Although sprawl and population growth aren't automatically synonymous, they are in Charlotte. The city's population grew 22 percent in the 1990s, trailing only Phoenix among the country's large metropolitan areas. That spread-out pattern means more driving and more air pollution, said Ted Arrington, head of the political science department at UNC Charlotte. A sprawling city has to provide services over a broader area than a more densely developed area with the same population. It must build more roads, longer water lines, string more electrical wires, buy more buses and hire more police.
Life revolves around the car.
Charlotte is wrestling with the consequences of sprawl on two of its most important civic services - water and transportation, said Parks Helms, chairman of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. And Charlotte's smog, from auto exhaust and power plants, has the Environmental Protection Agency threatening to block new road construction. Most sprawling U.S. cities 1. Nashville, Tenn. 2. Austin, Texas 5.