I live in urban sprawl

Some of the nicest people I know also live in urban sprawl. We are all creatures of our culture, we like big lots, open spaces and quiet, that's why we live in areas that provide these amenities. Everyone moves to their urban sprawl neighborhood hoping things will remain open and undeveloped. The things that attracted us here in the first place attract others, so the rural beauty that we loved is inevitably gobbled up by new development. But our world is changing, and our consciousness is changing because of what we know about global warming. It's time to stop doing business as usual.

Recently, the Mayor and City Council in our fair city signed on to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. One of the elements of this agreement, which has been signed by 400 Mayors nationwide, is an agreement to adopt anti-sprawl land use policies. It's worthwhile to stop for a moment and consider what urban sprawl is. As the Wikipedia entry on the topic suggests, urban sprawl is a loaded term, but it generally refers to single-use zoning, low density zoning, and car-dependent development. Leap-frog development is also a type of urban sprawl.

Many of the Cities signing on to the Climate Protection Agreement live in areas that are defined by sprawl: Miami, Florida, Seattle, Washington, Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia. These cities are located in regions facing huge pressures for development. If you go to the website for the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and read the Best Practices guidelines for Cities, you see that there is a major focus on muncipal building improvements, green building principles, reducing car trips, retrofitting municipal fleets, and so on. These are all excellent projects and I applaud them. It is significant, however that the Best Practices Guide does not include any examples of Cities that are boasting about their efforts to combat sprawl.

Now, my car-dependent neighborhood is facing a proposal from a developer who wants to turn farmland into 37 single family housing units, done up in the traditional way. Everything the developer is proposing conforms to the current city regulations. How would anti-sprawl land use policies deal with the prospect of future development in my neighborhood?

Here are some suggestions:
1. Put a moratorium on new development in sprawl neighborhoods, until city planners come up with zoning designations on the remaining developable land that allow for a mix of residential, commercial, office uses, and even community agriculture that can be accessed by pedestrians or bicyclists. This implies a return to mixed use neighborhoods.
2. Provide incentives for developers to cluster housing in a manner that preserves open space, allows land for bicycling, walking, parks, and community gardens. Allow for housing diversity beyond single family housing.
3. Provide pedestrian and bicycle paths on pervious surfaces. This will allow natural water flow into the ground and prevent erosion. Pervious concrete is an idea whose time has come.
4. Avoid the use of curb and gutter and utilize vegetated open swales, preferably "engineered swales" with a permeable soil base.

Urban sprawl is energy-intensive because it increases our reliance on single occupancy vehicles. If we want to live more sustainably in the future, and become less dependent on our cars, we need to find ways to encourage city planners and developers to re-think how neighborhoods on the city's edge grow.