Sufficiency of Infrastructure Capacity for Infill Development

Abstract

Infill development is often viewed as more desirable than development located beyond the urban perimeter, because infrastructure is already in place. However, the strength of that argument rests on the implicit assumption that not only is infrastructure in place, but that spare capacity exists in sufficient quantity to accommodate the additional demand resulting from the infill development. This study examines that assumption for schools, roads, sewers, water, and solid‐waste disposal in Orlando, Florida, by estimating the additional system usage likely to result from the development of vacant, bypassed sites and comparing that to available capacity in each system. The assumption of sufficient capacity was found to be entirely valid (sufficient capacity to accommodate the entire inventory of infill sites) only for water supply, water transmission, sewage treatment, and solid‐waste disposal. It was found to be totally invalid (none of the infill sites could be accommodated) for arterial roads and elementary schools. And it was only partially valid (a fraction of the inventory of infill sites could be accommodated) for sewage transmission, middle schools, and high schools.