Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
is oakland county really getting close to running out of developable land? that would seem odd to me because i think of dupage county as chicagoland's version of oakland county (or the closest thing to it at least), but dupage county has double the overall density of oakland county (2,800 ppsm vs. 1,400 ppsm) and it is truly getting close to full build-out. it would seem to me that the northern half of oakland county would still have a good deal of land left to develop to increase overall density.
|
Dupage county is much smaller than Oakland County. It's essentially a 3x3 county, whereas Oakland is a 5x5 county. If you take the 3x3 southeast portion of Oakland County, you get a population of of 825,429 in an area of 313 sq. mi. for a density of 2,636 ppsm, or just slightly less than Dupage county.
The remaining 559 sq. mi. of Oakland County has a population of 376,933 for a density of 674 ppsm. Those remaining townships are dominated by low-density sprawl, large-lot rural residential development, as well as protected parks, forests, and wetlands. (Lyon Oaks County Park, Kensington Metro Park, Proud Lake State Recreation Area, Highland State Recreation Area, Pontiac Lake State Recreation Area, Indian Springs Metro Park, Independence Oaks County Park, Orion Oaks County Park, Bald Mountain State Recreation Area, Addison Oaks County Park, and Stony Creek Metro Park sorta create a greenbelt around the denser urban area and those parks combined account for a good 20 sq. mi. of parkland. Those areas have since been engulfed by the low-density sprawl.
) While you won't be hard-pressed to find an open field or farm that could easily become the next 500-home subdivision, such land is getting down to the last dozen or two square miles. Most of the newest sprawltopian development has spilled over into Livingston County, or the more easily-developed open farmland of northern Macomb County. It's much cheaper to develop in those areas and there are more "choice" plots of land.