A Revisionist Model of Suburbanization and Sprawl

This article proposes a process-based conceptual model that explains sprawl in the United States since the 1970s. In contrast to traditional explanations that look to “natural,” or ecological, processes, our explanation of sprawl focuses on the local regulatory environment and the ways in which residents and homebuilders respond to it. We look at the way in which growth controls—given fragmentation—produce “spillovers” and whether spillovers have been a principal force (process) fueling suburbanization and exurbanization in recent decades. Although the role of spillovers has received some attention recently, few scholars have launched comprehensive analyses of its impact on the contemporary urban landscape. Our spillovers-based explanation of sprawl will likely hold for metropolitan regions in which growth management/control has been imposed in the absence of statewide or regionwide coordination.