California's Blazing Density (or Sprawl?) Problem

The state wrestles with age-old issues of growth amid some of the worst fires in history.

1 minute read

October 28, 2003, 5:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"Fully half of [California's] residential structures are at risk of the same kind of neighborhood-and-freeway hopping fires that have claimed hundreds of homes in recent days... With hundreds of homes destroyed in what has now become one of the worst series of wild fires in California's history, local officials are already mulling some familiar lessons: how to improve building codes, enforcement, and containment technology. But beneath this reexamination looms a more basic question: Is California overbuilt for its geography?"

Thanks to Chris Steins

Tuesday, October 28, 2003 in The Christian Science Monitor

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