Horeb's Corners - ALLEYS AND ECONOMICS ESSAY (PAGE 2 of 9)

Alleys are a fundamental component of New Urbanist neighborhoods and Traditional Neighborhood

Developments(TND), which generate many benefits for residents, developers and municipalities.

Among the benefits associated with alleys are the significant positive financial impacts that accrue to

communities that choose to implement them. It is often argued that because of alleys, TND is more

expensive to construct than Conventional Suburban Development (CSD). However, according to

Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck (Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and

the Decline of the American Dream, 2000), CSDs usually contain roads that are 33 percent wider than

those found in TNDs, and they argue that as long as alleys are not over-engineered, they should not

cost any more than the driveways they replace. Hence, it appears that since the amount of surface

needed for each road is less in TNDs, they may be less expensive to construct than CSDs.

The construction and maintenance of alleys does add a new construction cost; however, the use of

alleys has the potential to increase home values and sales prices and decrease the per unit costs of

services and infrastructure. In combination, these two effects increase tax revenues and can create a

positive tax base where tax revenues are greater than the cost of providing services, especially when

compared to CSD subdivisions. Coupled with these fiscal benefits is the fact that alleys improve

neighborhood appearance, and safety. Essentially neighborhood alleys create positive economic and

social impacts for the developer, homeowners, and the municipality.

Alleys allow narrower lot sizes without sacrificing the aesthetic value of the neighborhood, and as the

paper will show, narrower lot sizes result in decreased infrastructure and service costs, increased tax

revenues per acre, and increased neighborhood safety. Subsequent paragraphs illustrate several of the

varied impacts alleys have on neighborhoods, and attempt to demonstrate how they interact to

increase the value of TNDs both to residents and the greater urban community.