State and Local Issues

Containing Suburban Sprawl

Some environmentalists and urban planners are campaigning to put farmlands and other open spaces off-limits to development. But attempts to control growth, critics point out, will only lead to more zoning rules, higher taxes and fewer choices for consumers.

Since the early 1950s, Americans have chosen to relocate from cities to suburbs, in part to escape the high taxes and heavy regulations that made cities a difficult place to live and do business.

  • The population of the nation's 39 largest metropolitan areas has grown more than 22 percent since 1970 -- with the overwhelming majority of that growth taking place in suburbs.

  • In fact, core-city population -- those living in a metro area's central city -- fell in 18 of the 39 metro areas.

  • Census Bureau studies reveal that 75 percent of the nation's extreme poverty neighborhoods are located in central cities -- while only 6 percent are located in suburbs, and the rest in rural areas.

Some analysts contend the government subsidized the rush to the suburbs. For example, federal funds for highways have encouraged overbuilding of roads. The highways made it easier for developers to build in areas that were once remote.

To contain suburban sprawl, some planners want to require smaller lot sizes -- putting four to six units on an acre, rather than two. But the evidence is that home buyers want more land -- not less. Critics say greater controls will only drive up the costs of building and make homeowning more expensive.

Source: Charles Oliver, "Regulations Are Crimping the Suburbs," Investor's Business Daily, June 23, 1998.

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