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34 Envtl. L. Rep. News & Analysis 10003 (2004)

handle is hein.journals/elrna34 and id is 1 raw text is: Copyright © 2004 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.


1-2004


                    ELR

                  NEWS &ANALYSIS




             ARTICLES

Smart Growth and Innovative Design:
An Analysis of the New Community

                       by Francesca Ortiz


34 ELR 10003


Table of Contents
I. Sprawl-Induced Problems ....
   A. Economic Impacts ........
      1. Public Services ........
      2. Taxes ...............
      3. Urban Core Deterioration.
   B. Social Impacts ..........
      1. Economic and Racial Segr
      2. Educational Disparity ....
      3. Psychological Impacts...
   C. Environmental Impacts ....
      1. Air Quality ...........
      2. Water Impacts .........
        a. Water Quantity .......
        b. Water Quality .......
      3. Biodiversity ..........
        a. Habitat Loss ........
        b. Pollution ...........
        c. Edge Effects ........
II. Causes of Sprawl .........
   A. Government Subsidies .....
      1. Automobile Subsidies ...
      2. Housing Subsidies ......
   B. Zoning Regulations .......
III. Reducing Sprawl's Impacts.
   A. Smart Growth ...........
      1. Subsidy Elimination .....
      2. Reuse and Revitalization .
      3. Preservation ..........
      4. Planning .............
      5. Compact Zoning .......
   B. Innovative Design ........
      1. New Urbanism ........
      2. Conservation Subdivisions
      3. Low-Impact Development
IV. Challenges of the New Comm
   A. Politics ................
   B. Individual Preference ......
   C. Gentrification and Affordable
V. Conclusion ...............


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unity ....... 10023
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Housing .... 10026
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The author is a Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law; J.D. 1989,
Harvard Law School. Work on this Article was supported by a research
grant from South Texas College of Law. The author wishes to thank Ros-
lyn West and KellyAnne Donnelly for their diligent research assistance.


In the early 19th century, most metropolitan areas were
   compact, with strong downtown areas that provided not
only retail, government, and other services, but also a vari-
ety of cultural activities.' Although some of rich society
lived in rural areas to escape the city's crime and health haz-
ards,2 the demarcation between city and countryside was
clear. Most people were forced to live and work in one area
because of the lack of reasonable transport between city and
country.4 It was not until the railroad linked the city to the
countryside that suburbs began to develop.5
  The first areas that grew outside the central city were in-
tended for the rich, with large homes built in secluded areas
that maintained the quiet beauty of the countryside and ex-
cluded industrial use.6 By the late 19th and early 20th cen-
tury, suburbs began to develop more rapidly as cities grew
from an influx of immigrants and new forms of public
transportation. The streetcar, for example, could transport
more people and cover more ground, thereby enabling
those with a more moderate income to work further from

  1. TOM DANIELS, WHEN CITY AND COUNTRY COLLIDE: MANAGING
    GROWTH IN THE METROPOLITAN FRINGE 20 (1999); ERIC H.
    MONKKONEN, AMERICA BECOMES URBAN: THE DEVELOPMENT OF
    U.S. CITIES AND TOWNS 1780-1980, at 43 (1988); KENNETH T.
    JACKSON, CRABGRASS FRONTIER: THE SUBURBANIZATION OF THE
    U.S. 14-15 (1985).
  2. DANIELS, supra note 1, at 20. As Prof. Tom Daniels explains:
       To Americans in the early 1800s, a rural estate was some-
       thing to admire and even aspire to own. The nation knew well
       of George Washington's Mount Vernon and Jefferson's
       Monticello. English peers and landed gentry and those of
       continental Europe had long lived in stately houses, cha-
       teaux, and castles. The countryside was quiet, green, and spa-
       cious. By comparison, cities were notorious for their crime,
       filth, and plagues. Poverty led to thievery, burglary, and beg-
       ging. Public sanitation was sorely lacking. Crowded, dirty
       living conditions gave rise to tuberculosis. Polluted drinking
       water supplies brought on raging epidemics of cholera and
       typhus. Dolly Madison, wife of the fourth president, lost her
       first husband to a yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in
       the 1790s.
    Id.
  3. Id.
  4. Id.
  5. Although a few suburbs did exist, they were mainly independent
    communities that grew alongside the growing eastern cities. Id. at
    20-21.
  6. Id. at 21.
  7. Id.

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