REURBANIZATION, UNEVEN URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND THE DEBATE ON NEW URBAN FORMS

Abstract

There is a continuing debate over the consequences of the dispersed form of urban development in North America and whether this leads to an underutilization of land, buildings, and infrastructure in older cities and suburbs. As a means of contextualizing that debate, this paper reviews the international literature on the costs of alternative urban forms and assesses the potential contribution of reurbanization as both a market process and a planning strategy. The assumed benefits of reurbanization are critically evaluated, and systematic barriers to more adaptive reuse and more efficient forms are documented. The paper concludes that although there is a general consensus that older built environments and infrastructure are misused, undervalued, and deteriorating, there is little agreement on how extensive the problems are or what to do about them. There is even less evidence that the principal underlying cause—the prevailing culture of regulation and thus the uneven playing field for urban development—will be leveled in the near future.