Regional Plan Association


	Typical suburban commercial corridor: sprawl versus compact development		The Suburban Redesign Initiative: Much of the region's growth takes place just beyond the "first ring suburbs" - not in centers but in the loose agglomeration of retail and office uses called "edge cities". These places have a critical mass of activities, but are arranged in auto-oriented configurations that make them effectively "built out" at low and inefficient densities. The Suburban Redesign Initiative is devoted to demonstrating the ways in which the various features of the suburban landscape - from regional malls, to gated communities, to the latest generation of "edgeless cities" even farther out - can be redesigned to absorb new growth. In cooperation with the Lincoln Institute of Land policy, RPA has completed vision plans for the Somerset County Regional Center, a 22 square mile edge city in New Jersey, the Nassau Hub on Long Island, and several other prototypical suburban sprawl landscapes.

In April 2001, RPA convened the Somerset County Regional Center Vision Initiative in Somerville, New Jersey. This intensive five-day design workshop brought together nationally renowned architects, landscape architects and urban designers. Their goal: "Can we retrofit suburbia?" Three design teams approached this problem from different perspectives: the "points team," which looked at means to connect the three major sub-centers in the area; the "lines team," which looked at the roadway corridors; and the "planes team," which explored the role that natural resources play in shaping development. The design teams outlined compelling visions: new in-fill development connecting the existing concentrations of activity; strip highways turned into suburban boulevards; and an integrated system of greenways coursing through the neighborhoods.

Somerset Regional Center Project Summary

RPA worked with the South Florida Regional Planning Council this June to hold the second workshop of the Edge City Redesign program, The Florida State Road 7/ US 441 (12 mb) Sustainable Corridor Workshop in Hollywood, Florida. This workshop looked at redevelopment options for Florida State Road 7/US 441, a highway arterial that supports a high level of business and traffic but is outdated and auto-oriented in design. The workshop aimed to redesign this strip as a local shopping street with pedestrian-friendly design and traffic calming techniques. The lessons learned are broadly applicable in the New York Metro Region.

Nassau Hub:
RPA initiated redesign of the Region's largest suburban activity center to create mixed-use nodes for new development linked by a new light rail system.

Redesigning the Suburbs: Turning Sprawl into Centers
Redesigning the "Edgeless City": A Regional Design Handbook [PDF, 4.3 MB]
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy