Suburban Clusters

Abstract

Almost 20% of the suburban population in the central Puget Sound lives in 85 small clusters characterized by areas of medium-density residential development in unexpectedly close proximity to retail and office uses and with a high proportion of people of color. These clusters challenge the traditional depiction of suburban housing as decentralized, with low-density single-family tracts segregated from other land uses. They indicate that residential functions in maturing suburbs not only densify, but also nucleate. At the regional level, these clusters form low-level concentrations of activity that have yet to be acknowledged. At the local level, they contain land uses that approximate those of neighborhood planning models devised since the beginning of the 20th century. Recognizing these clusters opens up important new opportunities for housing and transportation policy in suburban areas.