ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the economic process in suburbanization, why some areas are developed, why intermingled ones are not, why land speculation invariably accompanies the process, and the like. Perhaps the place to start is by eliminating one possible major causative factor of suburban sprawl, agriculture. Locational theory as applied to agriculture, from von Thünen downward to the present, has emphasized the effect of the urban market on agricultural land use and land value but has also stressed the effect of transportation costs, as well as such differential factors as land fertility. The chapter explains the suburban growth and land speculation processes. If a really coordinated and effective attack is to be made on urban sprawl and speculation in raw suburban land then perhaps the people have to use the Suburban Development District which the chapter proposes elsewhere.
