Today, most American cities are characterized by decaying central downtowns from which residents and businesses have fled to low-density suburbs spreading out around a network of increasingly congested freeways. This development pattern consumes open...

A term used in debates about urban growth, sprawl does not have a precise, academic definition. As a noun, it most often refers to spread-out development that requires people to use a car for every activity, because it strictly separates housing,...

Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading of a city and its suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area.[1] Residents of sprawling neighborhoods tend to live in single-family homes and commute by automobile to work. Low...

Land, location and liquidity -- they are the rocks on which modern property development builds. But what happens when land becomes scarce and shifting economics alter perceptions of what's desirable?That's the question confronting developers in many of America's major cities.Large tracts of land on the...

Farm-supply cooperative Southern States has closed 115 stores in the past six years, many falling victim to the same trend that has forced some of its traditional clients out of business _ urban sprawl. Like many farm-supply stores that have changed to sell grass seed...

Lennar Corp., one of the nation's largest homebuilders, said Tuesday it expected a fourth-quarter loss as the company reevaluates how much its inventory is worth amid a slowing industry.The Miami-based company expects a loss within a range of 88 cents per share to $1.28 for...

There is a "high possibility" a huge underground drainage tunnel could soon fail, flooding parts of this mountain-ringed metropolis 15 feet deep in sewage, the national water agency said Tuesday.Officials have been puzzled for years by the gradual decrease in capacity of the 7-yard-wide tunnel...