Urban Sprawl

In the early 21st century, urban sprawl continues to be a source of considerable controversy and political debate, yet many Americans quietly accept sprawl. They express their acceptance by moving farther away from central cities into housing and business developments on land that was formerly rural and undeveloped. While a significant number of suburban communities have existed in the United States since the late 19th century, the greatest growth in suburbs occurred after World War II. At the dawn of the 20th century, the suburban population represented less than 12 percent of the total U.S. population. By 1950, that figure doubled, and it doubled again by 2000, so that 52 percent lived in suburban communities. While the U.S. Census does not officially define suburban area, the term generally refers to the territory within metropolitan areas that is outside of the central city.

The term sprawl refers to a pattern of metropolitan growth characterized by low-density, primarily single-family residential development, low-density commercial and employment establishments, and the resulting heavy dependence on the automobile for travel. These developments occur on the periphery of the metropolitan area. In the early 20th century, many affluent and middle-class families moved out to the [Page 985]suburbs deliberately to escape the large and dense city populations. Following the Great Depression and World War II, several U.S. government programs further encouraged and facilitated this exodus. These included the Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration GI Bill, which provided low-cost mortgages for more than 11 million new single-family homes. With many central cities already developed and thus with little land available for large, new housing developments, most new construction occurred in suburban areas. Strongly supported by the automobile industry, the federal government also established the Interstate Highway System in 1956. The federal government paid up to 90 percent of the cost of the new highway system, which resulted in over 40,000 miles of new highways. The highways enabled people to travel more easily, including traveling from suburban homes to jobs in the city. The growing economy and more widespread prosperity of the period provided more Americans with the means to purchase their homes and automobiles. Retail businesses followed the populations to the new areas, and by the 1970s, many corporations were closing their city offices to move to business parks in the suburbs.

The sprawl phenomenon continued as most metropolitan areas expanded their land areas at rates that far surpassed their population increases. Between 1982 and 1997, the amount of urbanized land in the United States increased by 47 percent while the nation's population increased by only 17 percent. The population density of metropolitan areas, which is one quantitative measure of sprawl, declined by 15.7 percent during the same period. Sprawl generates several problems, including environmental damage, cost inefficiency, quality-of-life changes, city decline, and economic and racial segregation.

Sprawl significantly affects the natural environment, each year claiming more than 2 million additional acres of land for development. Over half of this land is farmland, with the rest divided between forests and other undeveloped land. The loss of this land disrupts small town and family farming operations, threatens wetlands that protect residents from damaging floods, and threatens wildlife by destroying their natural habitats.

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