What is urban sprawl and which policy helps contain it?

• A. Sprawl is dense inner-city growth; zoning to single-use reduces it.
• B. Sprawl is low-density, car-dependent expansion into rural areas; smart growth is a containment strategy.
• C. Sprawl is rural-to-urban migration at high density; privatization contains it.
• D. Sprawl is vertical high-rise development; green belts cause it.

Answer: (B)

Urban sprawl is the spread of development in low-density, car-dependent patterns outward from the urban center into surrounding rural areas. This often means separate land uses, long commutes, and increased land consumption and infrastructure costs. The policy that helps contain it is smart growth, which emphasizes directing growth to existing communities, increasing housing and job density, promoting mixed uses, creating walkable neighborhoods, and protecting open space and transit options to reduce reliance on cars. The other descriptions don’t fit because they either mischaracterize sprawl as dense inner-city growth or high-density rural-to-urban migration, or suggest policies (like privatization or that green belts cause sprawl) that don’t capture how containment works in practice.