A study released Thursday shows that Greater Cincinnati is more “sprawling” than the average U.S. metropolitan area, but less than most Midwestern cities.

        To determine urban sprawl rate, researchers at the Brookings Institution, an independent research group, compared land urbanization rates to population growth rates between 1982 and 1997. If a metro area developed land faster than its population grew, researchers considered the area “sprawling.”

        In defining the Cincinnati metro area, researchers included Brown, Clermont, Hamilton, Warren and Butler counties in Ohio; Boone, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton and Pendleton counties in Kentucky; and Ohio and Dearborn counties in Indiana.

        During the 15-year period, Greater Cincinnati's population grew by 10.4 percent to 1.8 million. At the same time, the area experienced a 40.1 percent increase in land development. By 1997, Greater Cincinnati had 488,000 acres of urbanized land.

        “For every person (Cincinnati) added, (it) added one acre of developed land,” said William Fulton, president of Solimar Research Group and co-author of the study. “That's not surprising that (the city) did that.”

        Mr. Fulton said most Midwestern cities' land consumption outpaced population growth, while Western areas have been gaining population and urbanized land at about the same rate.

        As a region, the Midwest experienced a 32.23 percent increase in developed land while the population increased by 7.06 percent, a 4.56 to 1 ratio. Cincinnati's ratio is lower, 3.85 to 1.

        Inexpensive land and a lack of topographical barriers like mountains contributed to the Midwest's explosion in urbanization, Mr. Fulton said.

        The national average urbanization-population growth ratio is approximately three to one, while the West's ratio is about one to one. By these measures, while the Midwest is sprawling, the West isn't because its population growth rate is about the same rate as its urbanization.

        Cincinnati's ratio was lower than the Midwest's average ratio because Greater Cincinnati's population has grown so much, Mr. Fulton said. Even though 2000 census figures show that the city and Hamilton County lost population, the metropolitan area overall experienced a population boom.

        County leaders attributed the increase in development to their communities' quality of life and proximity to landmarks and transportation.

        “We're close by to downtown Cincinnati, and that makes a whale of a difference,” said Dan Theno, executive administrator for Deerfield Township. Deerfield Township has seen a lot of migration because of the 600 businesses there, he said.

        Boone County Commissioner Cathy Flaig said the location of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in the county attracted residential and business development.

        “That's what fuels it all,” she said.

        In September, the Sierra Club named Cincinnati as the fourth most sprawl-threatened city in the nation, but the environmental group's definition was different than that used by the Brookings Institution. Instead of comparing population growth to land development, the Sierra Club defines sprawl as irresponsible, inefficient land development that destroys greenspace and increases traffic.

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