Since the mid-20th century people across America have either moved or been pushed out of our major cities and into the suburbs. This has caused an overall sprawling across the country that has affected people in many ways we do not understand. This is what we call urban sprawl. In urban sprawl policies and localities allow for the unrestricted growth of urban areas. After years of unchecked spawl policymakers have been forced to restrict sprawl through regulations. But this has not stopped record numbers leaving our major cities and into suburbs. The lack of density or too much density has become a problem that affects cities socially and economically. The solution to urban sprawl and problems that arise from it are to be able to create smarter and more efficient zoning and development plans that can tackle the issues of density.
Now before I discuss the problems and solutions to urban sprawl, we must understand how it came to arise in the first place. Urban sprawl began in the United States around the 1950s. During the 50s there was a huge push of suburbanization and for the nuclear family. Where there is husband and a wife with kids. To have these lifestyles more and more people would move away from the center of cities and to the suburbs. But, when this happens it doesn’t move the original jobs away from the cities it keeps them within the central business districts (CBD), all while people are forced to locate houses further and further away, which is cause of sprawl. This was also encouraged because the zoning in these central areas known as CBD’s are mainly zoned for businesses and not residential. So, when there is residential, they have little land and are forced to build up rather than spread out and the prices of houses skyrocket. This is another factor that pushed more and more people to find home in the suburbs rather than in the center of metropolitan areas.
The moving of people and families away from cities and to the suburbs is not the only root cause for the problem of Urban Sprawl. Arguably the biggest contribution to large and sprawled cities is the idea for single use developments. A single use development is when a plot of land is used for only one purpose. For example, if there is a house on the plot there will only be a house. This is the same for commercial, office, or shopping. This type of inefficient planning was popularized in the 1950s boom post WWII. At the time this proved to work in local economies as they saw a boom within suburbs. But they didn’t consider how it would affect society over 70 years later. Now developers and planners are stuck with the efficient planning that resulted over single use developments. This is part of why urban sprawl and density are problems go hand in hand. Sprawl allows for more land to be taken up for less use which causes cities to become less dense. The net result of a city that becomes less dense is that there is less available land because of single use developments. Land becomes scarce and becomes increasingly more and more valuable. All while more and more jobs are being created while it becomes increasingly harder to develop housing. One of the biggest problems this has resulted in is the lack of affordable housing for our major cities. As someone who lives in Los Angeles this is one of the biggest crises we face. Los Angeles is a massively sprawled out city that has seen most of its residents to live in its suburbs rather than the heart of the city itself. But now that we face these problems, we must have to tackle the issues of urban sprawl. The best way to approach this is to not keep decreasing the density we have but the correct approach is to increase density.
I have listed the problems that gave arise from a sprawled city and how it affects density. Now I will begin to discuss how fix these societal issues. The best way to solve sprawl and density is to increase density within our areas. Off the bat this doesn’t sound as the most desirable option on this crisis. But it is the bets. When you increase the density of a city to ensure that you do it correctly, you need to make housing more affordable. There are many ways to do this. They do not comprise of just huge apartment developments. One of these ways is Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs for short. ADUs are a secondary home on a plot of a lot that is owned by the primary house owner. These are becoming increasingly popular amongst LA residents because it gives the primary owner the ability to make income while having to offer a very affordable price for housing for the renter. This builds more affordable housing and is a smarter use of land because it allows for a more efficient use of the little land that is provided. The smarter use of land that increases density helps with sprawl because you need the same amount of land to build more housing units. Recently California passed SB 9 which eliminates the use and label of single-family zoning. This huge when incomes to the major issue of sprawl as well as affordable housing. What this essentially does is that it takes the power over from city zoning plans and gives it to the land’s owners. They now can construct other housing units on their own property. This will only increase the amount of ADUs within Los Angeles, and a net result will be the increase of density using less land and overall increasing the supply of affordable housing that is much needed.
Another approaches to increasing density efficiently is the concept of “5 over 1s.” To give a background these are mixed use developers that can combine any retail or commercial with residential on top of it. They are typically stores or a market that have five stories of apartments that are built on top of them. Many people associate these with gentrification and are opposed to it. This is incredibly wrong and unfair; these are examples of how developers are using the lack of space provided to build more efficient and smarter building. These eliminate the sprawl we face because we can combine jobs and affordable housing units onto the same plots of land. These are also built due to the restrictions that developers are forced to work within the zoning areas provided.
Even though that it is wildly supported that increasing density is a way to solve Urban Sprawl, there are people who is oppose it. Some of them picture a denser city as one that is tall buildings and skyscrapers with no personality, which is a very fair argument. Some look at it from a health perspective. This is true as of now because of the COVID pandemic. When you increase density there will be more and more human interactions that will allow diseases to pass from person to person much easier. Another argument from this position is that it can lead to more traffic congestions and cities lose their privacy. Well, the arguments for all of these can be too true to an extent. No matter what these issues are they do not outweigh the benefits that come with the elimination of Urban Sprawl. The argument of health is a short-term problem that only arises from the pandemic and most examples of that come from single family homes that have multiple generations housed under the same room. Not buildings with many residents. The lack of a city-wide personality is hurt by less density rather than more. Cities that are sprawled out lack a connection of its residents. Areas become only accessible by freeways rather than walking or public transportation. Increasing density bring more and more people together allowing for more interactions allowing for a city to be closer than a sprawled out one. Problems with increased density are ultimately not able to outweigh the benefits and the impact that sprawled out cities have.
The discussion on how to tackle sprawl is one that will ultimately shape the cities of the future are planned and developed. I discussed the root causes of Urban Sprawl and solution that I believe can work and ones that are working. Also, the people against an increase in density must realize that this is not about the current state but to fix the problems that will arise in the future. To solve this, we need more land and smarter development. Overall, the increase of density is the best way to solve the crisis that is Urban Sprawl.
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