Is Smart Growth The Answer?

"Last year, when Roanoke County's supervisors decided they'd seen enough development sprawl its way through Poage Valley, their first instinct was to make people build their houses on bigger lots. Bigger lots mean fewer houses per acre, but it still eats up acres of countryside. Instead of losing land to quarter-acre lots, open space gets cut into slightly larger chunks.

...But some county residents decided the plan protected the rural western side of the county at the expense of the relatively urban eastern side. That discontent, coupled with campaign contributions from developers and real estate interests, drove many of the county's slow-growth supervisors from office.

...As home builders, we support smart growth. But it really has to be smart growth and not just a utopian vision of what neighborhoods should be."