Until the political success of city planning and zoning in
the 20th century, we believed that the ownership of land came with
sovereign authority over its use. This freedom came into question when public
health, safety, and welfare were threatened by decisions that created incompatible
adjacent activity, and shelter was constructed for human activity without adequate
light, air, ventilation, and fire protection. The need to protect public health,
safety, and welfare was accepted by the majority, but the concept of welfare
protection has always been vague, open to interpretation, and limited by the
concept of minimum standards.
The protection of social welfare has been associated
with housing and human service programs serving qualified segments of the
population. The protection of physical welfare has been associated with building
regulation, land use planning, and the limitation of shelter density,
intensity, activity, and appearance at specified locations. The protection of economic
welfare has been associated with the scope of public revenue needed to support
a city’s desired quality of life, or “welfare”.
photo by: Wladyslaw Sojka www.sojka.photo
Our success in leading cities toward physical, social, and
economic stability has been symbolized by the shelter, movement, open space,
and life support sprawl we have constructed; and the blight that
has followed within land use patterns and textures (building height composition)
that have not been balanced with the public revenue potential required to
maintain their stability over extended periods of time.
There are several policy issues associated with an urban
population’s “welfare” or ”quality of life” that may be too much for us to
handle, but whose answers are inevitably reflected in the shelter, movement,
open space, and life support we build.
The first issue is unlimited population growth and shelter
demand on a limited planet. The second is geographic limits for a Built Domain that
must be constrained to protect its source of life, the Natural Domain; the
third is prevention of environmental and ecological degradation; and the fourth
is economic instability produced by the mathematically uncorrelated
relationship of shelter capacity, intensity, activity, and revenue potential on
the land consumed.
Shelter capacity within a limited Built Domain that meets
minimum acceptable standards will require a conscious correlation of population
growth and activity with the shelter capacity, intensity, and revenue potential
of every acre within the city. The nascent anticipation of the correlation
required has been referred to as urban design within city districts and city
design within larger urban areas. Unfortunately, we have not had the correlated
information sharing, data science, geographic systems analysis, and
mathematical shelter capacity evaluation needed to advance beyond observation
and opinion.
Our response to population growth, land use misallocation, shelter
capacity deficiency, inadequate public revenue, and blight has been an
annexation of agriculture and the Natural Domain to expand the Built Domain
with something new. Annexation permits a city to expand with political approval
when land is available. When it has been available, cities have expanded for
new revenue that can prove inadequate over time, and with little concern for
the land consumed. The new revenue seeds the budget and solves any immediate
deficit for currently elected officials. If increasing public maintenance cost
per acre exceeds the public revenue produced per acre by the annexed area as it
ages, the political/financial solution becomes a problem for others in the
future.
When land is not available for annexation, an encircled city
can be strangled by a land use pattern and permitted texture (building height
composition) that no longer delivers the average revenue per acre required to
meet a city’s total annual expense per acre for all desired services. Rezoning,
redevelopment, and increased taxation are immediate reactions that occur on a
difficult journey to adjust a city’s land use pattern, shelter capacity, and
permitted activity toward an improved average revenue yield per acre that meets
a city’s total annual and projected expense per acre. Eminent domain is rarely
considered a viable political solution when city services can be reduced as an
alternative. At this point, decline can become
a visitor without an invitation.
Annexation of land for new revenue has often been an
inadequate solution producing sprawl and consumption of agriculture, not to
mention the Natural Domain. This occurs because many, if not all, cities do not
have the data science, information sharing, geographic information, and shelter
capacity evaluation technology needed to evaluate the total average revenue
produced per acre on every block and zone within its boundaries; or the mathematical
ability to predict the revenue that could be produced by a revised collection of
shelter capacity, intensity, and activity alternatives within these boundaries.
They may not even know their total average expense per acre to operate,
maintain, and improve their community. This means that annexation will consume
land in a limited incorporated area but its ability to offset a city’s total
annual expense per acre will be a guess masquerading as an estimate that
directly affects a city’s economic stability.
This will continue to be a political challenge until anticipation,
funding, technology, research, measurement, and evaluation produces the knowledge
needed to consistently correlate population growth and activity with the shelter
capacity, intensity, and economic potential needed to sustain quality of life in
a limited Built Domain on a planet with unwritten laws of survival.
Think back and consider that science began as contentious opinion
based on anticipation that required proof to establish credibility.
Anticipation has never been our strong suit, but it is a prerequisite for
creative design. Design decisions remain fine art opinion, however, until research,
measurement, mathematics, and evaluation produce accepted conclusions that
enable others to replicate performance and success over generations. This is
the effort needed to step from individual anticipation and talent to the leadership
language needed to guide our performance addressing sprawl, environmental
degradation, economic instability, and quality of life. Our success will be symbolized
by the scope and quality of shelter we provide within the limited areas of a
Built Domain.
Walter M. Hosack: February 2025
