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Abstract
Both the savings and loans (S&L) crisis of the late 1980s and the more recent subprime mortgage crisis left physical residues in the built landscape of American cities. With the crises, communities that had been the sites of speculative growth became sites of vacant properties, foreclosed properties, unimproved subdivisions, and razed structures. This paper considers the legacy of one such episode of urban development preceding the S&L crisis along Interstate 30 Garland, Texas, where criminals took advantage of deregulation and lax local planning policies to hastily construct a condominium glut. The central argument of the paper is that regional policies fostering outward growth coupled with federal policies stimulating extreme boom and bust cycles have created brief periods in which American Sunbelt communities experience growth pressures, which harnessed incorrectly have created the danger of a ‘one strike, you're out’ scenario: a single chance to succeed or fail.
Acknowledgements
The author gratefully acknowledges the research contributions of the Garland, Texas Department of Planning and Community Development, and the paper's three anonymous reviewers.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Andrew H. Whittemore is an Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He researches planning history and theory, land-use planning, urban design and urban form.
Notes
1. Glasberg and Skidmore, “Role of the State,” 110.
2. Kitchin et al., “Placing Neoliberalism”; Landler, “U.S. Spreads Gloom in Europe and Asia.”
3. Pusey, “Fast Money and Fraud.”
4. Molotch, “Growth Machine.”
5. Lyon et al., “Community Power and Population.”
6. Vogel and Swanson, “Growth Machine vs Antigrowth Coalition”; Schneider and Teske, “The Antigrowth Entrepreneur.”
7. Harvey, “Urban Process under Capitalism,” 113.
8. Hanlon, Once the American Dream.
9. Garreau, Edge Cities.
10. Lang, Edgeless Cities.
11. Pizzo et al., Inside Job, 23.
12. Calavita et al., Big Money Crime, 10.
13. Glasberg and Skidmore, “Role of the State,” 114.
14. Calavita et al., Big Money Crime, 12.
15. Boortz, Cyclicality, 88.
16. Ibid.
17. Boortz, Cyclicality, 71.
18. See note 14 above.
19. Calavita et al., Big Money Crime, 14.
20. Boortz, Cyclicality, 69.
21. See note 3 above.
22. Boortz, Cyclicality, 70.
23. England, “Regulatory Regimes and Markets,” 77.
24. Pusey, “How they Self-Destructed.”
25. Ibid.
26. Calavita et al., Big Money Crime, 2.
27. Ibid.
28. Calavita et al., Big Money Crime, 49.
29. See note 1 above.
30. See note 3 above.
31. Boortz, Cyclicality, 44.
32. Boortz, Cyclicality, 72.
33. Zieman, “Surplus Shelter”, 1, 11.
34. Lang, Edgeless Cities, 54.
35. Lang, Edgeless Cities, 62.
36. Calavita et al., Big Money Crime, 37.
37. Resolution Trust Corporation, Statistical Abstract, 11.
38. Resolution Trust Corporation, Statistical Abstract, 85.
39. North Central Texas Council of Governments, Mobility 2035, 1.5.
40. Kim, “The Great Beyond.”
41. City of Garland, Corridor Land Use Plan, 3.
42. U.S. Decennial Census 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010.
43. Young, “When Bigger Isn't Better,” A01.
44. American Community Survey 2013.
45. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Inflation Calculator.
46. Holland, “Limits on House Size.”
47. Environmental Protection Agency, Residential Construction Trends, 20.
48. See note 44 above.
49. Young, “When Bigger Isn't Better.”
50. Pusey and Bauer, “Faulkner, 6 Others.”
51. Miller, “Trouble in Dannyland.”
52. Marvin Springer and Associates, Planning for Urban Growth, Plate 5, 44.
53. Brown, “Officials Slow to React,” 1, 3.
54. South Garland Plan Implementation Committee, I-30 Corridor Plan, 32.
55. Harlan and Pusey, “Homeowners against Condo Boom.”
56. Harlan, “2 Local Officials.”
57. Ibid.
58. City of Garland, “Public Comments.”
59. Brown, “High-density Housing to be Focus of Study,” 1.
60. See note 50 above.
61. Mason, From Buildings, 277.
62. Neville, “I-30 – the Long Road.”
63. Pusey et al., “Condo Firms Under Probe.”
64. Pusey, “The Fall of Empire.”
65. See note 61 above.
66. Pusey, “Empire Fell Through Crack.”
67. See note 61 above.
68. Mason, From Buildings, 286.
69. Pusey and Harlan, “Dallas Appraisal Firms Investigated.”
70. Ibid.
71. See note 50 above.
72. Mason, From Buildings, 287.
73. Mason, From Buildings, 279.
74. Barrientos, “Garland Apartment Boom.”
75. City of Garland Budget Department, Garland Revenue Manual, 3.
76. Nauss, “Inside View of Empire.”
77. Mason, From Buildings, 281.
78. Harlan, “The Condo Cleanup.”
79. Mason, From Buildings, 283.
80. Ibid.
81. See note 51 above.
82. Harlan, “Condo Investors.”
83. Mason, From Buildings, 284.
84. Potter, “Panel to get I-30.”
85. Harlan, “Empire S&L Closed.”
86. Vozzella, “Many Texas Officials.”
87. Mason, From Buildings, 285.
88. Harlan, “I-30 Condo Probe.”
89. Mason, From Buildings, 293.
90. City of Garland, “Survey of Condominium Development.”
91. See note 74 above.
92. City of Garland, Ordinance No. 3684; City of Garland, Ordinance No. 3685.
93. City of Garland, “Transcript of Joint Meeting.”
94. See note 78 above.
95. Harlan, “I-30 Cases are Settled.”
96. See note 78 above.
97. Bork, “Never Give a Sucker,” 72, 77.
98. South Garland Planning Committee, Garland Comprehensive Plan 15.
99. McKeown, “Scaled-down Version.”
100. Lodge, “Garland Studies Ways.”
101. Lodge, “240 Unfinished Condos”; Potter, “City Sees New”.
102. Brown, “I-30 Sale to Lincoln Planned.”
103. Brown, “Infamous I-30 Complexes.”
104. See note 78 above.
105. South Garland Planning Committee, Garland Comprehensive Plan, 9.
106. South Garland Planning Committee, Garland Comprehensive Plan, 1.
107. South Garland Planning Committee, Garland Comprehensive Plan, 45–51.
108. Barber, “Condo Study Guides Future.”
109. South Garland Plan Implementation Committee, I-30 Corridor Plan, 13.
110. South Garland Plan Implementation Committee, I-30 Corridor Plan, 35.
111. Noble, “Officials Welcome Higher Property.”
112. Halkias, “Retail Dreams.”
113. Abshire, “Lakeshore Project.”
114. Noble, “Garland Awaits.”
115. Housewright, “Condo Image Cleanup.”
116. Brown, “Shopping Hot Spot.”
117. Ornstein, “Coalition Fights.”
118. Lewis, “Garland Halts Zone Changes.”
119. City of Garland, IH-30 Overlay District.
120. McCoy, “Garland Tightens Zoning.”
121. City of Garland, Development Standards.
122. See note 117 above.
123. Ornstein, “Garland Apartment Ban Supported.”
124. City of Garland, Resolution No. 7898.
125. McCoy, “Garland Opposes Apartments.”
126. AngelouEconomics, Garland, Texas Corridor Study, 80.
127. AngelouEconomics, Garland, Texas Corridor Study, 11.
128. Angelou Economics, Garland, Texas Corridor Study, 3, 80.
129. Abshire, “More Fast-food.”
130. See note 113 above.
131. City of Garland, IH 30 Corridor Land Use Plan, 3.
132. City of Garland, IH 30 Corridor Land Use Plan, 13.
133. City of Garland, IH 30 Corridor Land Use Plan, 9.
134. Abshire, “Retailer takes Aim”; Abshire, “Bass Pro Confirms.”
135. Abshire, “Retailer Takes Aim.”
136. Ibid.
137. Abshire, “Bass Pro Plan.”
138. Trejo, “Bass Pro Deal.”
139. See note 125 above; Brown, “10 Apartment Properties Sold.”
140. Leland Consulting, Market Analysis Summary, 62.
141. Leland Consulting, Market Analysis Summary, 65, 68.
142. Warf and Cox, “Spatial Dimensions,” 141–2.