Creating EcoDensity

Planning Director Brent Toderian talks about the difficulty of convincing people that density isn't scary.

"Talking about density in cities is not easy," he says. "It's not easy politically, it's not easy culturally." In fact, he says "the so-called 'D' word" is often the third rail of local politics-the issue that no one wants to touch-but that as long as it's done right, density doesn't have to be controversial.

"When folks suggested height or were concerned about height," Toderian says of the community meetings he's attended, "I often pointed out to them that the initiative was not called EcoHeight And often individuals are more sensitive to height than they are to density."