Measuring sprawl

Last spring, American City & County reported on Smart Growth America’s study of urban sprawl, which gave a snapshot look at the most sprawled and most compact cities in the country. Now the University of Utah has taken that study a step further, looking at the changes in development patterns from 2000 to 2010.

The study examined the largest 162 U.S. urbanized areas using the same four-point sprawl index used in Smart Growth America’s report: the density of houses compared to jobs, the ratio of residential to commercial buildings, the concentration of residential and commercial developments and the accessibility of streets, including block length and the number of four-way intersections. Researchers took scores from 2010 and compared them to 2000 to understand these cities’ changes over time.

The study found the urban areas that sprawled the most between 2000 and 2010 include:

• 

Myrtle Beach, S.C.
• Murrieta, Calif.
• Laredo, Texas
• Fayetteville, Ark.
• Austin, Texas
• Conroe, Texas
• Provo, Utah
• Brownsville, Texas
• Greenville, S.C.
• Stockton, Calif.

Other large cities not making the top 10 were Phoenix, Indianapolis, Cleveland and Denver, according to CityLab.

The cities that curbed sprawl the most over the same period of time include:



• Tallahassee, Fla.
• Washington, D.C.
• Bonita Springs, Fla.
• Mission Viejo, Calif.
• Reading, Pa.
• Mobile, Ala.
• Roanoke, Va.
• Concord, Calif.
• Denton, Texas
• Milwaukee, Wis.

Other large cities that didn’t make the top 10 for least sprall, according to CityLab, were Minneapolis, Seattle, Madison, Wis., and Houston.

There are limitations to the data, though. CityLab reports several caveats must be considered. It’s possible that this particular time window just wasn’t the best for certain areas, and outlier cases may be indications the index itself needs fine-tuning. 

CityLab also notes these findings aren’t absolute gauges of sprawl or compactness, they are representative of rises and falls in an index based on four factors. Still, the blog says insights from the report could help inform policy decisions in cities looking to fight sprawl, which has been linked to a lower quality of life.

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