Study: Phoenix, Tucson have lots of undeveloped urban land
May 21, 2018, 5:00 AM | Updated: May 22, 2018, 9:29 am
(Twitter Photo/@visitphoenix)
PHOENIX — Two Arizona cities were involved in a study to find the amount of land undeveloped in urban cores in the United States.
Commercial Cafe, a real estate blog, looked at the unused urban land in 25 cities including Phoenix and Tucson.
It notes that by expanding cities, the area can sustain an increased population and create room for more jobs.
Phoenix had about 31 acres – about 1.35 million square feet – of undeveloped land in urban areas, the fifth-most of the 25 cities studied.
There has been almost 1.6 million square feet of construction in Phoenix since 2013, which is the eleventh-most.
Tucson had a little more than 18 acres, about 784,000 square feet. This ranked No. 10 of the cities studied.
It has only constructed 25,736 square feet in urban areas over the last five years, by far the smallest amount of any city.
Dallas had the most open land – more than 86 acres – and one of the greatest amounts of development since 2013, 8.5 million square feet.
New York City has about 16.5 acres of open land, and has developed more than 29.6 million square feet of land over the last five years.
Commerical Cafe also took surveys to compare how people want to use the land, and how they feel it needs to be used.
Affordable housing reigned king as 82 percent said cities need to develop housing and homeless shelters.
As for their “wants,” 77 percent of people chose housing and parks.
Finally, the blog surveyed respondents to find the most beneficial transportation developments and improvements that a city could use.
In Phoenix, walkability – namely, sidewalks and pedestrian overpasses – was chosen as the most beneficial.
Tucson respondents chose bike lanes. This is fitting, as the city recently ranked No. 5 in the best biking cities in a different study.