The U.S. population has grown by 100 million people since 1967, and is expected to grow another 92 million by 2040. The built environment has accommodated this recent growth with exurban sprawl. “We have a real problem ahead if current development patterns continue to prevail,” warns James McElfish, Director of the Sustainable Use of Land Program of the Environmental Law Institute. McElfish’s new report, Ten Things Wrong With Sprawl, explains why.
- Sprawl development contributes to loss of support for public facilities and amenities. It encourages market failure by forcing cities to provide services like parks and libraries to people who do not pay taxes to support them.
- Sprawl undermines effective maintenance of existing infrastructure.
- Sprawl increases societal costs for transportation, consumes more resources, and separates urban poor people from jobs.
- Sprawl imposes a tax on time, mostly time spent in traffic getting to commercial and recreational facilities far from residences.
Sprawl’s contribution to the degradation of air and water quality, to the permanent destruction of habitat, and to imposing obstacles to community engagement are well documented. McElfish stresses that current patterns of development are not simply the result of market demand, but are strongly influenced by “laws, institutions, zoning codes, financing rules, government subsidies and market failures.” The resulting sprawl “constrains our choices” and is, he concludes, why “every part of exurban America resembles every other part.”
James McElfish is Senior Attorney and Director of the Sustainable Use of Land Program at the Environmental Law Institute. His report, Ten Things Wrong with Sprawl, is available free of charge at http://www.elistore.org/reports_detail.asp?ID=11191. For more information about his research, contact Mr. McElfish at mcelfish@eli.org or by phone at (202)939-3840.