Urban sprawl

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Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading out of a city and its suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area.^[1] Residents of sprawling neighborhoods tend to live in single-family homes and commute by automobile to work. Low population density is an indicator of sprawl. Urban planners emphasize the qualitative aspects of sprawl such as the lack of transportation options and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods. Conservationists tend to focus on the actual amount of land that has been urbanized by sprawl.^[1]

The term urban sprawl generally has negative connotations due to the health and environmental issues that sprawl creates.^[2] Residents of sprawling neighborhoods tend to emit more pollution per person and suffer more traffic fatalities.^{[3] [4]} Sprawl is controversial, with supporters claiming that consumers prefer lower density neighborhoods and that sprawl does not necessarily increase traffic.^[5] Sprawl is also linked with increased obesity since walking and bicycling are not viable commuting options.^[6] Sprawl negatively impacts land and water quantity and quality and may be linked to a decline in social capital.^[4]

Urban sprawl near Paris

[edit] Characteristics

Sprawl is characterized by several land use patterns which usually occur in unison:

[edit] Single-use zoning

This refers to a situation where commercial, residential, and industrial areas are separated from one another. Consequently, large tracts of land are devoted a single use and are segregated from one another by open space, infrastructure, or other barriers. As a result, the places where people live, work, shop, and recreate are far from one another, usually to the extent that walking is not practical, so all these activities require an automobile.^[2]

[edit] Low-density land use

Sprawl consumes much more land than traditional urban developments because new developments are of low density. The exact definition of "low density" is arguable, but a common example is that of single family homes, as opposed to apartments. Buildings usually have fewer stories and are spaced farther apart, separated by lawns, landscaping, roads or parking lots. Lot sizes are larger, and because more automobiles are used much more land is designated for parking. The impact of low density development in many communities is that developed or "urbanized" land is increasing at a faster rate than the population.

Another kind of low-density development is sometimes called leap-frog development. This term refers to the relationship, or lack thereof, between one subdivision and the next. Such developments are typically separated by large green belts, ie tracts of undeveloped land, resulting in an average density far lower even than the low density described in the previous paragraph. This is a 20th and 21st century phenomenon generated by the current custom of requiring a developer to provide subdivision infrastructure as a condition of development (DeGrove and Turner, 1991).^[7] Usually, the developer is required to set aside a certain percentage of the developed land for public use, including roads, parks and schools. In the past, when a local government built all the streets in a given location, the town could expand without interruption and with a coherent circulation system, because it had condemnation power. Private developers generally do not have such power (although they can sometimes find local governments willing to help), and often choose to develop on the tracts that happen to be for sale at the time they want to build, rather than pay extra or wait for a more appropriate location. The cheaper the land, the higher the profit margin.

[edit] Car-dependent communities

Areas of urban sprawl are also characterized as being highly dependent on automobiles for transportation, a condition known as automobile dependency. Most activities, such as shopping, commuting to work, concerts, etc. require the use of a car as a result of both the area's isolation from the city and the isolation the area's residential zones have from its industrial and commercial zones. Walking and other methods of transit are not practical; therefore, many of these areas have few or no sidewalks. In many suburban communities, even stores and activities that are close by are contrived to be much further, by separating uses with fences, walls, and engineered drainage ditches.

[edit] Developments characteristic of sprawl

[edit] Housing subdivisions

Housing subdivision in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Housing subdivisions are large tracts of land consisting entirely of newly-built residences. Duany and Plater-Zyberk claim that housing subdivisions “are sometimes called villages, towns, and neighborhoods by their developers, which is misleading since those terms denote places which are not exclusively residential.^[8]

Subdivisions often incorporate curved roads and culs-de-sac. Such subdivisions may offer only a few places to enter and exit the development, causing traffic to use high volume collector streets. All trips, no matter how short, must enter the collector road in a suburban system. (Duany Plater-Zyberk 5, 34)

[edit] Strip malls

Shopping centers are locations consisting of retail space. In the US suburban context these vary from strip malls which refer to collections of buildings sharing a common parking lot, usually built on a high-capacity roadway with commercial functions (i.e. a "strip"). Similar developments in the UK are called Retail Parks. Strip malls/retail parks contain a wide variety of retail and non-retail functions that also cater to daily use (e.g. video rental, takeout food, laundry services, hairdresser). Strip malls consisting mostly of big box stores or category killers are sometimes called "power centers" (USA). These developments tend to be low-density; the buildings are single-story and there is ample space for parking and access for delivery vehicles. This character is reflected in the spacious landscaping of the parking lots and walkways and clear signage of the retail establishments. Some strip malls are undergoing a transformation into Lifestyle centers; entailing investments in common areas and facilities (plazas, cafes) and shifting tenancy from daily goods to recreational shopping. European countries such as France, Belgium and Germany have implemented size restrictions for superstores found in strip malls in an effort to limit sprawl (Davies 1995).

[edit] Shopping malls

Another prominent form of retail development in areas characterized by "sprawl" is the shopping mall. Unlike the strip mall, this is usually comprised of a single building surrounded by a parking lot which contains multiple shops, usually "anchored" by one or more department stores (Gruen and Smith 1960). The function and size is also distinct from the strip mall. The focus is almost exclusively on recreational shopping rather than daily goods. Shopping malls also tend to serve a wider (regional) public and require higher-order infrastructure such as highway access and can have floorspaces in excess of a million square feet (ca. 100,000 m²). Until recently, the largest shopping mall in the world was the West Edmonton Mall, while the largest in the United States is the Mall of America. Now, several larger ones have been built and/or are planned in China. Shopping malls are often detrimental to downtown shopping centers of nearby cities since the shopping malls acts as a surrogate for the city center (Crawford 1992). Some downtowns have responded to this challenge by building shopping centers of their own (Frieden and Sagelyn 1989; consider also Toronto Eaton Centre (1977), Ottawa's Rideau Centre, Boston's Shops at Prudential Center, and Providence's Providence Place).

In the 1970s the Ontario Government created the Ontario Downtown Renewal Programme (ODRP), which helped finance the building of several downtown malls across Ontario. See entry under Eaton Centre. The program was created to reverse the tide of small business leaving downtowns for larger sites surrounding the city.

[edit] Fast food chains

Fast food chains are common in suburban areas. They are often built early in areas with low property values where the population is about to boom and where large traffic is predicted, and set a precedent for future development. Eric Schlosser, in his book Fast Food Nation, argues that fast food chains accelerate suburban sprawl and help set its tone with their expansive parking lots, flashy signs, and plastic architecture (65). Duany Plater Zyberk & Company believe that this only reinforces a destructive pattern of growth in an endless quest to move away from the sprawl that only results in creating more of it (Duany Plater-Zyberk 26).

[edit] Examples of sprawl

Urban sprawl near Los Angeles, showing the city of Glendale

In the United States, Atlanta, Georgia is an example of a large urban area with a low population density. Atlanta covers 9,855 km² with a population of 4,112,198 people for a density of 417/km².^[9]This is approximately one-third the density of the New York urbanized area. The urban area of Melbourne, Australia in 2001 had 3,160,171 people over 2080.3 km²^[10], giving a population density of 1519.1/km². Helsinki in Finland, which has only 1,232,595 people spread over 2,970.6 km² area, resulting in a population density of just 415.0/km².

According to the National Resources Inventory (NRI), about 8,900 square kilometers (2.2 million acres) of land was developed between 1992 and 2002. Presently, the NRI classifies approximately 100,000 more square kilometers (40,000 sq miles) (an area approximately the size of Kentucky) as developed than the Census Bureau classifies as urban. The difference in the NRI classification is that it includes rural development, which by definition cannot be considered to be "urban" sprawl. Currently, according to the 2000 Census, approximately 2.6 percent of the US land area is urban.^[11]Approximately 0.8 percent of the nation's land is in the 37 urbanized areas with more than 1,000,000 population.

The urban Sprawl of Melbourne.

Nonetheless, some urban areas have expanded geographically even while losing population. But it was not just US urbanized areas that lost population and sprawled substantially. According to data in "Cities and Automobile Dependence" by Kenworthy and Laube (1999), urbanized area population losses occurred while there was an expansion of sprawl between 1970 and 1990 in Brussels, Belgium; Copenhagen, Denmark; Frankfurt, Germany; Hamburg, Germany; Munich, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland.

At the same time, the urban cores of these and nearly all other major cities in the United States, Western Europe and Japan that did not annex new territory experienced the related phenomena of falling household size and "white flight", sustaining population losses ^[12]. This trend has slowed somewhat in recent years, as more people have regained an interest in urban living.

The term "Los Angelization" is also sometimes used for urban sprawl, though this may be misleading. Los Angeles was one of the world's first low density urbanized areas, as a result of wide automobile ownership. However, Los Angeles has become more dense over the past half-century, principally due to small lot zoning and a high demand for housing due to population growth. Los Angeles increased its density to 5,801 per square mile in 1990. Land consumption per resident in 1990 was 0.11 acre, which made Los Angeles the most densely populated urbanized area in America. ^[13]

[edit] Examples of smart growth

Main article: smart growth

The first urban growth boundary was in Fayette County, Kentucky in 1958.^{[citation needed]} However, fifteen years later, the state of Oregon enacted a law in 1973 limiting the area urban areas could occupy, through urban growth boundaries. As a result, Portland, the state's largest urban area, has become a leader in smart growth policies that seek to make urban areas more compact (they are called urban consolidation policies). After the creation of this boundary, the population density of the urbanized area increased somewhat (from 1,135 in 1970 to 1,290 per km² in 2000) USA Urbanized Areas 1950-1990 USA Urbanized Areas 2000. While the growth boundary has not been tight enough to vastly increase density, the consensus is that the growth boundaries have protected great amounts of wild areas and farm land around the metro area.

In many other areas, the design principles of New Urbanism, also known as traditional neighborhood design, have been employed to combat urban sprawl.

[edit] Criticism and response

Rural neighborhoods in Morrisville, North Carolina are rapidly developing...

...into affluent, urbanized neighborhoods and subdivisions. These two images are on opposite sides of the same street.

[edit] Criticism

Arguments opposing urban sprawl run the gamut from the more concrete effects such as health and environmental issues to more abstract consequences involving neighorhood vitality.

[edit] Health and environmental impact

Urban sprawl is associated with a number of negative environmental and public health outcomes. The primary cause of these negative outcomes is that sprawl leads to people having to depend on the automobile because it will be a greater distance to travel and people will not be able to walk or ride their bicycles to their destinations. ^[2]

[edit] Increased pollution and reliance on fossil fuel

In the years following World War II, when vehicle ownership was becoming widespread, public health officials recommended the health benefits of suburbs due to soot and industrial fumes in the city center. However, air in modern suburbs is not necessarily cleaner than air in urban neighborhoods. In fact, the most polluted air is on crowded highways, where people in suburbs tend to spend more time. On average, suburban residents generate more pollution and carbon emissions than their urban counterparts because of their increased driving. ^[2]

[edit] Increase in traffic and traffic-related fatalities

A heavy reliance on automobiles increases traffic throughout the city as well as automobile crashes, pedestrian injuries, and air pollution. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 45. ^[14] Residents of more sprawling areas are at greater risk of dying in a car crash.^[15]

[edit] Increased obesity

The American Journal of Public Health and the American Journal of Health Promotion, have both stated that there is a significant connection between sprawl, obesity, and hypertension. ^[6]

[edit] Decrease in social capital

Urban sprawl may be partly responsible for the decline in social capital in the United States. Compact neighborhoods can foster casual social interactions among neighbors, while low-density sprawl creates barriers to interaction. Sprawl tends to replace public spaces such as parks with private spaces such as fenced-in backyards. Residents of sprawling neighborhoods rarely walk for transportation, which reduces opportunities for face-to-face contact with neighbors.^[4]

[edit] Decrease in land and water quantity and quality

Due to the larger area consumed by sprawling suburbs compared to urban neighborhoods, more farmland and wildlife habitats are displaced per resident. As forest cover is cleared and covered with concrete in the suburbs, rainfall is less effectively absorbed into the ground water aquifers. ^[2] This threatens both the quality and quantity of water supplies. Sprawl increases water pollution as rain water picks up gasoline and oil runoff from parking lots and roads. Sprawl fragments the land which increases the risk of invasive species spreading into the remaining forest.

[edit] Increased infrastructure costs

Living in a larger, more spread out space makes public services more expensive. Since car usage often becomes endemic and public transport often becomes significantly more expensive, city planners are forced to build large highway and parking infrastructure, which in turn decreases taxable land and revenue, and decreases the desirability of the area adjacent to such structures. Providing services such as water, sewers, and electricity is also more expensive per household in less dense areas. [6]

[edit] Increased personal transportation costs

Residents of low density areas spend a higher proportion of their income on transportation than residents of high density areas.^[16] The RAC estimates that the average cost of operating a car in the UK is £5,000 a year.^[17] In comparison, a yearly underground ticket for a suburban commuter in London (where wages are higher than the national average) costs £1,000-1,500.^[18]

In Utah, which has been one of the top ten fastest growing U.S. states since at least 1990, Jordan Landing has become a byword for suburban sprawl.^[19] In response to the rapid population growth of the southern Salt Lake County area a ten-lane freeway, the Mountain View Corridor, a light rail line, UTA TRAX, and a double-decker commuter train, FrontRunner, are being built to facilitate efficient transportation.

[edit] Neighborhood quality

Quality of life has been argued to be eroded by lifestyles sprawl promotes. Duany and Plater-Zyberk believe that in traditional neighborhoods the nearness of the workplace to retail and restaurant space that provides cafes and convenience stores with daytime customers is an essential component to the successful balance of urban life. Furthermore, they state that the closeness of the workplace to homes also gives people the option of walking or riding a bicycle to work or school and that without this kind of interaction between the different components of life the urban pattern quickly falls apart. (Duany Plater-Zyberk 6, 28)

[edit] Lack of diversity

Finally, some blame suburbs for what they see as a homogeneity of society and culture, leading to sprawling suburban developments of people with similar race, background and socioeconomic status.^[20] They claim that segregated and stratified development was institutionalized in the early 1950s and 60s with the financial industries' illegal process of redlining neighborhoods to prevent certain people from entering and residing in affluent districts. Sprawl may have a negative impact on public schools as finances have been pulled out of city cores and diverted to wealthier suburbs.^[21]

[edit] Groups that oppose sprawl

The American Institute of Architects recommends against sprawl and instead endorses smart, mixed-use development including buildings with close proximity to one another that cut down on automobile use, save energy, and promote walkable, healthy, well-designed neighborhoods. ^[22] The Sierra Club and other environmental organizations oppose sprawl and support investment in existing communities.^[23][24]

[edit] Response

[edit] Consumer preference for sprawl

Peter Gordon, a professor of planning and economics at the University of Southern California's School of Urban Planning and Development, argues that many households in the United States, Canada, and Australia, especially middle and upper class families, have shown a preference for the suburban lifestyle. Reasons cited include a preference towards lower-density development (for lower ambient noise and increased privacy), better schools, less crime, and a generally slower lifestyle than the urban one. Those in favor of a "free housing market" also argue that this sort of living situation is an issue of personal choice and economic means.^[5] One suburban Detroit politician defends low-density development as the preferred lifestyle choice of his constituents, calling it "...the American Dream unfolding before your eyes." [7]

[edit] Debate over traffic and commute times

Those not opposed to low density development argue that traffic intensities tend to be less, traffic speeds faster and, as a result, air pollution emissions are lower per square mile. (See demographia's report.) Kansas City, Missouri is often cited as an example of ideal low-density development, with congestion below the mean and home prices below comparable Midwestern cities. Wendell Cox and Randal O'Toole are the leading figures supporting lower density development.

Longitudinal (time-lapse) studies of commute times in major metropolitan areas in the United States have shown that commute times decreased for the period 1969 to 1995 even though the geographic size of the city increased.^[25] More recent data suggests that this trend has reversed, with the 2000 US Census showing commute times increased over all previous periods.^[26]

[edit] Risk of increased housing prices

There is also some concern that Portland-style anti-sprawl policies will increase housing prices. Some research suggests Oregon has had the largest housing affordability loss in the nation ^[27], but other research shows that Portland's price increases are comparable to other Western cities ^[28]. Another report suggests that zoning and other land use controls play the dominant role in making housing expensive^[29].

[edit] Freedom

There are some sociologists such as Durkheim who suggest there is a link between population density and the number of rules that must be imposed. The theory goes that as people are moved closer together geographically their actions are more likely to noticeably impact others around them. This potential impact requires the creation of additional social or legal rules to prevent conflict. A simple example would be as houses become closer together the acceptable maximum volume of music decreases, as it becomes intrusive to other residents. ^[30]

[edit] Crowding and increased aggression

There have been numerous studies that link increased population density with increased aggression. Some people believe that increased population density encourages crime and anti-social behavior. ^[31]

[edit] Air Quality

The air tends to be of higher quality in areas with lower population densities. ^[32]

[edit] Urban sprawl in popular culture

• In William Gibson's fictional Sprawl trilogy, "the Sprawl" is a slang term referring to the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States. In Gibson's future, New York's City's urban area is contiguous with that of other eastern cities, from Massachusetts to Florida; the entire area is formally known as the BAMA, or the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis.
• Patrick Nelson's 2006 novel Sprawlism comedically explores the world of a music business executive as his life collides with a suburban sprawl activist.
• The 2006 CGI film Over the Hedge is plotted around the effect of sprawl on a group of animals living in the wild.
• Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates examines the alienation of a couple who move from Manhattan to New York's suburbs.
• In 1983 The Pretenders performed their hit single My City Was Gone where vocalist Chrissie Hynde recounts visiting her hometown of Akron, Ohio. song lyrics The song reached #11 on the US mainstream rock chart published by Billboard magazine for that year. The song was adopted as theme music for US radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh.
• The Warren Zevon album Transverse City features references to the effects of urban sprawl on such tracks as Gridlock, Run Straight Down and Down in the Mall.
• The Talking Heads song "Nothing But Flowers" mockingly bemoans the disappearance of sprawl-manifestations such as shopping malls, billboards, fast food chains, etc.
• The Japanese animated film Pom Poko is a fictional story about Tanuki, or raccoon-dogs trying to fight off developers in the outskirts of Tokyo.

[edit] Urban sprawl in nonfiction

• Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States by Kenneth T. Jackson
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
• Edge City: Life on the New Frontier by Garreau, Joel, Anchor Books/Doubleday New York.
• Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
• The Future of Success: Working and Living in the New Economy by Robert Reich
• The Geography of Nowhere: The rise and decline of America's man-made landscape (ISBN 0-671-70774-4) by J.H. Kunstler
• The Old Neighborhood: What we lost in the great suburban migration: 1966-1999 by Ray Suarez
• A Field Guide to Sprawl by Dolores Hayden and Jim Wark, ISBN 0-393-73125-1, W. W. Norton & Company.
• Sprawl: A Compact History by Robert Bruegmann, University of Chicago Press, hardcover, 301 pages, ISBN 0-226-07690-3
• "Sprawl Kills - How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health and Money," by Joel S. Hirschhorn
• Suburban Nation: The rise of sprawl and the decline of the American Dream (ISBN 0-86547-606-3) by A. Duany, E. Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck

[edit] See also

[edit] Related Topics

• Effects of the automobile on societies
• Gentrification
• New Pedestrianism
• New Urbanism
• Overpopulation
• Smart growth
• Suburbia
• White flight
• Town centre
• Urban planning, Urban studies
• Urban rural fringe
• Principles of Intelligent Urbanism
• Great American Streetcar Scandal

[edit] Related Terminology

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography of works cited

• Baudrillard, Jean (1983). Simulacra and Simulation. 
• Duany, Andrés; Plater-Zyberk, Elizabeth (2000). Suburban Nation: The rise of sprawl and the decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press. 
• Jameson, Fredric (1990). Postmodernism or the cultural logic of late capitalism. 
• Koolhaas, Rem (2003). Junkspace, Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping. Harvard Press. 
• Schlosser, Eric (2002). Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Houghton Mifflin Company. 
• DeGrove, John and Robyne Turner (1991) "Local Government in Florida: Coping with Massive and Sustained Growth" in Huckshorn, R. (ed.) Government and Politics in Florida, University of Florida Press, Gainesville.
• Hirschhorn, Joel S. (2005), Sprawl Kills - How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health, and Money. New York: Sterling & Ross. ISBN 0-9766372-0-0
• Crawford, Margaret (1992) "The World in a Shopping Mall" in Sorkin, Michael (ed.), Variations on a Theme Park, The new American city and the end of public space, Hill and Wang, New York, pp. 3-30.
• Frieden, Bernard J. and Sagalyn, Lynne B. (1989) Downtown Inc.: How America Rebuilds Cities, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
• Davies, Ross (1960). Retail Planning Policies in Western Europe. Routledge. 
• Gruen, Victor and Larry Smith (1960) Shopping towns USA: the planning of shopping centers, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York.
• Stein, Jay (1993). Growth Management: The planning challenge of the 1990’s. Sage Publications. 

[edit] Additional references

• Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
• Bruegmann, Robert. Sprawl: A Compact History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
• Garreau, Joel, "Edge City: life on the new frontier". New York, Anchor Books, 1991.
• Rybczynski, Witold (Nov. 7, 2005). "Suburban Despair". Slate.
• Winkler, Robert. Going Wild: Adventures with Birds in the Suburban Wilderness. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2003.
• Gielen, Tristan. Coping with compaction; the demon of sprawl. Auckland, Random House New Zealand, 2006.
• Hayden, Dolores. "A Field Guide to Sprawl". New York, W. W. Norton & Co., 2004.

[edit] External links

• Greenbelt Alliance; open space advocacy
• Smart Growth/Sprawl from the Natural Resources Defense Council
• Sprawl City
• Smart Growth America
• Sprawl Watch
• Urban Sprawl Video: The Downtown Disaster
• How Sprawl Got a Bad Name
• The City Program's courses and free public lectures on growth and urban planning
• Country Mice and City Mice documentary film blog