The Influence of Local Fiscal Structure and Growth Control Choices on 'Big Box' Urban Sprawl in the American West
The Influence of Local Fiscal Structure and Growth Control Choices on 'Big Box' Urban Sprawl in the American West
Author: Robert W. Wassmer
Year: 2002 (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy)
Source type: article (empirical/quantitative)
Raw file: raw/articles/wassmer-2002-big-box-retail-decentralization.md
Summary
This is an empirical urban-economics report by Robert W. Wassmer (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2002) examining the determinants of "big box" retail (building-materials stores like Home Depot, and new/used auto sales) decentralization in 54 western US metropolitan areas across 1977, 1987, and 1997. It investigates how local fiscal structure — particularly property-tax limitation measures (California's Proposition 13, Oregon's Measures 5/47, Colorado's Amendment 1) — and local growth-control choices influence where large-format retail locates relative to central places, i.e., the suburban "sprawl" of big-box retail.
Key Claims
- Big-box retail is a proxy for retail sprawl: the report models the share of big-box (building material and auto) retail sales occurring in non-central/suburban locations, treating "Home Depots" and "automalls" as the popular face of big-box retail.
- Fiscal structure matters: the western states' property-tax limitations (Prop 13 and analogous initiatives) create "natural experiments" to test whether municipal fiscal structure influences metropolitan retail decentralization.
- Method: regression analysis across 54 western MSAs, using suburban retail sales as dependent variables and fiscal-structure and growth-control measures as explanatory factors.
- Findings are mixed/empirical: there is "a great deal of variation in the degree of non-central place big box retail activity," with some western states showing increases and others decreases in the suburban share over time; whether decentralization counts as "sprawl" depends on population, income, and demographic shifts.
- The study concerns the fiscal and regulatory determinants of where the consumerist commercial landscape (the "commercial vernacular" of the big box) locates.
Connections
Concepts: Consumerism · Everyday Architecture · Neoliberal Metropolis · Gentrification Authors: John Chase (commercial vernacular, contrasted) · David Harvey Related source notes: The Role of Consumerism in American Architecture (Chase) · The Effects of Gentrification (Brummet & Reed) · High Street Diversity (Vaughan)
Direct Quotes
"Big box retail sales are represented by building material and new/used auto sales due to popular perceptions of what big box is ('Home Depots' and 'Automalls')." (Methods)
Open Questions
- This is a quantitative planning/economics source tangential to the wiki's critical-theoretical core. What role should it play — evidence on the fiscal determinants of the consumerist/commercial landscape? Flag for Geoffrey.
- Does the big-box suburban decentralization intersect Geoffrey's "vernacular & everyday architecture" (commercial vernacular) or is it better filed under the financialized/neoliberal city?
