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As I have discussed in the last few weeks, suburban development patterns during the past 70 years have had serious detrimental impacts on the human scale, mobility needs and infrastructure costs of our cities and towns.  But those impacts are only the ones that we experience directly.  Several less obvious impacts may be of more consequence: individual and community health, societal equity, climate change.

Health consequences are related to the dramatic decline of walking in our daily lives, a result of most of us having become increasingly reliant on the automobile.  Rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other conditions are all seriously affected by the pattern of our built environment.  Even the Surgeon General has taken note of this with his call to action, !. The Centers for Disease Control made walking a high priority along with combating chronic diseases caused – or aggravated – by reduced physical activity.

On equity issues, the suburbs are not at all conducive to housing, serving and employing those with fewer resources.  Low density housing is too spread out to be cost effectively served on a per capita-per acre basis.

Transportation is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and it’s no coincidence that the explosive growth of emissions tracked with the growth of carbon fueled vehicles to serve our suburban lifestyles.

All of these factors point to the need to become much more aggressive in the next few decades about rethinking and redeveloping our urban and suburban landscapes.  In Oregon we have strong planning laws that help guide us in making difficult choices about the places where we live, work, shop, and recreate.  These include urban growth boundaries as well as policies for walkable, denser, transit-served areas and accessible green spaces.

While challenging, we have some valuable tools to create much healthier, equitable and sustainable places.

Brian Campbell has been involved in land use planning in Oregon for more than 26 years.