CIAO DATE: 11/2013
October 2013
In response to state laws and federal incentives, cities and metropolitan areas across the country are engaged in "sustainability planning" aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In many if not most cases, this planning seeks to reshape urban areas to reduce the amount of driving people do. In general, this means increasing urban population densities and in particular replacing low-density neighborhoods in transit corridors with dense, mixed-use developments. Such planning tramples on property rights and personal preferences. To increase urban area densities, planners use containment policies such as urban-growth boundaries or greenbelts. Owners of land outside these boundaries are restricted from developing their land. Inside the boundaries, housing prices rise, making homeownership in general, and single-family homes in particular, unaffordable to large numbers of people.
Resource link: Reducing Livability: How Sustainability Planning Threatens the American Dream [PDF] - 429K