Changing the Development Process – Data Opening Up New Opportunities in Kansas City

The sprawl and segregation that characterize America’s suburbs are the direct result of inefficient “low-density” land development processes. Those processes became so entrenched in recent decades that some gave up hope they could ever be changed. Yet a program of the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC – Kansas City’s metropolitan planning agency) suggests real possibilities for new directions. Interestingly, data have served as the central change agent.