Report Urges Coordinated Growth Policies

Researchers from USC and the Brookings Institution think tank will issue a report today urging Southern California community leaders to combat the problems of sprawl by developing coordinated regional growth policies. Among other things, the report calls for efforts to encourage home building and job creation in the region’s aging communities, where many poor and low-income workers are concentrated. The 60-page report, titled “Sprawl Hits the Wall,” argues that policy changes are needed because of continuing population growth, infrastructure strains and the increasing scarcity of readily developable land on Southern California’s metropolitan fringe. “We can’t go on sprawling like we’ve been sprawling. We can keep on growing, but it’s a question of where we grow,” said Michael Dear, the director of USC’s Southern California Studies Center, which launched the research project.