A Land Use Decision-Making System to Stop Sprawl and Build Holistic, Organic Communities

Authors: Kirk Wickersham

Abstract:

Introduction: Sprawl has been built for the auto. This project anticipates the adoption of autonomous vehicle technology to both enable and require a modern version of the organic urban form humans have developed over the millennia. It proposes a land use decision-making system to stop further sprawl and channel growth into these communities. Methodology: For the past 80 years, we have built sprawl and strip commercial development – intense commercial and multifamily on the periphery, with low-density housing in the center repeated indefinitely across the landscape. Sprawl is designed to accommodate the auto, and we need an auto to live there. That will change. Within a decade, autonomous vehicles (AVs), especially robotaxis, will replace human-driven vehicles (HDVs). These vehicles will require a transportation network that will both enable and require an urban form that will resemble the organic urban form developed over millennia – high-intensity uses in the center, surrounded by neighborhoods, with a defined outer boundary – a city limit. The project dubs this community a HOME Town: Holistic, Organic, Market-driven, and Ergonomic. It will offer a better quality of life at a lower public and private cost. Sprawl is created by our existing land use decision-making system – local governments approving one incremental project at a time. To create these communities, we will need a radically different system. This means regional planning, eliminating development-by-right zoning and incremental development approvals, reduced standards for roadways and parking, selection of a lead developer, designating and master planning a community site, channeling development into the community, and providing equity for the landowners who have been left out of the process. This land use decision-making system process is based on and inspired by state regulation of oilfield development, called “unitization and pooling.” Major Findings: The problems of sprawl and strip commercial development are well known. The quality of life and efficiencies in a holistic, organic, ergonomic community have also been well-known for centuries. Now, an integrated planning, legal, and regulatory process has been developed to replace sprawl with a 21st-century version of these organic communities. Conclusion: This project offers the opportunity to transform the urban landscape and urban life in the 21st century.

Keywords: autonomous vehicles, community, home town, land use decision-making system, quality of life, sprawl, strip commercial