What is Urban Sprawl and What Causes it?
By Mark A. Edelman Extension Public Policy Economist Iowa State University Extension to Communities Different people have different definitions of sprawl. To some people, sprawl is any expansion of the traditional city boundaries or urbanized areas. To other people, sprawl is residential development in agricultural, forest or open-space areas. To other people sprawl is the spread out, skipped-over development that characterizes the non-central city metropolitan areas and non-metropolitan areas of the nation. To others, sprawl is one- or two-story single-family residential developments on lots ranging in size from one-third to one acre, that often is accompanied by strip commercial and industrial development. According to one national expert, sprawl has occurred in almost every county of the United States, although it occurs in significant amounts in only about one-quarter of the nation’s 3,000 counties. Most counties that contain significant sprawl have it in the form of low-density re
