Urban Sprawl DA Dartmouth 2011 1

Urban Sprawl DA

Urban Sprawl DA 1

Urban Sprawl 1NC 2

Urban Sprawl 1NC 3

***Uniqueness*** 4

***Links*** 5

HSR 1NC Link 6

HSR Link Ext. 7

HSR Link Ext. 8

Highways 1NC Link 9

Highways Link Ext. 10

Highways Link Ext. 11

Hydrogen Link 13

***Impacts*** 14

Laundry List 15

Economy 16

Environment Impact Ext. 17

***Aff*** 18

A2: Highways Link 19

Solvency 21

Alt Cause of Sprawl 22

Sprawl Good 23


Urban Sprawl 1NC

Re-urbanization happening now due to high transport costs

Kidd 12

By: Judson Kidd “The Re-Urbanization ofAtlanta” May 6th 2012 Coldwell Banker NRT Development Advisors. (This highly specialized company blends the Southeast’s finest residential real estate brokerage, marketing, sales and advisory capabilities to serve as the ultimate expert strategic advisor to developers and lenders.)

The Unites States Census Bureau recently released updated population estimates for the first time since 2010, and the results were quite surprising. Despite signs of economic recovery and nearly two years after the technical end of the recession, a reverse trend has developed. The exodus of buyers to the outlying suburbs where homes are larger is over. In fact, the annual rate of growth in American cities and surrounding urban areas has now surpassed that of the suburbs for the first time in over 20 years.This decrease in population in outlying areas or “Exurbs” is due to various factors. For one, the substantial loss in home values in these areas has buyers looking for property with increased price stabilization and higher short-term ROI potential. With foreclosure inventory nearing the bottom within the I-285 corridor, market sales are on the rise and taking prices along for the ride. Energy costs have a direct impact on this new trend as well. The high cost of gasoline discourages long commutes, and larger suburban homes generally come with higher heating and cooling costs. Finally, young buyers prefer an urban location, and with the emergence of the “Echo Boomers” as the next wave of new home purchasers, this trend is likely to continue.

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Urban Sprawl 1NC

Urban Sprawl causes extinction of thousands of species and destroys biodiversity

MSNBC, 05

Associated press, MSNBC1/11/2005, “Groups: Urban sprawl threatens species”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6814251/ns/us_news-environment/t/groups-urban-sprawl-threatens-species/#.T-3rFBdtpe8

Urban sprawl is gobbling up open spaces in fast-growing metropolitan areas so quickly that it could spell extinction for nearly 1,200 species of plants and animals, environmental groups say. TheNationalWildlifeFederation, Smart Growth America and NatureServe projected that over the next 25 years, more than 22,000 acres of natural resources and habitat will be lost to development in 35 of the largest and most rapidly growing metropolitan areas. According to the groups, as many as 553 of the nearly 1,200 at-risk species are found only in those areas. “The bottom line is that these species are at risk of extinction due to habitat destruction,” said John Kostyack, a National Wildlife Federation attorney and report co-author. “And in these metro areas, the leading cause of habitat destruction is sprawl — development of homes and office buildings and roads in outlying forests and farm fields.” The government lists 1,264 U.S. species — 518 animals and 746 plants — as endangered or, to a lesser degree, threatened by extinction and in need of federal protection. The environmental groups cited a larger group of species they said were in trouble. The NatureServe database identified about 6,400 “imperiled” species in theUnitedStates, including more than 4,000 in the lower 48 states. The groups say they excluded Hawaii and Alaska from their analysis because each has special circumstances. They found that 60 percent of the lower 48 states’ species live within metropolitan areas, and about half of those — 1,196 — are in the 35 metropolitan areas with both the fastest growth rates and more than 1 million people. California has 16 of the 20 counties the groups said have the most imperiled species, led by San Diego, Los Angeles,SanBernardinoand Sonoma counties. Other counties with the most imperiled species are Clark in Nevada; Miami-Dade in Florida; and Bibb and Shelby in Alabama. Don Chen, executive director of Smart Growth America, said to turn back urban sprawl, developers should be given incentives to build in existing city areas and to create higher-density projects. He said more land also should be set aside as natural open space.

And, loss of biodiversity causes extinction.

Diner,94[David, Ph.D., Planetary Science and Geology,"The Army and the Endangered Species Act: Who's Endangering Whom?,"Military Law Review, 143 Mil. L. Rev. 161]

To accept that the snail darter, harelip sucker, or DismalSwamp southeastern shrew 74 could save [hu]mankind may be difficult for some. Many, if not most,speciesare useless to[hu]man[s] in a direct utilitarian sense. Nonetheless, theymay be critical in an indirect role, because their extirpations could affect a directly useful species negatively.In a closely interconnected ecosystem, theloss of a species affects other species dependent on it. 75 Moreover, as the number of species decline, the effect of each new extinction on the remaining species increases dramatically. 4. Biological Diversity. -- The main premise of species preservation is that diversity is better than simplicity. 77 As the current mass extinction has progressed, the world's biological diversity generally has decreased. This trend occurs within ecosystems by reducing the number of species, and within species by reducing the number of individuals. Both trends carry serious future implications. 78 [*173] Biologically diverse ecosystems are characterized by a large number of specialist species, filling narrow ecological niches. These ecosystems inherently are more stable than less diverse systems. "The more complex the ecosystem, the more successfully it can resist a stress. . . . [l]ike a net, in which each knot is connected to others by several strands, such a fabric can resist collapse better than a simple, unbranched circle of threads -- which if cut anywhere breaks down as a whole." 79 By causing widespread extinctions, humans have artificially simplified many ecosystems. As biologic simplicity increases, so does the risk of ecosystem failure. The spreading Sahara Desert in Africa, and the dustbowl conditions of the 1930s in the United States are relatively mild examples of what might be expected if this trend continues. Theoretically,each new animal or plant extinction,with all its dimly perceived and intertwined affects,could cause total ecosystem collapseandhumanextinction.Each new extinction increases the risk of disaster. Like a mechanic removing, one by one, the rivets from an aircraft's wings, 80 [hu]mankind may be edging closer to the abyss.


***Uniqueness***

Reurbanization caused by transport problems

Wall Street Journal, 8

June 17, 2008 “Suburbs a Mile Too Far for Some” Jonathan Karp, Wall Street Journal < http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121366811790479767.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

While baby boomers may be looking to downsize their homes and simplify their lives in urban condominiums, millennials often look to cities as a way of rebelling against the suburban cul-de-sac culture that pervaded their youth, Mr. Zimmerman said. That is no different than past generations of twentysomethings, but the numbers of millennials are larger .Even families who sought the suburbs or were priced out of cities now have an economic imperative to find their way back closer to town. Transportation is the second-biggest household expense, after housing, and suburban families face a relatively greater gas burden. At the same time, distant suburbs, or exurbs, where housing growth was predicated on cheap gas, have experienced the biggest declines in home values in the past year, according to a May report by CEOs for Cities, a nonprofit group of public- and private-sector officials that seeks to promote urban areas. "The gas-price spike popped the housing bubble," said Joe Cortright, the report's author.

Suburb growth is slowing now.

John K. Mcllwain, Senior Resident Fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington D.C., 2011“Suburbs 2.0: The Evolving American Suburbs” http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/2011/June/McIlwainSuburbs

For over a century, American suburbs have been growing inexorably outward from central cities. Following World War II, this growth accelerated to the point where metropolitan regions in the United States now can have a 50- to 60-mile (80- to 96-km) radius. This ever-widening spread of suburbia seems to have continued through the past decade, if 2010 Census data serve as any indication. This, however, is not the whole story, and a closer look at facts on the ground suggest that the growth of the suburbs—now stalled by the housing bust—may in fact be winding down. If true, this would be a major and arguably a very beneficial shift in American urban development. The traditional way of looking at the suburbs is to think of them like the growth rings of a tree. According to data from the 2010 Census, both the outer and inner suburban rings are where the action was in the past decade; in between them, the mature middle suburban ring grew more slowly. Will these trends continue? Will the outer suburbs continue to grow once housing markets recover? Will the move to the inner suburbs continue, or is the urge to live closer in but a flash in the pan?

Many are ready to shift away from sprawl.

Don Hopey, 2012, “Report Recommends Cutting Urban Sprawl”, http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/environment/report-recommends-cutting-urban-sprawl-502691/

The report released yesterday in Washington, D.C., recommends adoption of national growth and development strategies to curb vehicle emissions, with a focus on "compact development" areas. Such developments are close to the urban core instead of in outlying suburban or recently rural areas, and are denser than the big lots found in many sprawling suburban tract developments. The report estimates that a compact development strategy would reduce vehicle miles traveled by 12 percent to 18 percent by 2050, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions from mobile sources 7 percent to 10 percent. Compact development also could save billions of dollars annually in fuel costs. "Living in a compact development is as good as driving a hybrid," Mr. Winkelman said. "A walk to the coffee shop or to soccer practice can make you as proud as a bright shiny new Prius." Although such a change would be a major shift from the sprawl that has dominated most urban and suburban development in the last half century, there are indications that a sizable segment of the public is ready to go in that direction, said Keith Bartholomew, an assistant professor of urban planning at the University of Utah and an author of the report. Mr. Winkelman said those changing lifestyle trends will drive the market to build more compact developments in more urban areas.


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HSR 1NC Link

High-speed rails cause drivers to move away from urban centers and cause the construction of parking lots in rural areas.

Jason Kambitsis, city planner and contributing editor for Wired.com, 2010, Wired, “High-Speed Rail as a Conduit of Sprawl”, http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/03/high-speed-rail-and-sprawl/

The goal for high-speed rail in the United States, as in Europe — which, like Japan, is held as a model for HSR — is linking large cities. But the big difference between the European and American approach is Europeans have made a large investment in rail and the accompanying infrastructure that links it with stations and communities. The United States, on the other hand, has invested heavily in a highway system. The result is our land use patterns are quite different. In addition to making rail a priority, Europe has long supported public transit and multi-modal transportation infrastructure that supports bicycling, walking and other ways of getting around. It has all but taken the car out of the equation and solved the so-called “last mile” problem — addressing how people get from the transit stop to their final destination. Public transit options, along with dense, compact communities built around transit hubs (an approach called transit oriented development, or TOD) has created inherent convenience and in many cases eliminated dependence on cars. In the United States it is a completely different story. We rarely embrace TOD. This could be a problem with high-speed rail. Without a rapid transformation of our building patterns and a push to make existing communities denser, high-speed rail could be a conduit of sprawl, not a deterrent. If stations include vast parking lots, or they’re built in remote areas away from urban cores instead of being made a part of the community, it will all but guarantee people drive to the stations and create a system that is only accessible by car. Drivers already comfortable with a commute of an hour or more could move further away from urban centers, drive to a station and ride to work and still enjoy a shorter overall commute time. “High-speed rail will simply add another layer of access to the far-flung suburbs/exurbs and Central Valley, resulting in more mass-produced subdivisions,” warns Robert Cervero, director of the University of California Transportation Center and author ofDevelopment Around Transit.


HSR Link Ext.

High-speed rails increase urban sprawl and destroy local rural communities.

Christine Souza, assistant editor of Ag Alert, 2011, Ag Alert, “Farmers Criticize Proposed Routes for Rail Project”, http://www.agalert.com/story/?id=1930

While many addressed the high-speed rail system's impact on a farmer's bottom line and ability to remain sustainable in business, others spoke of how the system could increase urban sprawl in the San Joaquin Valley and reduce the state's ability to produce food and farm products. "It has been stated over and over again that high-speed rail is a godsend to this valley, bringing new businesses and new residential development to our cities and fast travel times between San Francisco and Los Angeles," said Steve Massaro, a third-generation almond grower in Madera. "How are you going to protect our local farming communities from the further impact of urban sprawl caused by high-speed rail, and how do you ensure this country's citizens that this area will continue to be a strategic resource of food and fiber that supply our nation and our world?"

Instead of increasing centralization, high-speed rails increase emigration out of the city.

Jason Kambitsis, city planner and contributing editor for Wired.com, 2010, Wired, “High-Speed Rail as a Conduit of Sprawl”, http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/03/high-speed-rail-and-sprawl/

It’s fast, it’s efficient and it is the future of transportation, but will high-speed rail cause sprawl? Yes, it could, warn some urban planners. Despite the promise of creating more densely populated urban centers, high-speed rail could do quite the opposite by making it easier for people to live far from urban centers. Let’s use California as an example, since high-speed rail has made the most progress there. The Golden State, long known as a trendsetter for transportation and environmental policy, has received more than $2.3 billion in stimulus funds toward a proposed line linking San Francisco and Los Angeles by way of the Central Valley. The money is earmarked for construction, land acquisition and engineering and it follows the $9.95 billion allocated by a state ballot initiative. If and when the line is completed by 2030, riders will zip between the two cities in 2 hours and 38 minutes and pay less than half what it would cost to fly. But that convenience could increase emigration from California’s urban centers to the exurbs and beyond. In other words, it could lead to more sprawl. An example of this can be seen in cities like Palmdale, which is 58 miles north of Los Angeles. By cutting the commute time between those two cities from 1 hour and 25 minutes, to 27 minutes, outward growth of the Los Angeles area will undoubtedly continue. It’s easy to see why — home prices in Palmdale are more than half of those in L.A., and high-speed rail could make getting downtown as quick and easy as living downtown. Pushing people further into the exurbs runs counter to a major goal of high-speed rail, namely cutting our carbon output while creating denser, more sustainable communities.