Garden cities, Sterling Ranch and sustainable urban development in the American West

Urbanisation is as advanced in the USA as in any other country. Americans, however, have long yearned to escape the city and stake their claim on the open frontier. Suburban and exurban expansion is now complicated by environmental constraints, primarily the availability of cheap oil and, in the American West, water. This condition has encouraged some population movement back to the city centre. Nonetheless, the promise of a better future out on the frontier — the ‘Paradise Spell’ — remains a powerful impulse in American life. In recent years, Ebenezer Howard’s concept of the Garden City has gained traction in American urban planning circles. It is now informing — consciously or unconsciously — new proposals for environmentally sensitive development on the exurban fringe. This paper describes one proposal for Garden City-style development in the state of Colorado — Sterling Ranch — and highlights some of the key issues in environmental and social sustainability that it raises. If cultural inclusion, life quality and social equity are important elements of what makes a city ‘sociable’, designing built and open space for broad intercultural appeal should be a top priority going forward.