INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, ROORKEE

REVIEW PAPER ON URBAN PLANNING THEORY: "Sector Theory",

Homer Hoyt, 1939, “The Structure and Growth of Residential

Neighborhoods in American Cities”

Subject Code & Name: AR-657 Planning Theory & Techniques

Submitted by: Ashutosh Kumar Singh

Enrollment Number: 19511005

Course: MURP 1st Semester

Session: 2019-20
 Review Paper On Urban Planning Theory
"Sector Theory", Homer Hoyt, 1939, “The Structure and Growth of Residential
Neighborhoods in American Cities”
Ashutosh Kumar Singh ( ashutosh.4singh@gmail.com ); MURP student at IIT ROORKEE (Architecture & Planning Department )

Abstract:

With passing time urban areas have become increasingly complicated. Each urban area has a
variety of functions. The manner in which the humans use the land changes throughout the
urban area due to the different activities that take place. With time, a number of models &
theories have been created based on studies to identify patterns of land use to overcome the
complexity of land uses found throughout a city. Land use theories, attempt to explain the
layout of urban areas. Theories are used to simplify the way land is used in urban areas, simplify
complex, real world situations and also make them easier to explain and understand.

In this review paper, We will understand about the sector theory by Homer Hoyt; in which he
developed Burgess’s ideas further. Hoyt studied 142 cities in the United States. He recognized
that they were more complex than simple rings of land use, and suggested that industrial land
use is linked to transport routes. He also suggested that the location of transport and industry
within the city affects the location of residential districts. This results in ‘sectors’ of the city with
different land uses.

Keywords: Sector, Urban Land Use, Spatial structure, Economic base structure, Universal
design.

Introduction:

Geographers have formulated models & theories of land use to show how a ‘typical’ city is laid
out. One of the most distinguished of these is the “Burgess” or “concentric zone theory”. This
theory is based on the concept that land values are highest in the centre of a city or town. This
is because competition is greater in the central parts of the settlement. This leads to high
density buildings, high-rise being found near the Central Business District (CBD), with sparse,
low-density developments on the edge of the town or city.

Another urban model or theory is the “Hoyt's theory”. It adds sectors of similar land uses
concentrated in parts of the city though it is also based on the circles on the Burgess theory of
land use. It is noticeable how some zones, e.g. the factories/industry zone, radiate out from the
CBD. This seems to probably follow the line of a main road or a railway.

The Hoyt (Sector) Theory: The Theory that we will be discussing in this review paper is the Hoyt
(sector) Theory. The sector theory also known as the Hoyt's theory was brought forward by
economist Homer Hoyt (1895-1984) in 1939. In his long accomplished life, he put forward path
breaking research on land economics, refined local area economic analysis, developed an
influential approach to the analysis of neighborhoods and housing markets and was a major
figure in the development of suburban shopping centers in the decades after World War II. His
sector theory of land use remains one of his best known contributions to urban scholarship. It is
a theory of urban land use and revised the concentric zone theory of city development. Some
important points of the Hoyt sector theory are enlisted below:

 A city develops in a series of sectors, not rings. Different areas attract different activities
by environmental factors or by chance.
 As the city grows, activities within it grow outward in a wedge shape from the Central
Business District (CBD).
 Hoyt modified the concentric zone theory to account for major transportation routes.
Most major cities evolved around the nexus of several important transport facilities
such as sea ports, railroads, and trolley lines that radiated from the city’s centre.
 It is a mono-centric representation of urban areas.
 As growth occurs, similar activities stay in the same area and extend outwards.
 Hoyt realized that access to resources and particularly transportation caused a
disruption of the Burgess theory. For example, major highway to a nearby city or a rail
line may result in business development to preferentially develop parallel to the rail line
or major highway. Hence one side of a city may be industrial completely while another
sector may be completely rural.
Background & Explanation:

Hoyt, while accepting the existence of a central business district, suggested that various socio-
economic groups bolster outward from the city centre along railroads, highways, and other
transportation arteries. Take Chicago as a model, where an upper class residential sector
evolved outward along the desirable Lake Michigan shoreline to the central business district’s
north, while industry extended southward in sectors that followed railroad lines.

Hoyt, while formulating this model, observed that it was common for low-income households
to be near railroad lines, and commercial foundations to be along business areas. Noticing that
the various transportation routes into an urban area, including sea ports, tram lines and
railroads represented greater access, Hoyt propounded that cities tended to develop in wedge-
like patterns or “sectors” radiating from the central business district and centered on major
transportation routes. Easier access meant higher land values, thus, many commercial functions
would be close to the CBD but manufacturing functions would emerge in a wedge surrounding
transportation routes. Residential functions would grow in patterns of wedge shape with a
sector of low earning housing bordering manufacturing/industrial sectors (noise, pollution and
traffic makes these areas the least desirable) while sectors of middle- and high-income
households were located farthest away from these functions. Hoyt’s model pursuits to broadly
state a principle of urban organization.

Evaluation & Analysis of the theory:

Homer Hoyt, 1939, “The Structure and Growth of Residential Neighborhoods in American
Cities” :

The Central Business District (CBD) is the area of the city where retail and office activities are
clustered, and is the centre of the city, economically and geographically.

The low income residential tend to be close to railroad lines, and commercial foundations along
the business areas. These are mainly occupied by the poorer people who usually work in the
factories, so they have to live close to the industry to save transportation costs. The places, due
to traffic, noise, and smells and pollution emitted from the industries, tend to be less desirable
for living.

The middle income residential are further away from manufacturing and industrial sectors
making it more desirable to live in than low income residential. It joins the CBD for working
middle income people for easy access to work. These housings have trees and are much more
spacious.

The high income residential are the most expensive housing and have the greatest distance
from industrial sectors, which make this area to be having a cleaner environment with less
traffic jams, cleaner air and sounds. There is something called the spine, from the CBD to the
outer edge of the city, which is where the most desirable housing is found.
The industry sectors are predominantly set up along transportation lines such as water canals
and rail lines. It provides an income for the low income people of the society and the needs for
the people.

This model was created without considering cars. Many people at that time did not have access
to cars because of them being less popular and expensive, and creating risks of safety. People
at that time used public transportation, such as trains and street cars. At that time, cities were
relatively crowded, and the process of urbanization had not happened.

Hoyt suggested that high rent sector would expand according to four factors: 1. It moves from
its point of origin near the Central Business District(CBD), along established routes of travel, in
direction of another nucleus of high-rent buildings. 2. It will progress along waterfronts or
toward high ground, when these areas are not implemented for industry. 3. It will move along
the route of fastest transportation. 4. It will move toward open space.

(An extract from Hoyt’s work, showing the different rents charged in different parts of cities across the United States, which he
called ‘sectors’. Source: Hoyt, 1939 p77.)

Matt Burdett, 11 May 2018, "Urban land use patterns and models":

Hoyt’s model follows on from Burgess’s model in that the CBD remains in the centre of the city
because it is the easiest place to access and therefore there are more potential customers for
commercial businesses, and the sectors are clearly visible in rings radiating out from the centre.
However, there are important differences. The manufacturing zone is found along transport
routes – especially railways, but also highways and rivers or canals – that link the city centre to
other cities. The low class residential land is found nearby, with the high class residential the
furthest away. The high class residential may also follow transport routes, especially highways,
as wealthier people have private cars which they use to get to their jobs in the CBD.

Harry W. Richardson, Joan Vipond and R. A. Furbey, October 1974, "Dynamic Tests Of Hoyt's
Spatial Model":

Authors of this paper has done their hypotheses on the best known model of residential spatial
structure derives from the inductive generalizations of Hoyt, based on observations of land
value and property rental patterns in 142 United States cities. Although Hoyt's initial
hypotheses were based on cross-sectional studies, he also constructed a dynamic version of his
model based on three observations (1900, 1915 and 1936) in six cities (Boston, Seattle,
Minneapolis, San Francisco, Charleston, West Virginia and Richmond).

In the absence of long-run time series of citywide large samples of house prices or rentals has
prevented adequate testing of Hoyt's model. This article fills this gap by a spatial analysis of
house price variations in Edinburgh over the continuous period 1910-71.

Authors also have mentioned that Hoyt's model works on the Laissez-faire theory (Laissez-faire
is an economic environment in which transactions between private parties are free from tariffs,
government subsidies, and enforced monopolies, with only enough government regulations
sufficient to protect property rights against theft and aggression. The phrase laissez-faire is
French and literally means "let [them] do", but it broadly implies "let it be", or "leave it alone." A
laissez-faire state and completely free market has never existed, though the degree of
government regulation varies considerably.)

It should be noted that the rate of increase in the average price of the lowest ranked and the
highest ranked sectors has been approximately the same since 1951. This may be explained
partly in terms of the effects of chronic housing shortage and continued house price inflation
since 1954 on demand both in high and low status areas, partly in terms of the very broad
sectoral aggregations used in this analysis. Since council housing has been built in every sector
of the city, this has made for some leveling out in status in these broad sectors. There has been
a tendency, again noted by Hoyt himself in his observations of American cities, for much
greater residential differentiation at the very small area level, with the highest status residential
areas increasingly taking the form of much smaller spatial clusters, more homogeneous in
quality and clearly separated from lower (though still high) status neighborhoods around them.
This emergence of smaller, but more select, high price neighborhoods than the broad sectors
used in this analysis requires a much greater level of spatial disaggregation.

The Authors have found that the over a period of time high price sectors were shifting
outwards, this supports the hypotheses of the Hoyt's sector theory; Despite its age and the
taunt of spatial determinism, the simple model of residential spatial structure associated with
Hoyt (and its concentric zone predecessor by Burgess) has had a major influence on
contemporary thinking about the city.

Homer Hoyt, "The Utility of The Economic Base Method in Calculating Urban Growth" &
"Homer Hoyt on development of economic base concept" :

( Since the first definitions of basic and non-basic occupations by Haig in 1928, Nussbaum in
1933, Hoyt's own articles and reports from 1936 to 1954, John W. Alexander's Economic Base
Study of Madison, Wisconsin in 1953 and Richard B. Andrews' nine articles on the economic
base in Land Economics from May 1953 to February 1956, the economic base concept has
passed through a stage of critical examination from 1955 to the present time by Tiebout,
Blumenfeld, Pfouts and other writers )

It is asserted that the economic base as a method is too simple and crude for the purpose of
accurately forecasting the population of an urban region, chiefly because the ratio between
basic and non-basic employment is not constant but variable. There are two different
purposes for using the economic base method; the first is to estimate numbers of workers and
numbers of population, and the second is to calculate the money flow of imports and exports
into an urban region. Consequently, when the economic base method is used for estimating
future population, it is not necessary to take into account the dollar wages of basic workers or
the dollar value of all basic activities.
The ratio between basic and non-basic employment is subject to change as a result of three
factors:

(1) In time of war the service or non-basic activities are reduced to a bare minimum. As I
pointed out in Economic Survey of the Land Uses of Arlington County, Virginia7 in 1951, the
ratio of private to government jobs, which was as low as 1.10 to 1 in 1943, rose to 1.46 to 1 in
1947. Most of the government jobs were in fact basic so that, while this does not show the
exact ratio of change between non-basic to basic, it does afford an approximation.

(2) As employment in any urban region becomes more diversified and the community produces
more of the products which it consumes in its own borders, there is less need to produce goods
for export so that the percentage of total workers in basic activities will decline.

(3) As real family incomes increase a lower proportion is spent for the basic necessities of food
and clothing and more for houses, which are produced locally, or for services.

In using the economic base method in forecasting future population of an urban region,
allowances must be made for changes in the basic-non-basic ratio. Also Employment
opportunities determine the size of most cities except tourist resorts. On examination it is
realized that basic employment that are the primary cause of urban growth. These are which
produce goods or services for export outside of the given urban community and which bring
into the community the means of payment for the food, raw materials and manufactured
products which the community itself does not produce. These basic workers require the
services of retail merchants, local government workers, local transportation and utilities,
builders, doctors, dentists, and other professional workers; and these workers who administer
to the needs of the basic workers are called service workers.

Comments & Conclusion:

1. It looks at the effect of transport and communication links. (Numerous cities do seem to have
followed this model. If turned 90 degrees anti-clockwise, the Hoyt model fits the city of
Newcastle upon Tyne reasonably accurately.) Pie shaped wedges made by Hoyt compensated
for the drawbacks of the Ring model, Though it is not perfect but it takes into account the lines
of growth and also It allows for an outward progression of growth.

2. It also has some limitations:

(a) Hoyt has only given the references of the developed cities but it does not have any
reference regarding town development. Developed countries shows the same urban growth
pattern like Hoyt's theory but developing countries may have some fluctuations because It has
more population of medium income families, which wants to live near the CBD to save the
transportation costs, despite CBD always has more traffic congestion, and noise and air
pollution.
(b) The theory is based on nineteenth century transport and does not make allowances for
private cars which allow commuting from outside city boundaries where land is much cheaper.
This occurred in Calgary in the 1930s when many near-slums were put up in the outskirts of the
city but close to the termini of the street car lines. These are now applied into the boundary of
the city but are pockets of low cost housing in medium cost areas.

(c) It does not consider the new concepts of edge cities and boom burbs, which came up in the
1980s, after the creation of the model. Since its creation, the traditional CBD has diminished in
importance as numerous office and retail buildings have moved into the suburbs.

3. On a broader perspective we have to keep in mind that the land models & theories, we are
familiar with were designed based on studies in the 1920s, when the transportation and
technologies were not much advanced. So although the benefits and simplicity that comes with
the sector theory we cannot relate them with the present scenarios where the use of cars and
vehicles have changed and influenced the living styles. So as in the Burgess and Hoyt theories
the more crowded and busy places were the ones with the easiest access and low costs, the
present 21 century scenario is different where people even living in the outskirts of the city
living at much cheaper costs can access the inner busy part of the city.

4. The Sector model surely has had an extensive application in the 20 century with many
famous cities having followed or resembled the model but we cannot keep relating these
models with present modernized cities. With passing time, changes occur in every field and we
have to adapt with them and same is the case with the land use models. We have to look
forward towards new land use patterns and newer factors that are affecting them.

5. Homer Hoyt was a real estate consultant. He was never a planner; he never described himself
as such. Trained as an economist, his contributions to our understanding of urban growth, the
economics of land use, suburban location, market areas, and urbanization were for him, less
about planning and public policy than real estate investment.

6. His concerns revolved mainly around the development of tools and perspectives that would
enable real estate markets to function and real estate developers to profit. His point-of-view
was that of the investor. Consequently, he was less interested in how land uses could be
functionally organized than with how their organization and dynamics influenced land values
and created investment opportunities.

7. As Universal design concepts is new, which works on 7 principles for social development
(like: Equitable Use, Flexibility in Use, Simple and Intuitive Use, Perceptible Information,
Tolerance for error, Low physical effort, Size and Space for Approach and Use), but Hoyt and
other planners and economists haven't even think about it, not even as a future concern or as a
social solution to all. All of the 20th century Models and theories were made on the practical
observations and not a solution. But as a planner if they have considered the social
development along with the physical development, then the scenario and perspective of the
present scholars would have been different. Same concerns have been brought out by Nigel
Taylor, in "Urban Planning Theory since 1945".
References:

1. Harry W. Richardson, Joan Vipond and R. A. Furbey, "Dynamic Tests of Hoyt's Spatial Model", The Town Planning
Review, Vol. 45, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 401-414

2. Homer Hoyt, "The Utility of the Economic Base Method in Calculating Urban Growth", Land Economics, Vol. 37,
No. 1 (Feb., 1961), pp. 51-58

3. Homer Hoyt, "Homer Hoyt on Development of Economic Base Concept", Land Economics, Vol. 30, No. 2 (May,
1954), pp. 182-186

4. Homer Hoyt, " The structure and growth of residential neighborhoods in American cities", Progress in Human
Geography 29, 3 (2005) pp. 321-325

5. Daniel Bouffard, Sarah Cook, Samuel Eisenberg, Ransom Mowris, " Investigating the Relationships between
Urban Design, Microeconomics, and Livability: A Case Study of Hong Kong", Worcester Polytechnic Institute,
February 28, 2013

6. Robert Beauregard, " More Than Sector Theory: Homer Hoyt’s Contributions to Planning Knowledge", JOURNAL
OF PLANNING HISTORY, Vol. 6, No. 3, August 2007 248-271

7. Shashikant Nishant Sharma, " Planned Capital Cities of India: Chandigarh and Gandhi Nagar", International
Journal of Research (IJR)

8. Wolfgang F.E. Preiser, "Integrating the Seven Principles of Universal Design into Planning Practice"

9. Richard Florida, Zara Matheson, Patrick Adler & Taylor Brydges, " The Divided City: And the Shape of the New
Metropolis"

10. K. Werder & K. Wojtkowiak, " Decision Making in a Sustainable City A Case Study of Chicago", Department of
Business Administration FEKN90, Business Administration

11. Matt Burdett, " Urban land use patterns and models", GeographyCaseStudy.Com

12. Kushal Madhav, Nimita Tijore, " A Review Of Chandigarh- Planned City Of India", International journal on
advance research in engineering, science & management

13. Burgess, E. W., "The Growth of a City" , in Park, The City, Chicago UP 1925 pp. 47-62.

14. Haig, R. M., "Towards an Understanding of the Metropolis" , Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 40, 1926, pp.
197-208.

15. James Gillies, Industry's Role in Metropolitan Growth, a Public Management Problem (Los Angeles, California:
Real Estate Research Program, University of California, 1960), No. 9, pp. 41.

16. Homer Hoyt, One Hundred Years of Land Valties in Chicago (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1933),
pp. 481, 482.

17. Hans Blumenfeld, "The Economic Base of theMetropolis," Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Fall
1955 in Pfouts, op. cit., p. 277.
Websites:

1. https://pranilblogs.wordpress.com/2016/10/08/sector-model-a-brief-analysis/

2. https://14yagnvi.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/urban-land-use-models/

3. Elert, 2018. The Standard Model. https://physics.info/standard/

4. Florida, 2013. The Most Famous Models for How Cities Grow Are Wrong.
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5. Hill, 2005. Urban Settlement and Land Use (Access to Geography). https://www.amazon.com/Urban-Settlement-
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6. https://geographyfieldwork.com/UrbanModels.htm