Abstract
A strong preference for suburban living has led to extensively developed suburbs that need retrofitting by improving their compactness. However, an attempt to make suburban areas more sustainable only by shaping their spatial form, without considering individual demands and preferences, is usually ineffective. The aim of this research is to better understand the factors that are important for suburban neighborhood satisfaction and to determine the relationship between neighborhood satisfaction and both the objective spatial attributes reflecting different levels of spatial chaos and satisfaction with particular neighborhood characteristics. The factor analysis and a linear multiple regression model have revealed that there are four significant subjective factors explaining neighborhood satisfaction, namely: assessed suburban assets, assessed accessibility, assessed walkability, and assessed mental and social attitude towards the neighborhood. Among these, the assessed accessibility is the most important predictor of the neighborhood satisfaction and synthetic indicator of spatial chaos the least significant one. Although the research proved that subjective measures are more important determinants of neighborhood satisfaction, fighting urban sprawl should be based on the interference in both subjective evaluations and objective spatial attributes, since two of the four subjective factors are likely to be strongly influenced by improving accessibility in the process of retrofitting suburbs.
Highlights
The article attempts to resolve the dilemma of how to reconcile the need for densification of the suburban built environment with the preferences of suburbanites, so that it translates into greater neighborhood satisfaction
A positive relationship between spatial chaos and neighborhood satisfaction presents challenges to planners and policymakers who understand that sustainable suburbs need moderate density and better accessibility
The profitability of services requires a minimum level of residential density, which in turn is negatively correlated with neighborhood satisfaction
Summary
A strong preference for suburban living—which has prevailed since the second half of the 20th century—has led to the uncontrolled development of city outskirts, first in western countries (especially in the United States [1,2]), and later in post-socialist Europe, including Poland [3,4]. An attempt to make suburban areas sustainable only by shaping their urban form is usually ineffective [23] The issue of those neighborhood attributes that are the most important in predicting residents’ satisfaction should be of great interest to policy-makers due to its potential contribution to a better understanding of the factors leading to the successful neighborhood regeneration [24]. This leads to formulate the aim of the research, which is twofold It contributes to a better understanding of the determinants of neighborhood satisfaction that are important for retrofitting Polish suburbs. The study aims to determine the relationship between neighborhood satisfaction and both the objective spatial attributes reflecting different levels of spatial chaos and satisfaction with particular elements of a given built and social environment
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