Open Space Policies and Urban Spatial Structure

There is widespread public support for open space provision and for efforts by government to limit sprawl. We demonstrate that open space policies should not be viewed as independent of—or necessarily compatible with—growth management goals. We examine the impacts of open space designation on the urban landscape in a spatial city model with two important and empirically-relevant features: (1) residents prefer to live close to open space and (2) open space amenities attract migrants to the city. Our main findings are that open space designation can produce leapfrog development when it is located outside of the city; the effect of open space on the total area of developed land in the city is ambiguous; the location, size and configuration of open space can all affect development densities throughout the city. Our analysis identifies the key factors that determine the impacts of open space and yields insights into the design of effective land-use policies.