Beyond Sprawl . . .

Next American City is publishing a series of four articles entitled "Beyond Sprawl," analyzing the problems of sprawl from the perspectives of four architects.

Look at many large North American cities and you see a sea of suburban houses. Sprawl has become the norm. But it is costly, damages the environment and affects quality of life. A new generation of planners and architects is beginning to look at sustainable, human-centered solutions to the creeping suburbs.

Part One focuses on the opinions of Martin Neilsen:

One issue for Neilsen is that suburban homeowners don’t pay the true cost for building their neighborhoods. “The reason that more suburbs are built is that we don’t pay the true cost of the infrastructure and the road network,” he says. “That’s never factored in and it’s not part of the developer’s cost so it’s not a cost that’s transferred back to the homeowner.”

This is certainly the case in Greater Utica -- applies to more than just housing developments -- and has been the subject of a number of posts here.

This looks like it will be an interesting series of articles.