Suburban Sprawl

I know we have beaten this one down more times than Mohammad Ali did of his opponents in the boxing ring. The truth remains that the low density development that we produce is a disproportionately high consumer of resources just in the building.

The amount of asphalt that is laid to pave a street that give access to every lot is 3 to 20 times as high as in an urban landscape where there are zero-lot line structures and medium ride condominiums. More miles of water mains, and concrete sewer pipes are necessary. It costs every utility more to build the service lines to the low density subdivisions.

This extra-ordinary amount of resources doesn't ever consider the higher fuel consumption for commuters, shoppers and service delivery such as the USPS and FedEX. While one might wish to neglect these costs, and negative impacts, each incremental part totals the aggregate amount of pollutant loading in all the segments of the environment.