Benefits of Compact, Mixed Use Development

This report from Smart Growth America looks at four factors of urban form to determine sprawl’s impact on quality of life in 2000 and 1990. The four factors are residential density, mix of jobs, homes, and services, strength of city center, and accessibility via the street network. 22 variables were sorted into each of the four factors. It also summarizes previous attempts to measure sprawl before adding the values calculated for each factor and regressing the sum on the population of specific metropolitan areas. The resulting number was assigned to its corresponding metro area. Quantified outcomes of sprawl devised by Burchell in The Costs of Sprawl – Revisited were used to indicate quality of life, and the sprawl score and quality of life score were then juxtaposed. The authors validated their findings from 2000 against findings from 1990, and concluded that the city center factor was more significant in 1990, density was more significant in 2000, job/home/service mix was stable, and street network was unpredictable.