The Limitless City: A Primer on the Urban Sprawl Debate

Oliver Gillham

Characteristics and Indicators of Urban Sprawl
The definition of sprawl is unclear but it has something to due with expansion and usually refer to a suburban phenomenon. Low density, autocentric and unplanned are also normal characteristics of sprawl.

Come cases of this are: Leapfrog development, commercial strip development, low density, and large expanses of single-use development.

Leapfrog Development:
Subdivisions, shopping centers, office parks that create a "haphazard patchwork," that seems to take little care in regards to spatial location. The areas in between the patchwork are filled in by uncontrolled development over time.

Commericail Strip Developments:
Development that occurs along an arterial road. Lots of drive thrus and parking lots. Parking and signage take precedent. Very car oriented, not much for the pedestrian. Building is characteristically horizontal though office buildings go a little more vertical.

Low density:
Single storied widely spaced suburban homes (think midwest). This kind of growth is responsible for sprawls large consumption of land and increased dependency on cars. Density can be defined by the number of people/a certain area of land or building area.

Single-Use Development:
Measured by examining accessibility. The longer the trip distances are between activities the more single use is going on.

Lack of Public Open Space
Most of the land in areas of sprawl is privately owned although it looks inviting and like a characteristic public park, it is actually private.

Thus, the broad definition of sprawl according to Ewing's aforementioned characteristics is: Sprawl (whether characterized as urban or suburban) is a form of unrbanization distinguished by leapfrog patterns of development, commercial strips, low density, spearated land uses, automobile dominance, and a minimum of public open space. Sprawl (whether characterized as urban or suburban) is the typical form of most types of late-twentieth-century suburban development.

Furthermore, "Suburbanization is the spread of suburban development patterns across a region or a nation--that is, the proliferation of sprawl forms of unbanization across a region or an nation."

What Makes Sprawl?
Landownership and use
Transportaiton patterns
Telecommunications and technology
Regulations and standards

Land Ownership and Use
Most land in America is privately owned. Ownership gives entitlements and thus the land takes on marketability. Land ownership is hella important in America and basically the most valuable asset one can hold. It is part of the American Dream.

Real Estate Markets
Real estate markets make money from building on land and increasing its value for sale. The financing of new developments builds growth industry when the project is profitable. The same things get built over and over as a reaction to a formulaic way to make money.

Cost of Land
Land outside the city center is cheap and easily accessible with cars.
Thus TRANSPORTATION PATTERNS are important:
Few choices of mode, make a ton of local trips to work and non work trips, and transportation network all contribute to sprawl.

Telecommunications
More mobility and choice regarding where we want to live.

Zonig and Building Code
Formal controls allows reasonable predictions for area and to protect the public. Land uses are intensely segregated in the suburb and as a result activities are too far from each other to walk to.

Requirements of Finance
Requirements can dictate the size of the project, the uses that may be included, and the design. Finance is usually in the form of a mortgage.

Limitless City

Suburbs now stand on their own and its out of control.