Geography 4742 Land Use Analysis
Gillham: Chap 1: What is Sprawl?
Ok, we’re on to our second text, and I chose sprawl as a focus for the third of the class because it incorporates so many dimensions of land use, including what, where and why. And though its focus is urban, you also find issues of farmland and water and habitat wrapped up in it. But most important, the "debate" looked at by a critical thinking class requires better definition and assessment of a complex land use phenomenon. Gillham has his own ideas but this book acts as a reasonably balanced primer on the issue.
Growing concern, lots of rhetoric, but what is the problem (if there is one)?
Gillham sees it as mostly a market outcome pretty much the same as suburbanization: the dominant form of current development.
Dictionary: spreading of urban development onto undeveloped land.
Typically seen as urban and commercial development at and beyond the urban edge.
Also as:
Also, just as non -esthetic development (looks ugly—like big box retail, car lots, cookie-cutter sub-divisions, etc.).
Gilham’s definition (as a class or subclass of urban development):
"urbanization characterized by leapfrog development, commercial strips; low density, separated land use; auto dependence, minimum of public space."
Typical form of contemporary suburban development. I see it as decreased density (fewer people per unit of area) and suburban in style.
Factors in Sprawl/Suburbanization:
Land Ownership/Use/Development:
Land is a private commodity to be bought and sold, with as increased value as possible (appreciation, speculation), and new development in undeveloped areas often provides the best return on investment.
Real estate Market-production system: increasing value to make a profit, both need both to meet demand and maybe create some demand by hyping “buy our new gomes”.
Demands occurs, market delivers—this is key fundamental precept. But the product industry can also set demand by what it delivers. This can be called FORDISM: mass production, economy o scale, a few product types.
Cost of land: urban to rural gradient. High cost where "economics of agglomeration" rules. Land available; where there is a lot of land, there is low price; Also affected by access to transportation (port, etc.). Key here is that a post-industrial economy values land price more than access and agglomeration, so development spreads out to reduce competition for land. This applies to residential, too.
Transportation patterns: not just land market forces, but infrastructure.
MODE choice: term “choice” may not apply, since only option may be the car. Also types of trips: to work, shop; etc.
PATTERN of system/network: one of the more powerful forces, based on government investment in what is “needed” and “good ideas” and often create unintended consequences in terms of development. The well-designed, ubiquitous road network allows auto-based spreading of residential and commercial land uses..
Interstate and intercity Highways; rings and by-passes; arterials; local; farm-to-market. Key to urban sprawl is the ability to cross-commute around, across, and even among urban nodes in the multi-nodal metro area.
Telecommunications: reducing the lock of place and worker agglomeration on post-industrial society. Allows people to live further form place of work if they don’t have to commute daily.
Regulations and standards: In addition to market forces, the “state”
steps in.
Zoning to separate uses linked by roads, tends to spread things out
Finance, role of tax and government in finance: creates similar patterns even w/o zoning.
Suburbanization: the dominant setting of development and population in US since 1960s.
Beyond suburbs: it is really the Urban form of 21st Century, no more Urbs, just suburbs
Now: Metropolitan regions with multiple nodes and meshing suburbs, plus a ring of exurbs.