1. Presented by Sara Rafalson, International Studies, GEOG 370
“Community Features and Urban Sprawl: the Case of the Chicago Metropolitan Region”
Paper by Tindwe Zhang Community features and urban sprawl: the case of the Chicago metropolitan region. Land Use Policy, 18 (3):
Presented by Sara Rafalson, International Studies, GEOG 370
February 24, 2010

2. Relationship between local factors & urban sprawl
Problem: Urban sprawl (low density growth with costs to public).
Debate regarding causes of urban sprawl: community features or poorly planned public policy?
Hypothesis: Local factors such as socioeconomic status, education quality, housing stock, and demographic shifts also contribute to urban sprawl, not just regional features.
Urban sprawl—anything from automobile dependence, cultural problems (ie traffic on a family). Conyers. Public policy—ie: putting a highway in a certain place. Ltd public transit. etc

3. Methods
Site: Chicago as focal point. Concentrated on ring in 30 mile radius of downtown. Sample size of 24 communities.
Examined: growth process in Chicago housing developments from 1970’s until the 1990’s.
Local factors: socioeconomics from Census data, lot size, ACT scores, population demographics
Regional factors: zoning regulations, transportation accessibility (Metra, Amtrak, bus system)
Relationship analyzed between new housing developments and these local and regional factors.
Buffer? Data: census, planning departments, high school graduation rate, ACT scores

4. Methods: 30 mile radius around Chicago
Buffer? Data: census, planning departments, high school graduation rate, ACT scores

5. Results
Local community features larger contributors than transportation accessibility and highway construction
Transportation features not as highly correlated
Most shifts are to areas with high property values, large residential lots, fewer minorities, higher income levels, and private sector employment.

6. Conclusions
People moving out of central area because they want conditions that central city does not provide (larger property lots, better education, etc)
Must develop these features in the inner city to attract more dense development and decrease outward expansion into the suburbs.
Region factors, transportation policy, highway construction, etc , seen as negligible in urban sprawl
Criticisms
30 mile radius limits other factors (ie: transportation accessibility in other areas outside of this radius, especially since public infrastructure not as common further outside of the city)
Only 24 communities out of 269 were analyzed.