[Winona Online Democracy]
In talking about sustainability and sprawl it might be good to put some definitions and statistics on the table for discussion purposes.First, "sprawl" by my definition is sparse development, contrasted with dense development close to an existing city, which is not sprawl, but simply compact growth. Some folks may consider any growth to be sprawl, but I would urge them to use a different term. Growth in households is going to happen no matter what we do, so it's a matter of how we handle them - in what locations and at what densities - not whether they appear or not.Some facts and numbers:* Winona (city) is about 25 square miles in area and has about 11,000 housing units. This translates to about 0.7 units per acre, or 1.4 acres per unit on a gross land area basis (a square mile is 640 acres). This includes some lake, river, and bluff land in the gross land area. The actual density on buildable land is much higher on average, probably 4-5 units/acre overall.* Winona County, other than the City of Winona, is about 600 square miles in area and has about 9,000 housing units. This translates to about 0.023 units/acre, or about 43 acres/unit on gross land area basis.* The City is therefore about 30 times as dense as the rest of the County.* If Winona were to add another 10,000 housing units in the coming decades, about doubling its population, at a gross density of 1 unit/acre (not very dense) this would add about 15 square miles to the City.* If Winona were to add these 10,000 housing units at 2 units/acre (a more reasonable target) this would take up half as much land and add only about 8 square miles to the City.* If the County is about 1/2 tillable (a guess), this is about 300 acres of agricultural land. Winona doubling its size would take about 5% of this land at 1 un/ac, or less than 3% at 2 un/ac. This assumes we build only on land is currently farmed.* Using the same numbers, Winona could triple in population to 30,000 housing units and a population of about 75,000 (rivaling Rochester and LaCrosse) and still only take up an additional 5%-10% of the County's farmland.* By contrast, if Winona adds those same 10,000-20,000 housing units at a density of 5 acres/lot on unsewered lots, this would take up 80-160 square miles of land, or 25%-50% of the County's agricultural land.Phil Carlson, Mpls_______________________________________________ This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy All messages must be signed by the senders actual name. No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list. To manage your subscription or view the message archives, please visit http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona Any problems or suggestions can be directed to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you want help on how to contact elected officials, go to the Contact page at http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org
