L.A. DENSER THAN N.Y. REGION'S CROWDING SURPASSES BIG APPLE'S.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

If Los Angeles has gotten too crowded for you, think about moving to New York.

For the first time, the Los Angeles metropolitan area has become more densely populated than New York's.

Hard as it may be to believe, L.A. has 8.31 people per urbanized acre across the five-county region compared with 7.99 people in the Big Apple and its urban surroundings, according to a Brookings Institution study released Friday.

Only Honolulu is denser with 12.36 people per urbanized acre, based on 1997 Department of Agriculture figures.

The reason is that the region - Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties - that invented sprawl has hit upon a new way of spreading out: ``dense sprawl,'' said the study's lead author, William Fulton, president of Ventura-based Solimar Research Group, a land-use-policy think tank.

The study found the counterintuitive fact that cities in the wide-open spaces of the West are generally more densely populated than those in the East, South and Midwest.

``Everybody lives in a subdivision that by suburban standards is pretty high density,'' Fulton said. ``You go to metro New York, Atlanta or Pittsburgh and at the edge you find five- to 10-acre lots.

``In newly developing areas, L.A. is using its land much more efficiently.''

Those like Laura Lake, who left New York for the spaciousness of the West, fear the creeping density will destroy the quality of life they found here. Lake, who co-founded ``Not Yet New York,'' a largely defunct group that pressed for city charter reform, quipped perhaps she should resurrect the group as ``Already New York.''

``If you measure it in density, we've arrived,'' she said. ``I hate to think that would be the case. I like the difference, our uniqueness. I think it heightens the importance of setting apart open space. It's kind of our last chance before it's too late.''

Andy Lipkis, president of TreePeople, a Studio City nonprofit that stresses environmental responsibility, said the study confirms what many are feeling.

``It's kind of a horrible reflection,'' Lipkis said. ``To actually hear we're denser than New York is very scary. The implications for quality of life is significant in terms of open space, recreation, air and water quality and all the impacts on health and life.

``We need to step up our efforts to protect remaining open spaces and figure out ways to enhance urban living, like putting in trees.''

The study makes sense when the nation's sprawl patterns of the past 15 years are more closely examined, Fulton said.

While the U.S. was sprawling in general - the amount of urbanized land increased by 47 percent, while the population grew by only 17 percent between 1982 and 1997 - it did not do so uniformly.

Manhattan and other cities' high-density cores remained, but the most dramatic change in densification occurred on the outskirts of western cities.

Las Vegas leading

Las Vegas led the nation with a 50 percent increase in its metropolitan density.

``For every new acre of land developed in the entire West (between 1982 and 1997), we accommodated 3.5 residents. For the entire rest of the country, for every acre, it was only one new resident. That is a startling number,'' Fulton said.

The study concluded that Los Angeles is outstripping New York without resorting to high-rise development for two main reasons.

``First, suburban tract homes on the metropolitan fringe are built much more densely; although there are many six- and seven-unit-per-acre subdivisions, there are very few five-acre lots.

``Second, immigration and non-Anglo populations, many of which have modest incomes, are increasing household sizes and doubling up in existing areas, thereby increasing the population density even though the physical fabric does not change much.''

A relative scarcity of land, reliance on public water systems and developers accustomed to building high-density suburbs also contributed, Fulton said.

Those watching the spread of high-density developments, like Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett, who co-founded the successful Save Open-space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) Initiative, one of the toughest anti-sprawl measures in the country, said the study is a call to greater vigilance.

``It's all the more reason why we need SOAR,'' Bennett said. ``The voters said, let's not let Ventura County go the way of L.A. and Orange counties.''

Good side to sprawl?

But the sprawl that ``drives us crazy'' by plugging up highways and an assortment of other inconveniences might not be all bad, Fulton said.

If the new higher-density residential developments are supported by commercial-retail-service centers, more people could make a better life for themselves closer to home.

While downtown will remain a central hub, the Los Angeles area was always intended to grow around well-defined urban hubs, like Warner Center in Woodland Hills.

``Twenty-five years ago the general plan said build up the (satellite) centers,'' Fulton said. ``That was the right idea, and it's the right idea more than ever. Let's not pretend we don't have density, but let's take advantage of it to make good places.

``We have a chance to gradually reorganize places like the Valley,'' Fulton added.

``The Valley is an urban place, and if we recognize that we can take advantage of it by organizing our communities in more logical ways, connecting people to jobs in a better way. That is a tremendous opportunity for Los Angeles, the Valley and the entire Western U.S. that no one has articulated.''

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