Growth and sprawl issues

When paired with vintage images of the 19th and 20th centuries, Arizona photographers Allen Dutton and Paul Scharbach's modern-day images reveal the changes that have shaped the state's landscape during the past 100-plus years. They searched the state to locate the precise spots from which to rephotograph the scenes captured by their predecessors, endeavoring to achieve the same angles, perspectives, and lighting as in the early photographs.

From Cyburbian SGB: A major new series examining on-the-ground impacts of land policy begins airing today on National Public Radio's acclaimed afternoon news program All Things Considered.

The series, called Shifting Ground, was produced by David Baron, an award-winning author and journalist who has worked in public radio for more than 20 years, previously as science and environment correspondent for NPR, and science editor for the Public Radio International-BBC program "The World."

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy supported Baron's work, and the series was acquired and edited by NPR. After the first installment airing Thursday, February 28 on All Things Considered, the reports will air as an occasional series in the weeks and months ahead. They will be archived and available on the website www.shifting-ground.com.

From Cyburbian ruraliste: I work for a rural planning commission in Canada (New Brunswick). We're currently putting together a rural plan for a rapidly growing parish (situated just outside a major urban centre).

We'd like to prohibit residential lot subdivision along minor highways, hopefully leading away from one-acre lots stretched out along the road, and leading to more dense residential subdivisions off of the minor highways.

We're not sure how well this will go over with our community working group - they're willing to place restrictions on commercial and industrial development, but residential development is sacred.

The Exurban Change Project (http://exurban.osu.edu/) at Ohio State University analyzes economic, social, agricultural and land use change throughout Ohio’s townships, the Midwest region, and the exurban/rural landscape in the United States.

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From Cyburbian Planit: In this morning's USAToday, there is the following article:

California is pioneering what could be the next battleground against global warming: filing suit to hold cities and counties accountable for greenhouse gas emissions caused by poorly planned suburban sprawl. The unprecedented action is being closely watched by states that have taken aggressive steps to combat climate change — including New York, Massachusetts and Washington.

From Cyburbian jread: I spent some time driving around my city (Austin) this weekend and noticed endless signs of growth that has gotten out of hand. There is sprawl as far as the eye can see, shopping centers popping up in every corner and roads that are extremely inadequate for the load put on them.

All this made me wonder if it is even possible to plan for growth like this. Can you really "plan" for this or do you just slap a zoning code on large tracts and let the developers have at it? It seems that if careful planning were required before anything could be built, then it would limit growth and/or increase the cost of housing in boomtowns such as this one. It seems that the area might suffer economically in such a case.

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From Cyburbian Boiker: This article (Governing magazine) gives me some hope and promise that big plans for maturing suburbs can be accomplished. The plan hinges on the support and conviction of the local policy makers to make a change and hold developers, the government themselves, citizens, and the business owners to the intents established. Sprawl can be quelled. It takes a multi-level committment to create what is wanted.

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From Cyburbian steel: Cheektowaga is an inner ring/semi outer ring suburb of Buffalo New York. It is sliced in half by the NYS thruway and contains the area's biggest mall. Much of the place is composed of highly sprawl oriented development. I posted an editorial on a local blog/magazine which talked about the ugliness of this place and other similar sprawlburban places throughout the country just like it and asked why we have come to accept such poor quality urban environments. The article garnered a huge response from the pro urban anti sprawl to those who defended this type of development as perfectly OK. Anyway since it was a planning type subject I thought I would see what you guys think. The story is below. Here is a link to the original story. It also spawned some more one sided discussion here on this suburban oriented site.

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From Cyburbian mendelman: I ask....for enlightenment.

The municipality I live in is looking to rezone some areas to a less intense residential district. The targeted areas are currently zoned medium to high density multi-family. They are looking to make them single-family or low density two-family.

From Cyburbian Bear Up North: Even though the number-crunchers are indicating that the United States will have 300,000,000 people in October, 2006, the media types are already posting stories and articles about what that means. Of course, key words and phrases that have already been thrown about include planners, sprawl, population bomb, traffic congestion, immigration, increased life expectancy, etc.

I have a few questions...

Have you given any thoughts to what it means? Do you think these are topics that should have been talked-about years ago, as the related issues started to surface?

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From Cyburbian jaws: I've completed the draft of my essay on collectivism in urban planning and the privately-owned city. It is based on ideas that I have previously introduced. It turned out to be very long. I cut parts out of it, which I might make into a follow-up. Without any further discussion, ladies and gentlemen, strap on your safety harness and enjoy the ride. It might be rough.

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From Cyburbian zmanPLAN: A California town, used eminent domain to keep Wal Mart out based upon redevelopment and keeping an upscale tone.

"The area is the centerpiece of Hercules' redevelopment effort, which aims to create a destination on par with high-end Sausalito across the bay. That would complement Hercules' plan to market itself as an "anti-suburb" with new neighborhoods appealing to home buyers nostalgic for old-fashioned residential areas within cities."

From Cyburbian zmanPLAN: I am actually looking for pro and con. I have been thinking a lot about the built environment and the overall landscape in which we live. Having a conversation with my fiance about urban vs. suburban life last night, a thought occurred to me that aside from my own opinions and experiences I know little fact. Therefore I thought to seek out the eternal wisdom of the Throbbing Brain for help. This may also serve as a forum for this topic where others may find things out.

Disclaimer: References to books, online articles and previous threads welcome (and covertly desired). New ideas and conversation are encouraged. Discussion on rural living and its comparisons to urban and suburban is welcomed as well.

Opolis (repositories.cdlib.org/cssd/opolis) is the first peer-reviewed academic journal specifically focused on suburban studies. Opolis is a joint enterprise of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, the Edward J. Blakely Center for Sustainable Suburban Development at the University of California, Riverside, the and the Urban Planning Department of the University of Sydney. The full text of published articles is available on the site.

New West (newwest.net) is a network of online communities devoted to the culture, economy, politics, environment and overall atmosphere of the Rocky Mountain West. It's not a primarily planning-related site, but topics include the rapidly changing built and natural environment of the western US. If you're a fan of Edward Abbey, you'll probably enjoy this site.