Working on opening up our language of description, with the implicit critique that entails, is "A Field Guide to Sprawl", written as a dictionary of terms by Dolores Hayden, a professor at Yale, who wrote last year's Building Suburbia, a detailed cultural history of suburban growth, its shifts and evolutions.
some terms:
toad: temporary, obsolete, abandoned or derelict site
litter on a stick: billboard
boomburg: sprawling subdividing area
Defining Sprawl: From A to Z