The folly of "smart growth": Oregon's experience suggests "anti-sprawl" strategies worsen the problems they are intended to solve. (Property).

THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES, city and state governments are turning to "smart growth" urban planning strategies to slow suburban "sprawl." Spurred by concerns over traffic congestion, air pollution, and loss of open space, the plans are intended to improve urban livability. The strategies include purposeful efforts to increase urban population densities, boost mass transit ridership, and decrease auto driving.

In order to achieve those goals, "smart growth" governments nationwide are implementing a degree of land-use regulation that is unprecedented in the United States prior to 1990. Unfortunately, as we will see from the experiences of the Portland, Ore., area, such regulation can produce an even worse quality of life for residents. The policies' real effects appear to be increases in traffic congestion, air pollution, consumer costs, taxes, and just about every other impediment to urban livability.

TROUBLE IN THE SUBURBS

In the late nineteenth century, transportation was slow and expensive. As a result, many people chose to live in dense cities so they could be near workplaces and retail shops. But that situation began to change in the 1890s with the introduction of the streetcar and automobile. Suddenly, large numbers of Americans were able to move to lower density areas outside the cities. Today, about half of all Americans live in low-density suburbs, and half of the remainder live in very-low-density rural areas. Only about a quarter live in relatively dense central cities.

Low densities provide many benefits that people value, including lower land costs, private yards with gardens and play areas, less congested roads, proximity to recreation areas, and access to a wide variety of low-cost consumer goods and services. What is more, as people moved to the suburbs, employers followed them; commute times have remained relatively constant despite the growth of suburban areas.

Despite the benefits of suburban living, some political leaders and social activists in the early 1970s began to vilify low-density suburbs as "sprawl." The anti-sprawl movement came into prominence in 1973 when George Dantzig and Thomas Saaty published their book Compact City: A Plan for a Livable Urban Environment. The book unleashed a large movement of planners and architects who endorsed government efforts to mandate much higher population densities, more multi-family dwellings, and severe limits on auto driving.