The Social Impacts of Urban Containment

One of the policies that has been most widely used to try to limit urban sprawl has been that of urban containment. These policies are planning controls limiting the growth of cities in an attempt to preserve open rural uses, such as habitat, agriculture and forestry, in urban regions.While there has been a substantial amount of research into these urban containment policies, most have focussed on issues of land use, consumption, transportation impacts or economic development issues. This book examines the effects of urban containment policies of key social issues, such as housing, wealth building and creation, racial segregation and gentrification. It argues that, while the policies make important contributions to environmental sustainability, they also affect affordability for all of the economic groups of citizens aside from the most wealthy. However, it also puts forward suggestions for revising such policies to counter these possible negative social impacts. As such, it should be valuable reading for scholars of environmental planning, social policy and regional development, as well as for policy makers.Contents: Introduction; Overview of urban containment; Containment typologies; Urban containment in practice; Urban containment and exurban sprawl; Urban containment and gentrification;Urban containment and mandatory housing influences on racial segregation in US metropolitan areas 19902000; Urban containment, housing prices and affordable housing supply; Urban containment and metropolitan economic development; Urban containment and central city revitalization; Urban containment and public health; Urban containment and neighborhood quality; The emerging challenge; Index.About the Author: Professor Arthur C. Nelson, Associate Professor Thomas Sanchez and Assistant Professor Casey Dawson are all at the School for Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech University, USA.