Curbing Dense Sprawl

Dense residential and commercial developments have been touted by the environmental community for years. Yet, as demonstrated by recent sprawl studies, without abrupt changes in both population growth and the stringency of land use planning at state and local levels, future sprawl is inevitable in the U.S. This article puts forth three options for addressing the inevitability of sprawl, and argues that until the sprawl question is addressed through adequate law and policy, advocates should promote developments that are less dense and that integrate more of the natural environment into the places where we live, shop, and work