“Smart Growth” may actually increase Sprawl!

Posted on May 27th, 2009 by Al Lorenz

“Smart Growth,” or planned growth with high density in urban cores, was supposed to reduce sprawl around urban cores.  The latest studies show that is anything but what has actually happened.

For example, 90% of the growth in the Seattle area over the last 20 years has been outside the City of Seattle, despite the Growth Managment Act and the development of residential towers in the City.

Suburbanites aren’t folks fleeing the dense downtowns but are people who move from small towns and exurbs to share in the economic opportunities and jobs available in the cities.

What’s a planner to do?

…suburbs need to be seen differently, not as the hostile “other” to core cities:

[S]uburbs have to be seen not as the enemies of the city, as just a modern expression of urbanization. They are neither the enemies of the city, nor are their residents likely to move “back” there. You cannot move back to someplace you did not come from.

In other words, the idea that suburbanites can be enticed back into dense urban cores is unlikely. In fact, the bigger cores grow and flourish, the more likely they will generate new sprawl. – Crosscut

It appears to reduce sprawl in the cities, economic opportunites and incentives need to be created in rural areas that can support larger populations.

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