Responses to Suburban Growth. Suburban Office Complexes

Although the five types of suburbs are very different in character, rapid growth has brought about major social changes in all of them. Public transportation in suburban areas is seldom adequate, and most suburban residents prefer to travel by car.

The increased volume of traffic has placed considerable strain on local highways, many of which were designed and built long before explosive suburban growth began. Even short trips can take hours. Residents of rapidly growing suburban communities must also cope with overcrowded schools and inadequate delivery of public services, resulting from the great increases in demand. Property values skyrocket as populations continue to grow.

In response to these problems, many suburban jurisdictions have enacted legislation intended to curb new growth. In some cases, laws prohibit the extension of water and sewer lines to undeveloped areas. Other laws require developers to devote a minimum percentage of their lands to open fields or nonresidential uses. Slow growth movements often receive enthusiastic support from relative newcomers who want to retain the suburban paradise they bought into.

Suburban Office Complexes.Many professional services, including medicine and law, are provided in office parks whose organization is analogous to that of suburban industrial parks. Physicians and attorneys share the costs entailed in record-keeping, billing, accounting and other support functions.

The growth of suburban office parks went hand in hand with the growth of the tertiary and quaternary sectors in the United States and other developed countries. Between 1960 and 1985, the percentage of downtown office employment in the Los Angeles area declined from 60 to 34 percent. By the mid-1980s, the suburban area of Costa Mesa. Irvine, and Newport Beach in Orange County had become the third largest office complex in California, trailing only downtown Los Angeles and downtown San Francisco.

Several reasons underlie the rapid growth of suburban tertiary employment. Suburban locations are convenient to many office employees. When the American urban economy was dominated by manufacturing concerns, people were reluctant to live near dirty, smelly factories. Today, many prefer the convenience of living near their offices. In many cases, office complexes provide day-care, medical assistance, and other services and conveniences that help to attract and retain highly qualified employees.

Suburban employment may be less convenient, however, for nonprofessional employees. Large office complexes require the services of hundreds of cafeteria workers, custodians, security guards, and other low-skill, low-wage employees. Hundreds of other unskilled workers are employed in nearby restaurants, shops, and gas stations patronized by office workers. These poorly paid workers can seldom afford to live near their jobs.

Many endure long car trips or rely on inefficient public transportation. Suburban jurisdictions are often reluctant to permit the construction of low-income houses and apartments. Opposition to higher density housing projects by wealthy suburbanites helps to keep distance between the homes of low-skill suburban office employees and their places of employment.