The document discusses the impacts of urban sprawl such as increased health risks from physical inactivity and reduced air quality. Traditional policy tools to address sprawl such as land use planning have not been very successful at changing development patterns. Prices are a major influence on decisions that encourage sprawl, as it is often cheaper to develop on the urban edge. The document argues that adjusting prices through environmental pricing reforms, such as development cost charges, property taxes, and transportation costs, could help align financial incentives with environmental goals and make compact, mixed-use development more affordable. This could help transform sprawl from an opponent of sustainability goals into an ally.

1. Opponent or Ally?
Prices, Policy and a Healthy Urban Form
Built Environment Forum
Lister Hall, University of Alberta
David Thompson
Director, Sustainable Communities
Sustainable Prosperity
www.sustainableprosperity.ca
January 18, 2011

2. Overview
• Impacts of sprawl
• Traditional policy tools for addressing sprawl
• Successful?
• Why?
• Transforming an opponent to an ally
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3. Health-related impacts of sprawl
• Sprawl associated with at >4 categories of
population health risks (AHS, 2009):
• Physical inactivity, reduced air quality, increased vehicle
collisions, mental health issues
• Example outcomes (Johnson and Marko, 2007):
• Heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, osteoporosis,
respiratory disorders, heart disease, cancers, fatal injuries,
other injuries, mental health issues
• More impacts: Bray, Vakil and Elliott, 2005
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4. Other impacts of sprawl
• Eats up farmland
• Hollows out established neighbourhoods
• Locks in automobile dependency
• Makes transit less feasible
• End of cheap oil = homeowner financial risks
• Legacy costs: infrastructure maintenance,
policing, EMS, repair and replacement
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5. Traditional policy tools
• Land use planning
• Transportation priorities – active > transit > car
• Bylaw changes – allow mixed use
• Popular education
• Etc
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6. Successful?
• Known about the problems for decades
• Had the tools for even longer
• Yet what is our current development pattern?
– E.g. Edmonton MDP – 75% sprawl
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7. What are the actual causes?
• Consider “Home X”
– 3 BR, 2 bath, 1600 sq. ft., finished bsmt
• Two location options:
– Established neighbourhood near centre of town
– Edge of town
• Neighbourhoods are different
– amenities, community, schools, access to town,
etc.
• Another difference?
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8. The elephant in the room: prices
• Price is a major influence on decisions
• For individuals & firms, homebuyers &
developers
• Can “urge” infill, provide public education,
create targets for downtown development
• But if sprawl cheaper, what will happen?
• Organic produce vs. regular produce?
• Bullfrog electricity vs. regular electricity?
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9. Environmental Pricing Reform (EPR)
• A response to environmental problems
– Nobody wants problems; no ‘bad guys’
– Current set of incentives creates problems
• Response: change the incentives
– Align financial incentives with environmental goals
– “Tax bads, not goods”
– We do it already: RRSPs, tobacco taxes…
• Outcomes
– environment, economy, jobs, revenue diversification, etc.
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10. Adjusting which prices?
• Many possible candidates relevant to sprawl
• Three examples:
– Development cost charges
– Property taxes
– Transportation costs
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11. Development cost charges
• Development entails costs for a city
– E.g. roads, facilities, policing, libraries, etc.
– Costs vary depending on location
• DCCs: charges on development to help pay costs
• Edmonton DCCs: many are flat
– Per square foot / per dwelling / per-hectare / etc.
• Can be done differently
– Make charges vary by location, as costs do
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12. DCCs to encourage infill, density
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13. Property Taxes
• Central vs. suburban
– Edmonton: property taxes based on total property
value
– Land cheaper at fringes, so taxes are lower
– Change: reduce taxes at center, raise at fringe
• Density
– Edmonton: multi-family tax rate 15% higher than
single fam.
– Change: give denser properties tax advantage
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14. Transportation pricing
• Road pricing
– Remove road subsidy, examples worldwide
• Parking pricing
– Parking stall fee: level playing field - centre & fringe
• Vehicle registration
– Feebates, PAYD
• Free transit downtown
– E.g. Calgary
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15. Politics
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16. Conclusions
• General principle: get root causes of problems
– Or else they will persist
• Often root cause is pricing incentives
• Get prices on-side, not against our goals
• Do we want to achieve sustainability goals?
– Prices can be powerful ally
– Prices can be powerful opponent
– Which do we want?
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17. References
• Alberta Health Services, “Urban Sprawl and Health” (April 2009)
http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/poph/hi-poph-hpp-info-urban-sprawl.pdf
• Johnson and Marko, “Designing healthy places: Land use planning and public health” (Capital
Health, 2007)
http://www.capitalhealth.ca/NR/rdonlyres/eh4qelt76mejjmxogexsmbh5qrs32flyyiknqr3z6jn6
xcfgyjqbeqpip3xrsztvr27joqqj2bd2pyr7myh74cnflib/DesigningHealthyPlaceslandusePublicatio
n.pdf.
• More: Bray, Vakil, Elliott, “Report on Public Health and Urban Sprawl in Ontario – a Review of
the Pertinant Literature” (Ont College of Family Physicians, Jan 2005)
http://www.ocfp.on.ca/local/files/Communications/Current%20Issues/Urban%20Sprawl-Jan-
05.pdf
• Thompson and Bevan, “Smart Budget Toolkit: Environmental Pricing Reform for
Municipalities” (Sustainable Prosperity, 2010)
http://www.sustainableprosperity.ca/article172.
• Thompson, “The Power of Prices and the Failure of Markets: Addressing Edmonton’s
Environmental and Fiscal Challenges” (City of Edmonton, June 2010).
http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/documents/Discussion_Paper_17_Power_of_Pri
ces_and_Failure_of_Markets.pdf
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18. David Thompson
Director, Sustainable Communities
Sustainable Prosperity
dthompson@plrc.ca
www.sustainableprosperity.ca
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