Interview with Christopher Leinberger

A way to save suburbia

Wendy Natt, Feb 11, 09.

Veteran urban planner and real estate developer Christopher Leinberger recenty gave an interview with the news blog The Infrastructurist, where he spoke about the current plight of America’s dying suburbs and outlined the crucial changes that must be made to transportation infrastructure and land use regulations in these desperate areas if they are to be transformed into economically viable, livable communities.

“You need to get the right infrastructure in. Doing so is a three-step process. First, is getting a transit connection that can anchor a walkable urban core. Second, is putting in overlay zoning districts around the train stations that will allow for much greater density and mixed use development. We’re talking about a hundred, two hundred, three hundred acres. The third step is to get in place an entity to manage the thing, which generally takes the form of a non-profit business improvement district. These things are very complex, but we know how to do it now. We didn’t 50 years ago, but we do now.”

Leinberger says that a dramatic and continuing shift in market demand is one of the main causes of the suburban collapse, as increasingly more young people, empty nesters, and other prospective homebuyers seek more walkable, urban lifestyles. He predicts that it will take a generation for planners and developers to catch up with market demand by retrofitting sprawling suburbs and less compact urban centers into high-density, walkable neighborhoods.

See also a recent New York Times story about Lehigh Acres, Florida, a fringe suburb of Fort Myers that exemplifies the kind of suburban collapse that Leinberger saw coming. In this briefly middle-class, sprawling development with no nearby schools or services, existing houses - many of them vacant - are selling for 80 percent below their peak prices.

Leinberger is also a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

(photo credit: chrischappelear)