Ideal Urban Form and Visions of the Good Life Florida's Growth Management Dilemma

Abstract

Florida's emerging urban development policy is aimed at solving the urgent problem of how to continue to grow in an environmentally responsible manner within a low-taxation climate. Since there is a widespread perception that urban sprawl and its many connotations (e.g., costliness, ugliness, and environmental damage) are the source of the problem, the state's prescription is to redirect urban growth toward a more fiscally efficient and livable compact urban form. We contend that this form is part of our repertoire of powerful yet often nostalgic urban imagery and runs counter to residential preference for low density lifestyles. Further, there is too little empirical evidence to substantiate claims of economic and fiscal benefit of compact form, and definitional ambiguities haunt the literature on urban sprawl. While the environmental argument against sprawl appears convincing, a compact development policy oversimplifies environmental issues and may exacerbate environmental problems in existing urban areas.

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