Chapter 17 | Urban Living

Ecological footprint

Impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain the use of natural resources

Mixed-use development (MUD)

A single planned development designed to include multiple uses, such as residential, retail, educational, recreational, industrial, and office spaces

Walkability

A measure of how safe, convenient, and efficient it is to walk in an urban environment

Transportation-oriented development

The creation of dense, walkable, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use communities centered around or located near a transit station

Smart-growth policies

Policy implemented to create sustainable communities by placing development in convenient locations and designing it to be more efficient and environmentally responsible

Mixed-use zoning

Zoning that permits multiple land uses in the same space or structure

Traditional zoning

Zoning that creates separate zones based on land-use type or economic function such as various categories of residential (low-, medium-, or high-density), commercial, or industrial

New Urbanism

A school of thought that promotes designing growth to limit the amount of urban sprawl and preserve nature and usable farmland

Slow-growth city

City where planners have used smart-growth policies to decrease the rate at which the city grows outward

Urban growth boundary

A boundary that separates urban land uses from rural land uses by limiting how far a city can expand

Greenbelt

A ring of parkland, agricultural land, or other type of open space maintained around an urban area to limit sprawl

De facto segregation

Segregation that results from residential settlement patterns rather than from prejudicial laws

Housing discrimination

An attempt to prevent a person from buying or renting a property because of that person’s race, social class, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, or other characteristic.

Redlining

Practice by which a financial institution such as a bank refuses to offer home loans on the basis of a neighborhood's racial or ethnic makeup

Blockbusting

A practice by real estate agents who would stir up concern that Black families would soon move into a neighborhood; the agents would convince White property owners to sell their houses at below-market prices

Inclusionary zoning law

Law that creates affordable housing by offering incentives for developers to set aside a minimum percentage of new housing construction to be allocated for low-income renters or buyers

Land tenure

The legal rights, as defined by a society, associated with owning land

Eminent domain

A government’s right to take over privately owned property for public use or interest

Urban renewal

The nationwide movement that developed in the 1950s and 1960s when U.S. cities were given massive federal grants to tear down and clear out crumbling neighborhoods and former industrial zones as a means of rebuilding their downtowns

Regional planning

Planning conducted at a regional scale that seeks to coordinate the development of housing, transportation, urban infrastructure, and economic activities

Brownfield

Abandoned and polluted industrial site in a central city or suburb