Dialogue on Development - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 340

19.2 Traditional Planning Models
The United States followed several models of city planning and development throughout
time. The early settlements on the east coast adopted a colonial development plan that
featured a town square as the center of government, church, and business enterprises.
The compact colonial city formed a dense grid around the town square to the edge of the
urbanized area. Later, industrial cities of the north and midwest created the factory town
where large industrial plants were accompanied by multistory tenement housing for the
factory workers. After World War II, numerous automobile-dependent communities such
as Greenbelt, Maryland, and Levitown, New York, served as models for “suburban” devel-
opment. At the same time, Sunbelt cities of the Southwest were rapidly developing in a
patchwork fashion. Sunbelt city economies were prone to boom and bust business cycles
and disperse land development patterns. Sprawling expansion and growth of the urban
area were typical; while leaving large tracts of land in the urbanized area with poorly
developed transportation and urban infrastructure (see Chapter 14). Along the urban
fringe, well-kept developments can be found that house the new elite class that is prosper-
ing from the new Sunbelt economy.
We need development in our southwestern cities just as much as anywhere else in the
country. The current growth rate from natural population growth and the inflow migra-
tion to the region creates a natural demand for new houses, schools, roads, churches,
and business development. We need to have an environment where builders and devel-
opers can serve the community with its needs to grow and prosper. However, we also
need to draw a line when the development interests acts in manners that take away
from the continuity of the community, contribute to urban sprawl, or create monetary
burdens on the existing residents for the costs of the infrastructure to support this
development. Residents of the city have a voice in the development process, but this
option is not always used effectively or at the right time to influence the direction of
development activities.
The rapid and exponential growth of the Southwest has resulted in a citizenry that grew
up in other parts of the country or world that are not faced with the same challenges or lim-
itations of the natural environment. Residents who migrate from northern climates seek
the same qualities of their new desert home and community, including extensive green
lawn, shrubbery, golf courses, and other amenities that they should have left behind. They
often see the native desert landscape as dry, dusty, unappealing in contrast to the well-
watered landscape and air-conditioned home. As the number of these people migrating to
the Southwest grow, so does the demand for water intensive landscapes, which is unsus-
tainable if we are to conserve the existing water resources available for current and future
growth of the desert. These people need to be educated on the natural setting of the desert
and how the life choices in homes, recreation, and amenities contribute to the region's
viability. We pass these lessons on to our children by example of what we know and what
we learn from our new environment. In modern times, children learn through sources out-
side the family setting such as teachers, coaches, TV, the Internet, social media, and other
means that make the dialogue with children on social values challenging to maintain with
all of the noise of urban life. We need this community dialogue on development with the
development process to create a sustainable path to grow responsibly for ourselves, our
family, and our future (Figure 19.1).