The high cost of sprawl

Launce Rake

Saturday, Nov. 12, 2005 | 7:44 a.m.

A book being released Monday calls Las Vegas the 15th most sprawling metropolitan area in the country and says residents will pay billions to live in a community in which homes are increasingly farther from jobs and retail businesses.

Dr. Robert Burchell, one of the authors of the book "Sprawl Costs: Economic Impacts of Unchecked Development," said residents will pay $109.2 billion, or about $37,000 per person, from 2000 to 2025 to live here.

If 25 percent of Las Vegas' future growth is shifted from relatively low-density projects to high-density efforts, the region would save $8.8 billion or $6,657 per person, according to the book.

Sprawl costs communities because it requires longer roads, extended sewer and water infrastructure, and more gasoline and maintenance for the cars to bring people to work and shop.

The conclusion that sprawl costs consumers isn't new, but at least one group -- Smart Growth America -- found three years ago that Las Vegas fared better than 47 other cities when it comes to the negative impacts of sprawl, mostly thanks to the relatively high population density of Southern Nevada's urban area.

So, is Las Vegas sprawling?

The question pops up a couple of times a year as various groups try to assess the performance of various cities when it comes to issues such as traffic congestion, pollution, population density and other factors. Some analyses find that Las Vegas and its surrounding metropolitan area are indeed sprawling, based, for example, on the amount of rural land being converted to urban or suburban needs.

Other studies, including one by the Washington, D.C., think tank the Brookings Institution in 2001, find that Las Vegas is actually doing well and avoiding the negative impacts of sprawl because of the relatively high population density of the region. Population densities are often a key indicator of sprawl, with low densities usually indicating vast suburban areas far from employment centers.

Barbara McCann, co-author of the book, said the analysis used a different method than that used in previous efforts that have found sprawl less of a problem in Las Vegas.

"The analysis examined the degree of outward expansion from the urban core, changes in density and degree of leapfrog development, and then projected trends out to 2025," she said.

One characteristic of Las Vegas, noted by anyone who has lived here more than a year or two, is that open desert is rapidly converted into urban areas.

"A fundamental characteristic of sprawl in this analysis is rapid and significant growth in rural and undeveloped counties. Again, this has to do with the degree of change, and so is relative to past patterns in each community," she said.

McCann said the analysis used for the book shows that Las Vegas could save $146 million in water and sewer infrastructure costs and $2.37 billion in road-building costs by redirecting future development into more compact forms.

Burchell, co-director of the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University, and McCann were joined by Anthony Downs, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Sahan Mukherji, research associate at the Center for Urban Policy Research, for the book.

Craig Galati, a Las Vegas architect with Luchese Galati, said people know sprawl when they see it, and they see it here.

"There certainly is sprawl," he said. "This is a postmodern city, sprawling out to cheaper land, farther and farther out. We have high population densities because we have postage-stamp-sized lots.

"That doesn't diminish the fact that we don't have a lot of urban lifestyle, or urban villages, or anything that is part of the downtown core. There are few housing opportunities anywhere near where the jobs are."

Land prices that have led to tiny lots on the edges of town are also pushing new condominiums dozens of floors into the desert sky, but Galati said few residents have seen any benefit from the trend. He still hopes to see more mixed-use urban development close to the urban core.

"The high-rise condos could be a good first step, but for now they're more tourism related," he said. "It is a step in the right direction. Hopefully the next stage will be building those for people who actually live here."

McCann said high-rise condos can be good or bad for sprawl, depending on the context of the surrounding community.

"It's a design issue. Big condo complexes can be dense, but they are not smart growth if they end up isolating people from jobs and congesting road systems. Smart growth is about creating a mix."

Jane Feldman, a local Sierra Club activist who last year served on the Clark County Growth Management Task Force, said she agrees with the authors of "Sprawl Costs" that a lot could be done near the urban core.

"We need to concentrate more on infill development," Feldman said. "There are huge opportunities.

"What bothers me is how much virgin land we're putting to the blade of the bulldozer ... even though there are acres of land along Las Vegas Boulevard that have nothing on them."

Launce Rake can be reached at (702) 259-4127 or at lrake@lasvegassun.com.