Case study of development in the County Road 241 Jonesville-Alachua, Florida corridor.

摘要

Local and state governments throughout the United States (U.S.) have increasing concerns about population growth pressures in the urban/urbanizing areas. Due to growth pressures many different spatial patterns and distributions of land use are observed. These growth pressures necessitate management decisions concerning land use and land distribution. Understanding spatial distribution patterns of new development/land use are important because different patterns over space result in different social, economical, environmental and political impacts.; Alachua County has had a steady increase in the number of development projects over the last decade. As its population growth continues to increase the county is forced to accommodate this growth through residential and commercial development. Much of the growth has been residential and commercial developments in the Jonesville-Newberry area. Another area of growth has been in the City of Alachua where investments are being made in commercial and high-end residential real estate developments.; The population and development growth have impacted the area's land allocation decisions as well as its infrastructure and services. Although the land conversions and settlement patterns differ between the two areas, County Road (CR) 241 connects these two areas which creates interdependencies, as well as centripetal and centrifugal forces of development.; A single case study design was used to study the patterns of development (residential, commercial and agricultural) of the Alachua-Jonesville Florida CR 241 corridor for the years 2000 through 2006. The goal is to determine if economic theory can explain the development pattern of this corridor. Three different subsets of land use theories (location, central place and agglomeration) will be used to determine how well each of these individual theories explain, the development pattern. Individual theories alone cannot completely determine if economic theory explains the development pattern, but many aspects of each theory are confirmed. The strategy for this case study is to use geographical information analysis (GIS) to analyze land values and land use patterns; determine if central place theory can be used to analyze the development patterns of the surrounding cities/municipalities and the Jonesville community; and to analyze the effects of agglomeration on the development pattern. No theory alone can explain the development pattern, but combining the analysis of these theories can help explain the development pattern of the study area.