the downside of affordable land…unsustainable sprawl in precarious places

If new homes can be built cheaply in Las Vegas but not in, say, California, it suggests the homes and materials are not the issue…it’s the land. As said many times on these pages, there is no affordable housing without affordable land, but as this story illustrates, there is a downside to affordable land.

Las Vegas is growing at a staggering rate. Clark county, where the city is located, is home to roughly 2.3 million people, but forecasts predict the population could go beyond 4 million by 2055.

Attracted by the lure of cheaper costs of living, lower taxes, and newly built homes, more than half a million people are expected to flock to southern Nevada in just the next 15 years. To accommodate them, the region’s arid landscape is being converted into strip malls and shopping centers as winding cul de sacs creep closer to the rocky hillsides.

Density through the judicious use of ground rents and zoning/land-use policy would force more economic and compact development, reducing the destruction of ground cover and the effects of heat islands and the dangerous rise in ozone and other pollutants.

In 2019, Clark county generated more greenhouse gas emissions than the city of Los Angeles – which is home to roughly 1.7 million more people – according to a new report issued by the county in February. Nearly half of the county’s emissions are from energy used to power buildings and industry. The next biggest share at 37% was attributed to transportation. Both of these sectors are slated to increase as more homes and businesses are built and rising numbers of residents hit the roads. The construction equipment itself is expected to add to emissions as the county continues to grow.

Las Vegas ranks 12th in a list of the most polluted cities in the US for ozone, according to the American Lung Association. Residents – especially those in the hottest corners of the county – are already feeling the effects.

This also seems like a great test bed for off-world living…I don’t see single family homes and winding streets with cul-de-sacs working on Mars. How could development be designed to create shade, turn heat and strong sun into power and light?