RESEARCH General Home and Garden

URBAN PLANNING
Uncontrolled growth gaining attention but not much regulation

Melissa Mitchell, Arts Editor
(217) 333-5491; melissa@uiuc.edu

3/1/2001

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Sprawl – out-of-control commercial and residential growth on urban perimeters – is increasingly grabbing the attention of urban planners, government officials, politicians and environmental policy activists. It's also creeping into everyday conversations among friends and neighbors.

So efforts surely must be under way to curb this runaway phenomenon, right?

Not really. At least not according to results of a recent survey of 204 Illinois cities and counties by University of Illinois urban and regional planning professors Emily Talen and Gerrit Knaap.

"Using a large-scale sample of cities and counties, it was shown that local jurisdictions in the state of Illinois have relatively low levels of smart growth-related prescriptive policies in place, and their proscriptive regulations generally run counter to smart-growth development ideals," the UI researchers wrote in their study's conclusion. Smart-growth principles include such practices as cluster and open space zoning, access to public transit, and infill development, as well as subdivision regulations that allow for smaller lot sizes, reduced setback requirements and narrower street widths.

"While there is currently a lot of media focus on smart-growth issues," Talen and Knaap noted, "all of this attention loses significance in the face of hard evidence that little is being done to change actual development patterns at the local level." Talen said they decided to try to determine the degree to which cities and counties are implementing smart-growth policies because "local regulations push development in one direction or another."

Among the Illinois cities and counties that responded to the UI researchers’ survey, smart-growth policies that are most prevalent include provisions for open space zoning (among cities, 30 percent; counties, 25 percent), and agricultural protection (cities, 14 percent; counties, 25 percent). However, the researchers note, "The most 'cutting edge' smart-growth techniques are not found: Traditional neighborhood ordinances, bike lane requirements, and the use of accessory buildings as housing are strategies that were virtually nonexistent." Also of interest, in all cases, lot-size requirements for residential districts were significantly higher than the ideal lot area requirement of 5,000 square feet.

While it is often assumed that commercial and residential developments sprout on urban fringes because that's what people want, Talen supports a different reality. "People are showing preferences for traditional urbanism – or what some term 'new urbanism' – and developers are saying, 'Fine, we'll do it.' The two main obstacles," she said, "are existing legislation and financing structures. Banks don't like to loan money (for nontraditional projects) because it's not what they're used to. Lending policies need to be overhauled."