Residential Development Pattern and Intraneighborhood Infrastructure Provision

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between residential development pattern and intraneighborhood infrastructure provision based on a case study of the cities in Story County, Iowa. The dataset consists of 16,331 residential parcels in 1,755 residential blocks. Residential development pattern is characterized by residential parcel density and an aggregated parcel shape index. Factor analysis shows that the length of streets is an appropriate indicator to represent overall infrastructure provision. Logarithmic multiple regression analysis reveals a good relationship between residential development pattern and infrastructure provision variables. Parcel shape has a stronger influence on infrastructure provision than parcel density does, and together they explain more than 55% of the variation in infrastructure provision. The results of this empirical study establish a means to evaluate development proposals on the basis of development pattern and the associated infrastructure provision cost.