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Rise of the megapolitans
As of 2005, 65% of the nation’s population was centered in one of 20 megapolitan areas, according to the Metropolitan Institute report. Those megapolitan areas were in turn located within one of 10 megaregions. Lang and Nelson project that number will be 70% by 2040.
The Great Lakes area, containing four megapolitan areas, makes up one megaregion. The Mid-Atlantic area, with Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia is another.
The U.S. Census Bureau first recognized this phenomenon, defining such areas as combined statistical areas, and setting parameters for that definition. Economic interdependence is the chief deciding factor, as well as such factors such as overlapping commuter patterns.
The emergence of megapolitan areas, and the even larger megaregions, such as the Great Lakes megaregion, is based on the concept that the American population, which is expected to increase by 60 million within the next 35 years, will tend to congregate in areas that provide jobs, housing, appealing climates and a full range of services.
The study credits the introduction of air conditioning, the availability of cheap labor and the interstate highway system with reversing the decline of the old South after the Civil War. It added that the availability of open land, or “greenfields” continues to fuel rapid growth across the South.
Greenville County serves as a key indicator, with the county planner noting that traffic on I-85 between Atlanta and Greenville jumped by 27% in 2006. In 2005, of the county’s 178,686 total houses, nearly 10% had been built in the previous five years, a period during which population jumped by 7%.
Lang and Roberts note that problems occur when the available land is used up, as has happened in Florida, in the area Lang and Roberts call the Treasure Coast megaregion, where communities have been forced to develop in ways that create unwanted population density.
Shared visions
In the late 1980s, Greenville set forth a planning initiative called Vision 2005 that is credited with sparking the city’s downtown revitalization and creation of the Bi-Lo Center.
Today, Greenville is unveiling Vision 2025, which focuses on a host of initiatives, from aviation clusters to ways of keeping the city’s downtown “cool.”
At the same time, neighboring Pickens County has set out with its vision, noting that according to the 2000 census, about 44.5% of Pickens County residents commuted to work outside the county.
Earlier this year, civic and business leaders began a communitywide planning exercise focused on the county’s future.
“We don’t have a Greenville; we probably don’t want it,” said retired consultant Gerald Sweitzer, who co-chairs the Pickens County Vision 2025 steering committee with Southern Wesleyan University President David Spittal.
The committee is made up of 40 community and business leaders and will look at economic development and infrastructure and will examine environmental issues, education and health care.
Upstate community planners also are taking action.
Anderson County Planning Director Jeff Ricketson recently presented the Metropolitan Institute’s findings to members of his county council, recognizing that the pressures associated with growth would play no favorites in the 10-county Upstate region.
“We are very fortunate to be a part of this megapolitan area,” Ricketson said. “So far, the growth has been slow and gradual and manageable, which allows us to predict and plan.
“We just finished updating the county’s two-year comprehensive plan, having looked at what has happened over the past 40 years and having a reasonable idea as to what forces will come into play in the next 20.”
Anderson County planners have identified where the development will take place, and are now confronting the critical issue of finding a way to pay for the cost of infrastructure, Ricketson said.
“The council currently is grappling with the concepts of impact fees, road fees and alternative taxes, but has yet to come up with any final decision,” he said.
Ancient Greek concept redefined
The term megalopolis was coined in 1961 by French geographer Jean Gottmann (1915-1994), referring to massive agglomerations of population centers across a region. Gottmann studied the northeastern United States during the 1950s and in 1961, in his book, “Megalopolis,” described the area between Boston and Washington, D.C., as a modern-day version of ancient Greece’s vision of a huge multi-community complex on the Peloponnese Peninsula.
Virginia Tech urban studies professor Robert Lang has roughly defined 10 megalopolises or “megapolitan” areas in the United States, with a total population of more than 200 million people, two-thirds of the country’s population.
According to Lang, a megapolitan area derives from contiguous metropolitan and micropolitan areas that combine to form an organic, cultural region with a distinct history and identity. The region’s large centers are linked through a major transportation infrastructure, which forms a functional urban network via the flow of goods and services.
To be classified as a megapolitan area, the region also must have a geography suitable for large-scale regional planning and be projected to have more than 10 million residents by 2040.
Megapolitan planning is still in its infancy compared to traditional urban planning and, according to Lang, much of what holds true for individual cities will apply to trans-metropolitan groupings.
It’s becoming clear that re-examining economic and transportation scenarios in a megapolitan context can offer numerous choices. Still to be decided is how to integrate the strategies developed at the megapolitan level with the day-to-day decisions of city and county leaders.
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