The Relationship of Shelter Capacity and Quality of Life to a Limited Built Domain

 

Until the political success of city planning and zoning in the 20^th 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