URBAN PLANNING

Urban Planning

Urban Planning

Introduction

The field of urban design, from the City Beautiful movement in the early 1900s through the more recent periods of urban renewal and revitalization, has been preoccupied with the urban core of established cities. Although the vast areas of new growth at the urban edge function as part of the city, urban designers have virtually ignored them, except for a small number of new town developments. Broader discussion of the metropolitan edge by designers seems limited to a critique of its sprawling character, rather than seriously addressing the challenge of developing meaningful and vital urban environments in these areas.

Literature Review

As the twentieth century draws to a close, this preoccupation with the urban core seems increasingly misplaced. Burgeoning population growth and economic investment at the fringe have been accompanied by parallel declines in both the central city and the rural countryside. Driven by increasing mobility, steady economic expansion, an ample supply of relatively inexpensive land, and strong anti-urban policies and ideology, suburban communities have grown from a few pockets of homes for wealthy aristocrats to the dominant form of American urbanism in less than one hundred years. By 1990 suburbs had a clear majority of both population and jobs over core cities and rural areas combined.

While there is substantial literature on the morphology of the inner city--especially historic cities--comparable work has not been done on the urban fringe. This paper addresses the gap. There are works on the sociology of suburbia (Baldassare 1986; Gans 1967; Rothblatt and Garr 1986), the political/economic process of land development (Dowall 1984; Weiss 1987), the history of American suburbs (Burns 1980; Stilgoe 1988), and transportation issues (Cervero 1989), and there are journalistic accounts of the "edge city" phenomenon (Davis 1990; Garreau 1991). Some architects have put forth proposals for new suburban design options (Calthorpe and Mack 1989). Although the literature reveals little about the quality, character, or organizing patterns of new and existing edge developments, it does offer insights into the process and economics of land development and enriches one's understanding of the historic suburb. The limited existing physical analysis of the new urban landscape tends to write off its form and pattern as a homogeneous sheet of cookie-cutter subdivisions. The ostrich-like stance of the design professions has not been helpful. Even if they dislike this environment, urban designers should study its form and pattern to understand the forces that are shaping it and to be able to improve it.

The growth of the urban fringe did not occur without rules or guidance. Large real estate interests, together with the emerging field of city planning, successfully pushed for the adoption of subdivision, zoning, and engineering standards for streets and infrastructure. These factors, combined with an apparent market preference for lower density detached housing, worked to create a blueprint for the development of the urban fringe. This blueprint largely follows the abstractions of magic marker land use planning, as well as subdivision and street engineering regulations, and ignores the overall experiential quality of ...