The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "subdivisions" ...
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A Flood of Problems
A Columbia Missourian investigation reveals the neglect of local city and county officials in planning and handling storm water floods amidst new development. Boone County and city of Columbia systems for handling planning subdivisions place "little emphasis on storm water's potential to cause flooding or damage water quality."
Tags: storm water; urban sprawl; subdivisions; planning and zoning; Columbia; Boone County; water quality; growth; urbanization; development
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Is this your beautiful house?
Fast Company reports on the growth of suburban divisions near big cities, with more than half of all U.S. residents now living in suburbs. The story exposes the continuous lack of creativity in American urban and community development. The reporter describes Highlands Ranch near Denver, which is supposedly the America's largest subdivision, and finds that it is the epitome of the suburban lifestyle. The article examines some alternatives to the megasuburban houses' ubiquity.
Tags: Highlands Ranch Community Association; Greater Denver Corporation; property owners; mortgages; urbanism; architecture
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Just Deserts? Arizona's Rural Sprawl: Fast Growth Spans Wildcat' Subdivisions
The Wall Street Journal reports on rural sprawl in neighborhoods near Tucson, Arizona. The areas are known as 'wildcat' subdivisions-"sprawling tracts of land divided by a succession of owners in a way that leaves them exempt from basic county building requirements, such as putting in roads, sewers, and sidewalks . . . The problem has spread like cancer through Arizona, largely because of the tremendous demand for land here, and state law that prevents county officials from clamping down on wildcat growth." In addition, "while wildcat residents pay the same property tax rate as others in the county, the per-capita revenue from wildcat areas is far lower " due to the value of lots and the inequality of mobile homes versus Tucson houses. County officials in the area say that "bringing wildcat subdivisions up to code, including land surveys, roads, sewers and all the rest, could cost as much as $55 million a year. . . money the county doesn't have."
Tags: rural sprawl; subdivisions; neighborhoods; lot-splitting; homeowners; county requirements; developers
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WNEM 5 Investigates: University Park
A WNEM-TV investigation reveals that a new subdivision of the City of Flint, MI, has been built on contaminated land. "The main contaminate in the soil naturally occurring arsenic, but it also could have contained Xylene." The story details how the city officials and the developers have guarded the secret for three years and have failed to inform the buyers and "contractors who were working in the dirt, including city employees." The reporters expose the lack of state laws requiring developers of new homes to disclose any potential problems.The investigation reveals that the state has warned the City of Flint not to use the soil as fill dirt, but the warning has been neglected. "...The contaminated soil has been trucked from here [Flint city] to countless other states ...".
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; housing; City of Flint; development; arsenic; soil
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Blueprint for Trouble
A Sun-Sentinel series investigates "construction problems in the City of Pembroke, one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation" in the aftermath of the Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The investigation has found that "every major subdivision built since 1992 had construction defects, and many of those homes had received city certificates of occupancy even though the city could not prove all inspections had taken place." The series details specific cases of homes with leaking roofs and windows, as well as potential safety problems. "Private home inspectors say they still see many of the same kind of shortcomings throughout South Florida that led to the mass destruction of Andrew." The reporters expose the practice of some city inspectors to spend part of their workdays at parks and fitness centers and focus on problems stemming from haphazard recordkeeping at the city building department.
Tags: FOIA; Hurricane Andrew; safety; building inspections; certificate of occupation; warranty; "lemon law"
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"The Future of Medina Hills"
Outcry over the city of Peoria's move to incorporate beyond city limits prompted this three-part series, in which editors write they "wanted to persuade suburban voters that they had a self-interest in a growing and healthy city, a recognition that ultimately would pay dividends indefinitely to central Illinois."
Tags: land use; incorporation; annexation; subdivision; farm land; growth; sprawl
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Toxic ghosts
The Florida Times-Union reports that "... Neighborhoods that now house thousands of people were previously dumping grounds for hazardous wastes that remain today in the soil and water at schools, subdivisions and parks." Additionally, the newspaper learned the city ignored warnings about potential health hazards, dragged its feet on cleaning the sites and donated property on the polluted grounds to the Habitat for Humanity.
Tags: EPA public health pollution Superfund toxic waste cleanup lead poisoning
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Sprawling Colorado -- who's to blame?
Native Coloradans curse the wave of California newcomers who they say eat up their state's undeveloped land. But much of California's suburban growth actually comes from Colorado citizens who flee the cities for the burgeoning suburbs. The Denver Post reports, "IRS figures show that newcomers from California and other states tended to settle in Colorado's urban counties first. At the edges of Colorado's metropolitan areas, the movement to newly built subdivisions was led by people from neighboring counties."
Tags: Development
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The Brawl Over Sprawl
Time reports that before America turns into one giant paved-over subdivision, people are fighting back. Al Gore's attempt to turn an assortment of suburban complaints into a vote-getting issue shows that suburban overgrowth has become a national headache. Instead of just fleeing the sprawl (and thus creating more of it,) people are groping for ways to fight it.
Tags: Suburbs; Gore; ecological threat
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A Growth Plan Run Amok
Twenty years ago, L.A. County politicians vowed to control urban sprawl. But the Los Angeles Times found that 40% of the time, when developer-campaign contributors asked for bigger building projects, the politicians obliged, sometimes permitting subdivision 700% larger than growth plans had allowed.
Tags: Natural disaster; Santa Monica mountains; Contributions