Landscape Architecture Resource

The fastest growing US communities are in the exurbs. An exurb is usually a far-flung suburban community located out in rural America, just barely in reach of an established metro area. Sometimes they develop like independent pockets of suburban sprawl and some are communities of small ranches or as the French called them "ornamental farms". The people in these areas move there because they like the rural setting and small town feel. The American Dream has always been to have your own little green acre out in the country far from the crime, congestion and pollution of the city.

But exurban growth is creating the very thing that made people moved to them in the first place. The sheer numbers and popularity of this movement dictates that. The mindless reaction in many of these communities has been to try and stop any and all further growth. Considering the national trend, this is like trying to plug the leak in the dike with your finger, not to mention the obvious selfish hypocrisy of such a position. So how do you sustain this trend and preserve the very things that motivate it?

I attended a symposium a few years ago that covered the topic. Randle Arendt proposes controlled rural growth targeting mainly exurban development, much like New Urbanism advocates for our urban and suburban centers. His method would rely on changing existing codes and ordnances to insure these communities preserve their natural features and countryside vistas. This would require developers to down size large multiple-acre lots to much smaller sized lots in order to dedicate the remaining land to vast common open spaces, thus preserving the surrounding countryside.

Some people feel this is Draconian when applied to comprehensive plans. Arendt apparently feels that the small town and rural features of the countryside would be destroyed without it.

I'm for letting the market decide. Let cookie cutter suburban sprawl continue in our rural areas, basically turning the countryside into what everyone in the suburbs wants to get away from. Then compare that to the quality of life in the developments Arendt supports.

http://www.plannersweb.com/articles/are015.html

Written by Mark Warriner, Landscape Designer