Suburban Sprawl
Background Sprawling is the action of being spread out over a large area in an untidy or irregular way. The city, town, and county of Waukesha have been expanding rapidly. Several parks (open land) and prairies have been constructed on or have been used for construction transportation in an inefficient way. Organizations such as the Waukesha County Environmental Action League have been attempting to regulate this expansion. Some downsides to this rapid expansion are less natural space and increasing amounts of various pollutions. These regulations being placed are all attempts to reverse or slow the effects of sprawling. However there are many discussions about how economic development and natural space can coincide. Urban Sprawl Today Today the expansion is continuing throughout Waukesha. It has become a problem because there are less and less green spaces. Building and construction sites have been popping up everywhere. The Waukesha County Environmental Action League has been fighting for prevention of sprawling. They support “the elimination of incompatible zoning categories adjacent to one another along municipal borders.” More areas other than Waukesha have been experiencing sprawling as well. Highly developed cities like Brookfield have been expanding even more. Questions have come up with the issues of sprawling but the most common one has revolved around how much expansion suburban can handle. WEAL has come to a consensus that Waukesha has reached a crisis level of development. "Land use affects the levels of noise, air, and water pollution: determines the nature of drainage, flood control, and water supply problems: affects the levels of traffic congestion, the times and distances involved in commuting between home and work, and the need for, and cost of, goods movement…” Land use has a domino effect throughout the surrounding area and city. Stakeholders Waukesha County Environmental Action League WEAL believes that urban sprawling in Waukesha has reached a crisis level. All of their statements can be summarized as meeting a medium. Land should be assessed for how and why it is going to be used. There should be good reasoning and have good potential on its use. Economic Development Teams More residential, commercial, and industrial zones equals a stronger economy. The population size will increase due to all three of these changing their potential to grow. Even though economic development teams have some regulations the city of Waukesha is still growing to fast due to mass construction however coming for an economic standpoint it's not the biggest issue. Who has the most control? The people with the most power are the development teams. Since Waukesha has started growing its economy has become stronger. In a sense there is a hunger for even more power than what is already had. More buildings and houses means increases size of populations will eventually leads to more consumer expenditures. The least power are organizations attempting to prevent sprawling or limit its effects. They have statements of the change they would like to see however these aren’t official and don’t have to be followed when using land. There is a change happening in this power where there is more of a 50/50 deal however it isn’t in full use yet. The power should be in the hands of environmentalist and development teams so they work together for land use benefits for society and nature. Ethical Issues Due to the consequences urban sprawling causes, organizations have spoken out on the ethical issues. A major issue that has surfaced is the impact land use has on human health. With increasing amounts of buildings, factories, stores, etc. they all have to use water and emit certain amounts of pollution. Limited space is another issue that is brought up. With limited space there can be a complete takeover of green space, especially in a small city like Waukesha. The final most popular issue is the consideration levels of economic development teams. If the consideration for natural space is minimal then soon there will be no natural space left. |
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