Boulder Colorado limiting new construction and population growth - Essay Example

Environmental Studies Urban sprawl is synonymous to having housing costs that are made affordable to both individuals and families ified withinthe median and lower income bracket of a particular geographical location. Generally, the occurrence of affordable housing or urban sprawl depends mainly on housing supply and demand; since the availability of residential lands is often limited. Such limitation gives rise to the value of lands which in turn will naturally require domicile owners to have a higher income in order to afford a decent home within a secured and convenient environment.

Aside from this, it is likewise significant to examine whether a particular household has the ability to pay or the willingness to pay. The differentiation of being able to pay and the willingness to pay are vastly poles apart because if a household has the ability to pay then it means that the breadwinner is earning more than the average office worker and is spending less than thirty-five percent (35%) of his or her earnings in paying for the house. Willingness to pay on the other hand means that the household is ready to comply with the payment requirements but there is no actual proof that the breadwinner has the financial resources to pay the monthly mortgages on the home aside from the simultaneous expenses needed for daily living.

When these types of scenarios are taken into great consideration, it is without a doubt that urban sprawl is usually weighed down with issues regarding racial and social class discriminations (Wright Realtors). It is typical for urban sprawl to include the development of the suburban outskirts that are most often way pass the city limits. The major setbacks of this include high car dependence, insufficient health and cultural facilities, higher per-person/ per capita costs, disorganized street plans, and pollution.

Although pollution, social inequality and inept transportation systems within an urban sprawl may seem insignificant, future social undertakings and natural disasters will eventually separate those who can really afford and those who have meager earnings (Beckmann et al). Unfortunately, the poor will have to take the full impact of little to nothing financial resources when disaster strikes. Thus, ethics taken from an environmental perspective basically means the moral relationship of human beings with “the environment and its none-human contents” (Brennan).

This suggests that there is really no restriction on who can live where, but in doing what is morally right to keep the environment fit along with the fact that if household owners can really come up with the money to live in a place that exceeds their monthly earnings. While housing affordability is in constant demand, the main thing is if residential dwellers are willing to undergo the changes urban sprawl imposes on their environment; and if they are willing to forego convenient travel time and other expenses within their resources for better housing.

Works Cited Beckmann, Klaus, Bracher, Tilman, and Hesse, Markus. Mobility and Deprived Urban Neighborhoods in the Focus of Integrated Urban Development Policy. n.d. Web. 10 July 2011. . Brennan, Andrew. Environmental Ethics. 03 January 2008. Web. 10 July 2011. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-environmental/. Wright Realtors. Affordable Housing. n.d. Web. 09 July 2011. < http://www.wrightrealtors.com/home/affordable_housing.htm>. Harris, Robert. "Evaluating Internet Research Sources." VirtualSalt.

15 June 2008.  Web. 20 Apr. 2009. .