Accommodating growth: The concept of traditional neighborhood development in WesthavenBachelor Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Demographics, Urban Management, Planning, grade: 1,3, University of Hamburg (Department of Urban Planning), course: - , language: English, abstract: Many cities in the U.S. have experienced large growth. With a growth rate of 21.6%, there will be 26.9 million new households between now and 2020. The current building boom in the U.S. is projected to continue through 2030. The unlimited outward expansion of cities into undeveloped areas on the urban periphery, in the transitional suburban zone between inner city and country, has characterized growth. In many U.S. urban regions, the pattern of growth has occurred in shape of low-dense leapfrog development. This form of suburbanization is commonly referred to as the phenomenon of “Urban Sprawl”. In Sprawl, the typical suburban development is characterized by strictly separated land uses, neighborhoods consisting of single-family homes, uniform and large-scale building components, and automobile dependence. The plentiful problems that result from the sprawling growth have become more evident in the past decades as they have largely affected the development of economy, ecology, and society. Coping with the inevitable growth is a major challenge for the population, governments, and urban planners. As a reaction to the critical pattern of Urban Sprawl, several new planning approaches have been developed to accommodate growth and prevent Sprawl. This Bachelor Thesis focuses on the concept of “traditional neighborhood development” (TND), an urban model, developed by architects of the anti-sprawl movement “New Urbanism”. Regarding the issues of the uncontrolled growth pattern of Urban Sprawl, the paper intends to find out, if the implementation of the TND concept can reduce or solve the problems of sprawling growth while conducting a good standard of living. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to answer: “Is TND a viable urban model to accommodate growth and prevent Urban Sprawl?” In order to answer this question, the implementation of the TND concept in the case study of Westhaven, located in the growing city of Franklin in Tennessee, is examined. With this example as the centerpiece of the Thesis, the issues of sprawling growth and the planning approach of TND to accommodate this growth are elucidated and critically discussed. In the following chapter, the origins and problems of Urban Sprawl are subject to this paper as well as some of the approaches towards the prevention of the sprawling growth pattern. |
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2006 Household Survey 2006 Own photograph accessed accommodate growth acres amenities amount appropriate areas of interest automobile building Cheney 25 Aug City of Franklin construction conventional subdivisions Cool Springs Cool Springs Galleria Diagram Duany dwelling units Edenfield example facilities Franklin downtown Gated Communities Growth Rate Harpeth River high-quality design higher densities Highway 96 West houses Illus implementation increase Inventory Online Land Use Inventory living option low-dense lower-priced homes Magazine major Nashville neighborhood open spaces pedestrian-friendly Personal Interview photograph 2006 Plan Online planning approaches Plater-Zyberk proximity public parking lots public transit rear alleys recommended residential residents retail roadway single-family homes Smart Growth Southern Land Company street realm suburban technical infrastructure Tennessee TND by DPZ TND concept TND Design Guidelines TND’s town center town homes traffic Transit Oriented Development U.S. Census Bureau U.S. highway system Urban Growth Urban Sprawl Westhaven homes Williamson County