Session 7: Comparing 4 Regions Flashcards
What have been Oregon’s main efforts to minimize urban sprawl?
Portland’s urban growth boundary has been an important example for many US cities, yet it is still less restrictive than many other countries. Portland is one of the most progressive cities in the US. Portland puts emphasis on PT light rail, and uses both demarcation and density objectives, but with limited success.There is a spillover effect into neighboring municipalities, and PT use remain very low
What have been Washington state’s main efforts to minimize urban sprawl?
In Washington, spatial development policies were only introduced later (than Portland). Urban growth areas were introduced in 1995, and are mandatory for ‘fast growing cities’ (i.e. cities that grow more than 2% per year). There are construction permits being granted outside the growth line, but only for historical land uses. Washington does not invest much in PT, and has low road taxation. Strong urban centers are supported thru planning, but this possibly leads to more segregation between income groups due to increased property values. City of Vancouver, Washington suffered more sprawl than Portland b/c it was later to impose demarcations
What have been the UK’s main efforts to minimize urban sprawl?
Green belt policies implemented in 1947 were very strict and successful. Since 90s, there has been a partial release of London’s green belt regulation. Future protection is uncertain, as there is currently speculation on unbuilt belt areas. London’s congestion pricing can also be seen as a planning tool. In UK, planning is tradition, and is centrally managed.
What have been France’s main efforts to minimize urban sprawl?
France has very strong, centralized policy. Anti-sprawl policies have remain mostly implicit until recently. ‘Urban’ living is traditional popular in the Paris area, where high income groups live in the city center (opposite to US). The Villes Nouvelles are Paris are clearly part of the agglomeration, and aimed at housing and employment for lower/middle classes, all connected with the RER. There is a recent trend of supra-municipal cooperation and policy making structures, which are associated with overarching schemes to prevent sprawl.
What are the key elements from the discussed policy measures?
Development seems to be path-dependent. Therefore, the effect of policy measures seems small. In most cities, density is continuously declining, car dependency remains high, suburbanization is the norm, there is a clear effect on the protection of natural landscapes, even though this may come at the expense of open green space in the city itself. However, there is increasing support for development control.
What is the RSV?
The RSV is the Spatial Structure Plan for Flanders. It mandates that urban areas must be demarcated with a growth boundary (including Flemish periphery around BCR), which should stimulate compact development. The goal is to add 60% of additional housing units into the urban area. This policy does not seem to be very successful.
What has led to the BCRs increasing densification?
BCR has no explicit compaction targets. BCR has been growing since 1995, but there are no strong compaction-oriented policies. The increasing densification may be attributed to a default market-based compaction.
How can we explain the ineffectiveness of FL compaction policy, and the market-based densification of BCR?
The demarcation of the FL periphery does not align with urban economic theory used as the basis for demarcation. The political-administrative boundary around BCR is the de facto development boundary. By discouraging densification in the FL fringe, there is a countered densification in BCR, and peri-urbanization, mainly in Wallonia. In this case, language groups strongly interfere with the originally intended planning policy outcomes
