Development Sprawl in Texas

State and Local Finances under Pressure

The purpose of this research is three-fold. First, this research explores policy strategies that can be used to mitigate the negative effects of sprawling development. Second, this research assesses the current policy framework with regard to mitigating the negative effects of sprawling in San Marcos, TX. Third, the results of the assessment are used to make policy recommendations to mitigate the effects of sprawl in San Marcos, TX. A review of key literature on policy options to mitigate sprawling development was conducted. This literature review helped define the causes and effects of sprawling development in addition to providing a basis for the development of a conceptual framework, which utilized working hypotheses for inquiry into data sources regarding sprawling in San Marcos, TX. A case study of the City of San Marcos was conducted using document analysis, structured interviews, and direct observation to explore policies that either supported or failed to support the working hypotheses. This research found that the City of San Marcos used only some of the policies identified in the conceptual framework. It should be noted, however, only some of the policies listed in the conceptual framework applied to the policies of the City of San Marcos, since this study focused specifically on mitigating the negative effects of sprawl. At the same time, some San Marcos polices appeared to perform similar functions and can be used interchangeably.

Sprawl has long been lamented in urban planning circles for its detrimental environmental, social, and financial impacts. However, most of the widely cited literature use theoretical models to measure the financial impacts and inefficiencies of sprawling development. This paper examines the relationship between sprawl and municipal finances empirically, by analyzing 23 separate financial categories in 82 of the largest cities in the United States between the years 2000 and 2010. First, the concept of sprawl is defined and a brief overview of existing literature on the impacts of sprawl is presented. Then, 23 separate multivariate regression models are created and analyzed using a sprawl index calculated by Hamidi and Ewing (2014) to predict each of the financial categories, including various expenditure categories, debt outstanding, and capital outlay. In line with existing literature, the research finds that there is a significant and negative relationship between sprawl and capita...

In the decades after WWII cities experienced an outflow of people and businesses to the suburbs. This migration was due to an increase in highways and automobile use and in part due to increased crime, declining schools, and a desire for a higher quality of life outside the city. In the past decade this suburbanization has been labeled "sprawl" and is blamed for everything from community disintegration to destroying the ozone layer. Smart Growth has arrived as a growth management tool to counteract the perceived negative aspects of sprawl. Smart Growth seeks to address the problems of sprawl with several solutions. These solutions include economically revitalizing the urban core, creating higher population densities within the urban core, managing infrastructure to control suburban growth and counteracting the subsidies given to sprawl. Extensive debate exists on the theories behind the development of Smart Growth as well as Smart Growth's solutions. To find out if these solutions will solve the problems of sprawl it is helpful to explore the attitudes of those who deal with Smart Growth first hand. The purpose of this research is to determine the perceptions that City Planners across Texas have about the fiscal impacts of Smart Growth policies on municipal finance. This research demonstrates that overall City Planning Directors across Texas currently have an overall positive view of the effects of Smart Growth on municipal finance. However, a wide range of opinions is indicated by the research. Only time itself will tell if Smart Growth will live up to its supporters' claims.

Urban Affairs Review, 2016

Many counties in the U.S. federalist system have morphed from a limited role in service delivery to a workhorse for municipal-style local government. They also facilitate development and sprawl, helping to shape development patterns of the modern fragmented metropolis. Why do counties accommodate development demand that deviates from long-term land-use plans intended to prevent sprawl? Utilizing panel data of county land-use changes in Florida, this study finds evidence that the decisions are shaped by both external competition for growth and internal institutional incentives. Fragmentation fuels more leapfrog development patterns on the urban fringe. Horizontal fragmentation encourages counties to compete for development, whereas vertical fragmentation via special districts facilitates such development through provision of services and reducing pressure for public officeholders to raise taxes. However, these fragmentation effects are also influenced by modernized institutions in co...

This paper examines the history of municipal annexation as a mechanism for suburban expansion in San Antonio, Texas between 1939 and 2014. Annexation, which permits municipalities to enlarge jurisdictional boundaries by absorbing adjacent, unincorporated areas, emerged as a powerful governmental apparatus to grow Sunbelt cities across the postwar United States. Political elites in San Antonio began leveraging annexation with remarkable efficiency after World War II and continue the practice today. During the period under study, the city council executed 461 annexations and boundary adjustments, adding 497 square miles to the metropolitan footprint (List of Annexation Ordinances, 2014). The same time frame saw San Antonio grow to become the seventh most populous city in the United States, adding 430,000 people in the last decade alone, with another 1.1 million expected by 2040 (Rivard, 2016). The continued use of municipal annexation as a way to grow the city has generated a wide array of responses among citizenry, ranging from strong support within development communities eager to access emerging markets, to opposition from historically disenfranchised neighborhoods where people contend that annexation further consolidates resources in middle-and upper-income areas of the city. This paper examines the historical roots of such positions in an attempt to clarify today's contentious discourse on annexation in San Antonio.

Policy Studies Journal, 1999

The uneven development and disparities that exist in most metrqolitan regions are the consequence of a combination of private decisions and public policies. Public policy can also redress some of these inequities and redirect the pattern of growth. The article discusses individual policie~anging from congestion pricing to regional governanceAn detail. Each policy is assessed in terms of its contribution to slowing metropolitan deconcentration, its feasibility of implementation. and its power to redress inequities. Four policies appear most promising: the utilization of impact fees, especially on a supra-local level; reverse commuting program; special taxing districts for regionwide amenities; and continued revitalization efforts in the central city.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

This paper is the first step toward a broad research agenda that will define possible ways of measuring urban sprawl in U.S. metropolitan areas, test the notion that fiscal choices by local governments can further urban sprawl, and if appropriate, use this test to form the basis for public policies to reduce sprawl and the negative outcomes attributed to it. To derive a consensus on the best ways to measure the degree of urban sprawl in an U.S. metropolitan area, the paper begins with a short survey of previous economic, planning, and popular literature on the topic. Next, the paper offers values for the consensus ways of measuring urban sprawl in the Sacramento metropolitan region, two like regions in California, and three comparable regions in the United States. Partial correlation coefficients measure the association between these measures of urban sprawl and some measures of negative urban outcomes. The conclusion contains a discussion on the need for further research, and a few suggestions on how to go about it.

Growth and Change, 2002

Recent years have witnessed widespread expansion of state and regional planning programs in the United States. A major purpose of these efforts is to reduce urban sprawl-low density, discontinuous, suburban-style development, often characterized as the result of rapid, unplanned, and/or uncoordinated growthby promoting jurisdictional cooperation and regulatory consistency across metropolitan areas. This paper evaluates the efficacy of this approach by examining the relationship between governmental fragmentation and several measurable outcomes of urban development: density, urbanized land area, property value, and public expenditures on infrastructure. The four dimensions are modeled in a simultaneous equations framework, providing substantive evidence on how fragmentation and other exogenous factors affect metropolitan growth patterns. Fragmentation is associated with lower densities and higher property values, but has no direct effect on public service expenditures; less fragmented metropolitan areas occupy greater amounts of land due to the extensive annexation needed to bring new development under the control of a central municipality. The findings of the analysis lend support to state and regional planning efforts aimed at increasing cooperation among local governments, but also suggest that further research is needed in order to evaluate whether or not they produce their intended effects.