How much sprawl does Las Vegas Valley have compared with other metros?

The Las Vegas Valley is the 16th most dense metro in the U.S., placing the region in the top 7 percent, according to a new study.

The UNLV Lied Center for Real Estate study looked at 233 of the biggest metro regions in the country, accounting for a number of factors related to overall sprawl including density, land use mix, activity centering and street connectivity.

Las Vegas has long been viewed as a sprawling Sun Belt metropolis, but new research suggests the valley has become one of the nation’s more compact urban areas. According to a UNLV analysis, geographic constraints and federal land-use policies have limited outward expansion, resulting in a denser development pattern than many peer cities, including Phoenix, Houston and San Diego. The findings arrive as Southern Nevada continues to debate growth, housing affordability and the future of land development.

The study pulled from another larger study titled “Who Sprawls the Most? Mapping Urban Sprawl and Assessing Its Impact on Everyday Life”, which was conducted by John Hopkins University.

Nicholas Irwin, one of the authors of the report, said there are a few key points to look at regarding this study.

“We don’t have a high-level of current sprawl because of our two main geographic constraints in the Las Vegas Valley,” he said. “The first is our geography, as the valley is nestled between mountains on all sides, which naturally constrains development. The second is the existing Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act boundary, which functions as an urban growth boundary. Now that we are hitting that limit, it naturally promotes more compactness and can lead to infill development.”

Irwin said the valley did sprawl originally decades ago with its first population and development boom, however constraints have now curtailed that.

“Now that we’ve filled out most of our allowable footprint (from SNPLMA), we are becoming denser,” he said. “The study we cite is a current snapshot of how we compare to, most of, the rest of the country and not a look back in time.”

According to the study, the valley is more dense than San Diego, Houston and Phoenix, of which the report notes reflects federal land constraints that limit outward expansion and concentrate development within a bounded footprint. The federal government controls the vast majority of land left for development within the valley and has been slow to release it dating back decades.

When it comes to overall street connectivity, the valley ranked 13th, a top 7 percent score. This means Las Vegas has a largely grid-based road network, which is known for easing traffic flow overall. The valley ranked 68th when it comes to activity centering, which looks at the distribution of employment and commercial activity. Finally, the valley ranked the lowest for land use mix (125th out of 233 metro areas).

“This is the one dimension where Las Vegas falls below the national average,” reads the report. “The separation of residential areas from jobs and services is characteristic of the valley’s development pattern and is where the data offers the most support for concerns about urban form.”

The UNLV report found that the Las Vegas Valley is most commonly compared to other Sun Belt metropolitan areas that are rapidly expanding their populations. These metro regions also share similar growth trajectories, climate conditions, and development eras and the valley ranks above every Sun Belt metro included in the comparison. Las Vegas beat Phoenix by 99 positions, Houston by 150 positions, Nashville by 162 positions, and Atlanta by 163 positions out of 233 total metro areas.

In a comment made during a Clark County Commissioners’ meeting last October, Commissioner Jim Gibson said the valley should not be worried about sprawl.

“There are lots of misunderstandings out there,” said Gibson in addressing members of the public who expressed concerns over sprawl and how the valley can handle more growth given its issues with water and transportation. “Sprawl is something that has been studied in this valley many times over the years, it’s not what we face and it’s not who we are. The availability of land is something that is suppressing economic opportunity in the valley, it’s driving housing costs to a place where we can’t tolerate them anymore.”