Exurban Growth in the United States

During the past 30 years, many families have left city centers and moved to "bedroom communities." These areas offer affordable, larger homes and include newer facilities, such as shopping malls, soccer fields, and schools. This type of growth is also called "exurban growth." You can easily recognize the growth as you drive along an older highway and notice a housing development where a farm once stood or a shopping mall where there was once a wetland. The question for land-use planners is: How can we accommodate the desire to live "in the country" and protect natural areas, such as wetlands, at the same time?

Wetland loss in the United States is largely due to urban or rural development and is largely concentrated in the Southeastern U.S.

Our ScenarioYou will take on the role of land-use planner in Baker County, Florida. This area was chosen for this case because it is undergoing urban sprawl (exurban development) from neighboring Jacksonville, Florida. The planners use My World GIS tools in order to determine the best location for issuing a twenty-five acre development permit. The decision is primarily based on the following criteria: to protect wetlands from development; to minimize land—use impact (i.e., re-use or rezoning, as opposed to changing of land from natural forest to residential); and to locate the development within close proximity to existing transportation infrastructure. This hypothetical case is situated in Baker County, Florida, near the town of Macclenny. 

Example of a Florida wetland:

Our Goal!Your goal is to analyze the data in your project in order to identify the best location for a 25 acre (~100,000 square meters) multi-use development based on the following criteria:

• Within the area defined by the Valdosta Land Use layer.• No closer than 100 meters (300 feet) of any wetland.• Not in an area already listed as residential or urban. Preferably in an

area that only requires re-zoning (such as industrial or agricultural). • Within a 15 km (9 miles) distance of Interstate 10.• Within 5 km (3 miles) of any other access road—as defined by Topo

UTM Zone 17 map.• In close proximity to areas defined as higher income—as defined by

the Income and Employment layer.• Within 100km (60 miles) of Macclenny, Florida.

Florida

Macclenny, Fl

Valdosta Land Use

Valdosta Land Use (Close Up)

Florida Interstate 10 and 15km Buffer

Wetlands

100m of Wetlands Buffer

100km of Macclenny Buffer

Proposed Development Site 1

Proposed Development Site 1: Tradeoffs

Pros:

- Close to Mcclenny and therefore more accessible to the public

- Outside of the 100m wetland buffer

Cons:

- Very small (less than 25 acres); would not be as profitable a development location

Proposed Development Site 2

Proposed Development Site 2:Tradeoffs

Pros:

- Satisfies the 25 acre minimum land requirement

Cons:

- Partially outside the 100 km buffer zone around Mcclenny; would be inconvenient for residents of the town

- Includes a small portion of wetland

Proposed Development Site 3

Proposed Development Site 3:Tradeoffs

Pros:

- Within the 100km buffer zone around Mcclenny

- Satisfies the 25 acre land requirement minimum

Cons:

- Includes several wetland areas

What have we learned?

When it comes to development, trade-offs are inevitable. Sometimes you must give up profit to protect our natural resources while other times you will be forced to sacrifice our environment for a lucrative development opportunity. In the end, it is all about weighing the pros and cons, and finding a balance between economic gain and environmental preservation.

Farmer Sit-ron's Dilemna

• Farmer Sit-ron was very successful farmer in old country. He move to America, because he dream of growing oranges, and making orange juice. Farms are very big success, he owns all farms in the colored area.To be more specific, he own all the brown areas. Yes, he is the boss.

Farmer Sit-ron's farms

So what is problem?

Farmer Sit-ron wants to grow more oranges. But government says no, he cannot grow

oranges in wetlands, even though the wetlands are stinky and only create

mosquitoes. He however, does want to expand.

The restrictions

The restrictions are that he must give all wetlands a 100 meter buffer, be within 20

kilometers of the interstate, give the town of Macclenny a 5 km radius, not overrun any of

his current oranges and be an area of 50 acres (200,000 square meters)

All colored in very pretty

Results!

• It's very hard to find an area with all the requirements that Sit-ron has made as well as the government.

• The surveyors were only able to find one area.

The new grove

Reflection

• What is there to say? Planning things out are pretty hard when you can't have thing your way.