Sprawl’s not well

Check it for yourself: Warning: sprawl may be hazardous to your health.

That’s the idea behind a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that defines sprawl as “single-use suburban development that by its nature forces people to spend hours each day in their cars” as a leading cause of America’s declining health. Poor land-use decisions, the study shows, can be linked to sedentary lifestyles and increased air and water pollution, contributing to an alarming rise in diabetes, asthma, cancer, heart disease and depression.

The development industry says that’s nonsense. We say it’s about time.

For too long, the issue of sprawl has been seen as one that pits the business interests of developers, realtors and builders against the less definable desire for “quality of life” among the population at large. The CDC report, with its clarion call for the public health community to become involved in the sprawl issue, shows how land-use decisions are in effect public health decisions, and may one day be regarded as a turning point in this debate.

Nothing could be more welcome in Sacramento, which is on the verge of becoming a case study demonstration of the wrong way for a region to accommodate growth. Largely because the development industry is far and away the biggest contributor to local political campaigns, local leaders have rubber-stamped a long list of developments that were immensely profitable for developers and builders, but formed the very definition of the low-density, single-use growth the report cites as unhealthy.

Consider, for example, the vast office complexes of Rancho Cordova, built with no homes nearby, or the large subdivisions in El Dorado Hills, with no shopping or workplaces within walking distance. It’s easiest and cheapest to build this way, with giant shopping malls in one place, office parks in another and tract homes in yet another. But the people who live and work in these places have no choice but to spend hours each day in their cars, and because so much of the entire region is being developed according to this pattern, our freeways are grinding to a halt. Spending two or three hours a day driving 15 or 20 miles to work and back is unpleasant. Now, the evidence is mounting that it’s also very unhealthy, for the drivers and the entire community.

People who spend hours each day in their cars exercise less, experience more stress and breathe more toxins than is healthful, the report notes. Their communities, increasingly designed to accommodate huge volumes of traffic, forgo niceties like bike paths, sidewalks and green space, so people don’t walk, bike or exercise. In addition, sprawl causes increased air and water pollution that affect the whole community.

The time has come to recognize that land-use decisions are public health decisions. It’s time for the public health community, and everyone who cares about healthy living, to stand up to the developers and demand mixed-use, bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly communities that put health ahead of profits.