Urban sprawl has many disguises, but few solutions

Urban sprawl is all around us, but maybe we don?t always recognize it. Simply put, urban sprawl is when naturally undeveloped land, such as meadows, farms, forests and fields, is turned into shopping centers, strip malls, subdivisions, warehouses, industrial plants and roads. Urban sprawl has very little apparent logic or master planning, other than to make a profit or get your vote. Let?s all admit that growth is inevitable, but urban sprawl isn?t. Some urban areas are trying to control sprawl (and its high cost) with something called "growth management."

Locally, Denton is attempting to put the brakes on urban sprawl with a new development code. This fledgling law covers land development such as where the parking lot is, the materials you can build with, the amount of tree cover, the number of windows and so on. Unfortunately, it also allows trees to be cut down for any reason, or no reason at all.

Throughout the nation, slowing the fungus-like spread of urban sprawl takes several forms, all falling under the umbrella term of "growth management:"

Urban growth boundaries
In this system, currently in use in Oregon and Washington, state governments draw a line around a city and pass a law that says, "You cannot develop land beyond this boundary." The forests and farms beyond the boundary will stay that way. Or if they are developed, they will not benefit from the taxes of the big city (hence, no new city roads, city sewers, city waterlines, etc.). The development of vacant city lots is thus encouraged.

This approach has been used successfully in certain states since the 1970s. In the future, that may include the Chicago area, where civic leaders are considering establishing an urban growth boundary.

Smart growth
Smart growth policies are based on incentives. As recently applied in New Jersey and Maryland, the policies do not explicitly forbid development anywhere. But smart growth policies declare that the state government will only provide funds for infrastructure (things like roads, drainage projects, electricity and so on) in designated growth centers.

In essence, smart growth says, "Develop wherever you like, but if you do it outside designated centers, the state won?t help you pay for roads, schools, sewers, etc." (Most states help pay for these things now, effectively underwriting sprawl.) Arizona, Utah and Tennessee have instituted smart growth policies based on Maryland?s policy. Several other states including Massachusetts and New York are considering such policies as a result of grass-roots demands.

The Atlanta region didn?t meet Environmental Protection Agency clean air standards, so it has been put under a regional authority with the power to stop development at its boundaries. This could be the case with Denton County (and the whole Dallas-Fort Worth area) thanks to our poor air quality.

Infill development
Encouraging infill development is never a stand-alone solution to sprawl. It has to be accompanied by many revisions in local development regulations.

Together, they encourage new development to take place on the empty land and vacant lots within a city, before development can happen out at the edges. This takes advantage of existing roads, sewers, schools, etc. and cuts down on required automobile travel. But revisions have to be made in local development standards to accommodate the smaller lots left over from years of unplanned development.

Public policy must bear part of the blame for sprawl. Many governmental policies have actually encouraged sprawl by helping pay for infrastructure almost anywhere.

Conventional zoning policies worsen the problem by things like requiring that houses be placed in the middle of large lots, or requiring huge parking lots for businesses ? making infill development impractical.

The real costs of urban sprawl are finally hitting home with many Americans. It?s a large part of higher taxes, high housing costs, gasoline prices and utility rates and a lot more. Americans have the opportunity to think about these things while stuck in a traffic jam, waiting for a parking spot, pumping super-expensive gas or breathing polluted air ? other offshoots of unplanned sprawl.

Sprawl also has encouraged the loss of affordable open space by encouraging land development and high land prices in former rural areas.

Denton?s new development code (despite a need for "fine tuning" in several spots) could make for more naturally open land and result in a more livable, affordable, people-oriented community. One in which growth is strongly encouraged, but urban sprawl isn?t.

Owen Yost is an area landscape architect specializing in designing low-maintenance landscapes while incorporating native plants with hardscape. He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Keep Denton Beautiful and the Native Plant Society of Texas. His Denton office is at 4516 Coyote Point; call 940-382-2099 or 940-383-9655 or e-mail him at Yost87@charter.net