The costs of sprawl revisited.

TCRP Report 39 is a literature review that represents the culmination of the first phase of TCRP Project H-10, "The Costs of Sprawl—Revisited." The report was prepared by Rutgers University's Centre for Urban Policy Research, in conjunction with The Brookings Institution, Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade and Douglas, Inc., and ECONorthwest. Urban sprawl is a topic that interests urban planners, economists, environmentalists, sociologists, transportation professionals, policy-makers and public officials, academics in many fields, and the general public. Regardless of the focus of any particular debate or discussion on urban sprawl, most such discussions attempt to define sprawl and address whether it is "good" or "bad." Consequently, Chapter 1 of Section I of TCRP Report 39 provides a working definition of sprawl and its associated costs. The next chapter provides historical discussion, dating back to the early 1920s when zoning acts were initially developed, and to the 1950s when the term "sprawl" entered the planning literature. As indicated by the title of this research project, the seminal 1974 report The Costs of Sprawl, prepared by the Real Estate Research Corporation, serves as a springboard for this research effort. Section II of the report contains the Literature Synthesis. This section systematically presents the literature on sprawl in chapters that focus on the following major areas of impact: • Public/private capital and operating costs, • Transportation and travel costs, • Land/natural habitat preservation, • Quality of life, and • Social issues. Throughout this section, the research team discusses the literature and identifies the extent to which there is agreement and disagreement about the premises and conclusions. Section III of the report presents annotations of studies, organised in chapters that focus on the same five major impact areas as Section II. While this report will not resolve the debate on the benefits and costs of urban sprawl, it provides an important repository of information for the debaters. (A)