Don’t Like Sprawl? Just Call It Something Else.
(Source: Flickr/Bob Jagendorf.)
The state of Florida has a bold new strategy to eliminate the adverse effects of urban sprawl: Change the definition.
Under the state’s current terminology, urban sprawl is defined as “a development pattern characterized by low-density, automobile-dependent development with either a single use or multiple uses that are not functionally related, requiring the extension of public facilities and services in an inefficient manner.”
Phrased that way, it is also actively discouraged in Florida state planning language. Under the proposed new definition, “‘Urban sprawl’ means an unplanned development pattern that requires the extension of public facilities by a local government.” You can see the strikethrough editing in the draft language, and in the image below.
The bill, HB439, is currently in subcommittee during Florida’s legislative session, which runs until May 5. There’s a lot of pressure on Florida to get its development decisions right. The Census Bureau reports that Florida’s 1.9% increase in population from 2021 to 2022 made it the fastest-growing state in the U.S. for the first time since 1957.
Florida is experiencing an average influx of more than 1,100 new residents per day, totaling around 417,000 in the past year. Like many states, it is also facing an affordable housing crisis. Measured by rent increases in the past three years, some Florida cities are now among the least affordable in the country.
In a state where the suburban development pattern predominates (as Strong Towns has documented), today’s planning decisions will have a major impact on the long-term fiscal health of Florida’s municipalities.
The bill would also change other land-use terminology. The definition of “intensity” would omit existing language that considers “the measurement of the use of or demand on natural resources, and the measurement of the use of or demand on facilities and services,” and henceforth be "expressed in square feet per unit of land.” A redefining of “density” would replace references to people, residents, or employees with “dwelling unit per acre.”
Taken together, the legislation would remove existing guardrails on a certain type of development in Florida.
Evaluating the draft legislation, Strong Towns’ Director of Community Action Edward Erfurt explains how it would alter existing development guidelines. First, it changes “sprawl” to “unplanned,” but never defines unplanned. Then, since all development must be included in a comprehensive plan, by definition all development is planned. In effect, the legislation “knocks the wind out of the definition by leveling the playing field for all development to be equal,” says Erfurt.
While parts of the legislation still call for discouraging sprawl, the definition change also undermines that guidance. Planners should discourage sprawl by “planning for future development,” but since only unplanned development is sprawl, anything that’s planned, regardless of type, can’t be considered sprawl, according to Erfurt.
Erfurt also points out that Florida’s efforts to redefine urban sprawl contradict urban planning textbooks and even Encyclopedia Britannica. The effects of this Florida bill would be “like defining a hotdog as a sandwich,” he says.
Ben Abramson is a Staff Writer at Strong Towns. In his career as a travel journalist with The Washington Post and USA TODAY, Ben has visited many destinations that show how Americans were once world-class at building appealing, prosperous places at a human scale. He has also seen the worst of the suburban development pattern, and joined Strong Towns because of its unique way of framing the problems we can all see and intuit, and focusing on local, achievable solutions. A native of Washington, DC, Ben lives in Venice, Florida; summers in Atlantic Canada; and loves hiking, biking, kayaking, and beachcombing.