Infill development as an approach for promoting compactness of urban form

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Date

2013

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Type

Article

Publisher

WIT Press

Series Info

Sustainable Development and Planning VI;Volume: 173 Pages: 455-466

Abstract

In the last few decades, urban decay has increased within the city urban fabric; due to the deterioration of the inner city and increase in population. High income citizens abandoned their houses demanding a better quality of life outside the city fabric, leading the old city to be occupied by poorer households or left vacant. Urban decay is linked to suburban sprawl as the economic life is pulled out of the city, instead of a previously developed urban site within the old city fabric. Infill development is the new development of vacant, abandoned, passed over, or underutilized land within built-up areas of existing communities, where infrastructure is already in place. It is a solution to filling gaps in existing communities and playing a critical role in achieving community revitalization, land conservation and alternatives to sprawl development. Taking advantage of existing infrastructure, increasing walkability by contributing safe and attractive pedestrian environment, creating new opportunities for mixed use that recapture the “sense of place” that is largely missing in development projects. Infill development is a solution to enhancing the character, viability and function of the old city. The aim of this research is to articulate the potential and limits of infill development. It focuses on factors that influence decisions to introduce infill development as an approach to smart growth and a solution to urban decay. This is achieved by analyzing international and local examples of infill development to identify the different land use of vacant land in different urban contexts. An analytical comparison is carried on the examples, to achieve broad recommendations for infill development in different urban contexts.

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Keywords

University of Infill development, urban sprawl, revitalization, smart growth

Citation

[1] Faris, J. Terrence, The Barriers to Using Infill Development to Achieve Smart Growth, Housing Policy Debate 12 (1): 1–30, 2001. [2] Robinson and Cole LLP Best Practices to Encourage Infill Development. Association of prepared for the National Associaion of Realtors, 2002. [3] Downs, Anthony. Neighborhoods and urban developement. Washington DC: The Brookings Institution, 1981. [4] Charter of New Urbanism. Charter of New Urbanism. New York: McGraw, www.cnu.org, 2000. [5] Lynch, Kevin. Good City Form. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1981. [6] Ewing, Reid. “Best development practices.” Chicago Press. 1996. www.planning.org (accessed 12 20, 2012). [7] Official Development Plan By-laws. “City Of Vancouver.” April 2007. http://vancouver.ca/green-vancouver.aspx (accessed January 20, 2013). [8] Bandarin, Francesco and van Oers, Ron The historic urban landscape. UK: Wiley Blackwell, 2012. [9] Solidere, 2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.solidere.com. [Accessed [10] Trancik, R. Finding Lost Space –Theories of Urban Design, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1986.

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