The Sprawl Debate Summary

After reading The Sprawl Debate and the Principles of New Urbanism the topic that really stood out to me was mixed land uses and its increase in density. In the Sprawl Debate Article it explains how new urbanist communities are meant to be more than subdivisions. Its plans are to have an open organized row of services and workplace locations by only developing a broad mix of land. Now this idea can be viewed as either a Pro or Con.
Sprawl Debate: Viewing the article the overall statement was negative, it stated that “there is no particular reason why these communities need to create an employment base”. Supporting this quote it mentioned about how the idea of self-containment was one of the principles behind the creation of New Towns. Having new towns on green field sites didn’t have a great outcome because employment centers became visible but hadn’t serve to the population. The desire was for new town residents to work in other places while the jobs in the new towns were filled by people who travel back and forth to work. The results ended in more commuting rather than less. By the suburb-to-suburb commuting and low density settlement easing the traffic congestion is another reason why land use controls remain weak. Since trip distances have increased there is inevitable congestion because access is always …show more content…
One of the principles is dealing with increased density, it basically talks about by having more buildings, residences, shops and services closer together for people could have an easy access to getting there by just walking. Also to enable more efficient use of services and resources and to create more convenient, enjoyable place to live at. It states that “New urbanism design principles are applied at the full range of densities from small towns to large