American Makeover Episode 1: SPRAWLANTA

Spawlvidence is nowhere near as extreme as Sprawltlanta. What Spawlvidence has in common with Sprawlanta is that in most parts of the metropolitan region traditional mixed-use development and traditional street widths for new streets is not permitted. In the city traditional lot widths and sizes, yard dimensions and density are non-conforming with current “standards.” It’s illegal to build a traditional New England village in Rhode Island. Rhode Island’s old villages don’t comply with current zoning regulations in most towns. What’s old is a non-complying exception that requires special zoning board review and approval for everything, whereas most conventional sprawl development is by-right requiring nothing special because it’s what the zoning is written for. Despite the best efforts of land-use and New Urbanist lobbying groups little has changed with land-use regulations in Rhode Island’s cities and towns. The status quo prevails, which is suburban sprawl.