Learning from Southern California: a typology of neighborhood‐scale projects, the emerging metropolitan form and the implications for public policy

Abstract

This paper presents a typology of neighborhood‐scale projects in Southern California, examines their impact on the emerging metropolitan form and discusses policy implications. This region is growing fast and is facing several problems. It is also the focus of inquiry of municipal control of land use regulations that support Tiebout sorting and contribute to social and spatial segregation. Given this, the paper examines whether certain types of projects are being built in certain types of cities and whether these projects are likely to support Tiebout sorting. A survey of city planners was used to collect data about the attributes of 169 projects. The results suggest that the association between the attributes of projects and characteristics of cities is not strong and reveal how certain types of projects might address some of the region’s problems. The paper concludes with a discussion of opportunities to create a better metropolitan form.