts.

"You're dealing with a problem that's taken a half-century to get to this point. We're not going to undo it in a year or two," Frece said.

Maryland officials have been gratified by talk in other states about the need for smart growth and have made presentations to counterparts in Virginia.

"When we started Smart Growth in 1996, there was a question of whether sprawl was a problem at all. I think the debate of whether it's a problem at all is past us. The question is now how do you address it in a fair way?"

But the Home Builders Association of Maryland isn't convinced the state has the answer.

Desirable suburban areas are short of available housing lots, and prices are increasing, said Tom Ballentine, the association's director of governmental relations.

He credited Smart Growth with putting greater scrutiny on the planning of roads and other infrastructure. He also said that while development in urban areas has picked up, home buyers with school-age children still look to the suburbs.

"The policies don't address the underlying factors that drive sprawl: crime, taxes, schools," Ballentine said.

In addition, many home buyers aren't likely to embrace living closer together, he said.

"No matter how much pressure Smart Growth puts on people to higher-density development, they're going to put more pressure to avoid it.

Frece countered that Smart Growth hasn't been in place long enough to have affected the availability or price of housing lots, and it shouldn't ever have an impact.

In itself, Smart Growth doesn't address such issues as schools and crime, but Frece said that doesn't mean officials are ignoring them.

He said Smart Growth probably will result in more high-density development and greater emphasis on mass transit. People should have an alternative to living in large-lot subdivisions and driving everywhere by car, he said. The key is designing communities that are attractive and functional, as well as compact.

"If they're done right, people don't notice it because they're such desirable places to live."