Fact Sheet

Sprawl and Smart Growth

What Is Sprawl?
Sprawl is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as "haphazard growth or extension outward, especially that resulting from new housing." A few characteristics of sprawl include: auto-dependency, low-density, income polarization, and segregated land uses. In Ohio sprawl causes adverse social, economic and environmental impacts, however it is NOT: inevitable, the result of a free market, nor is it necessarily the result of population increases.

What Are The Problems Associated With Sprawl?
Sprawl causes a range of problems, among them:

• Traffic congestion and gridlock
• Air and water pollution
• Destruction of farmland, critical habitat, wetlands, and open space
• Disinvestment of central cities
• Decreased access to jobs by central city residents to the suburban periphery
• Concentration of poverty

But Don't People Prefer The Suburbs? Isn't This Just The Free Market At Work?
Government intervention in the land-use market is extensive through the subsidizing of new infrastructure (schools, roads, sewers) and the broad use of tax breaks (tax abatements and mortgage interest deduction). In Ohio, state and local government does not balance its investments between sprawl and smart growth development patterns. Government should change its policies in order to promote smart growth and encourage development patterns that do not have the adverse social, economic, and environmental impacts associated with sprawl.

How Is Smart Growth Defined?
Smart growth is intelligent, well-planned development that:

• Creates a range of housing opportunities and choices
• Provides a variety of transportation choices with an emphasis on walkable neighborhoods
• Mixes land uses such as residential, office, retail, and recreation space
• Preserves open space, farmland, natural beauty and critical habitats
• Pays its own way
• Makes development decisions predictable, fair and cost effective
• Takes advantage of compact building design

Just one or two of the principles above cannot solve the problems of sprawl. It is the collection of these principles that, when implemented, provides the true essence of smart growth.

The Difference Between Congestion And Mobility
Traffic congestion will exist whether the area has low- or high-density development. The better question is: Does everyone have mobility? It is important that our transportation system provides Ohioans with choices such as walkable and bicycle-friendly communities, bus service, light and passenger rail so that we have the ability to be mobile. Cars should be an option not a necessity.

Low Density Development Is A Drain On Tax Revenue
Sprawl development costs citizens more than the government or developers would care to admit. The government does not only give tax breaks to fringe development, but is also responsible for providing infrastructure improvements that are needed to make the development accessible. A study found that traditional towns cost only a third to a half as much for roads, sewers, and other infrastructure as suburban sprawl. Forty years of fiscal impact studies reveal that compact growth consumes 45 percent less land and costs 25 percent less for the roads, 15 percent less for utilities, and 5 percent less for housing than sprawl-type development.

A study conducted by Tischler & Associates, Inc. analyzed the fiscal impacts by land use prototype for Dublin City Schools. The study found that total net revenues are negative for single-family dwelling units yet positive for multifamily dwelling units and nonresidential land uses such as office, industrial, retail, and hotel space.

Tools For Solving Sprawl
Unfortunately, there is not one simple solution to sprawl. Solving sprawl necessitates a myriad of tactics such as:

• Mixed-income development
• Regionalism (governance or tax-revenue sharing)
• Transportation spending reform
• Urban growth boundaries
• Zoning reform
• Development impact fees

For More Information
To learn more about sprawl and smart growth please visit Sierra Club's website at www.ohio.sierraclub.org/sprawl or contact Shannon Harps, Transportation Policy Analyst, at (614) 461-0734 or Shannon.Harps@prodigy.net.

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