The Price of Sprawl: Are We Bankrupting Our Future?

[Timkin]

Im surprised we aren't trying to add on to the size of the Peninsula just to create more sprawl .

[Garden guy]

This sprawl is just developers who have no real attachment to place and people doing whatever thier minds can come up with..paying off the city officials for permits allowing them to do whatever they will. Money makes our world go around and permits are aplenty. Stop the effing permits that are given away like candy.     Personally i'd like for every single permit to be voted on by the citizens...the developers have screwed us for years..should we have more control than we do now?         

[tayana42]

When will we learn.  Sprawl is harmful.  Period.

[mtraininjax]

In Jacksonville, everything is so cheap that "half-assed" developments are all that is required to make the required returns.  Perhaps we should completely shut the land spigot and see what happens for a year.

Hmmm, that should do wonders for our local economy and the multiplier of jobs that pertain to housing. Why not just shoot ourselves instead?

[JeffreyS]

Our housing market is saturated.  There may be some construction jobs but they come at the expense of every home owner in the area.   Trying to stimulate the construction industry is just a little better than stimulating the lamp oil industry.  There is no demand right now. We need to be in QOL mode not growth mode to stimulate property values here.

[mtraininjax]

Our housing market is saturated.

How do you know? In most areas of the country, the housing industry is coming back. Old homes, new homes, new housing is the generator of new jobs and it has been missing in this recovery. Until housing comes back, the economy will bump along at 1-2 percent growth, which is about what we are now.

Housing inventories are down compared to last year and they continue to get better. People are beginning to look for new houses, and there are more and different types of loans available for buyers. Go check out a bank and see that they now even have investor loans available, something that was taboo a few years ago. Back in 2005, the average housing starts for a year are 1.4 million, in 2007, the best year of the decade, they were at 2 million, then in 2009, they fell to 500,000. We have risen off the low of 500k, but we have a ways to go, and the economy is improving, but wages and jobs are not.

[JeffreyS]

I will admit what I am getting is street level feedback. My mother works for a new home builder.  They are having to give a way many extras to keep people off of existing homes because there are so many to be had for a song.  I know the situation has improved but we over built and it has and continues to show in declining existing home values.

[dougskiles]

Assuming that there really is a need for new residential units in our community (of which I am not convinced), why are we continuing to promote the least efficient way of doing that?  Not to mention promoting a lifestyle that is proven to cause health problems.  By promoting densification of our existing developed areas, we improve walkability (which has a direct link to improved health) and make better use of the infrastructure investment we already have.

[Steve_Lovett]

Assuming that there really is a need for new residential units in our community (of which I am not convinced), why are we continuing to promote the least efficient way of doing that?  Not to mention promoting a lifestyle that is proven to cause health problems.  By promoting densification of our existing developed areas, we improve walkability (which has a direct link to improved health) and make better use of the infrastructure investment we already have.

Because there is not an intelligent decision-making process in place, or a framework to articulate the consequences and outcomes associated with our course of action.

There is no shortage of data, or case-studies to draw upon.