Instead of apartments, developers have put up hundreds of upscale houses, creating what some locals now call Cold Spring Creamery City. Neighboring townships took careful notes. So virtually every municipality in the area has smartened up. On offense, they have raised money to buy farms or the rights to build on farms that are in danger of being developed. We no longer think growth can be stopped. . . .
Growth is to be managed, directed, controlled.
These aggressive tactics have not slowed housing construction in Bucks County, said Searles of the homebuilders' association. But they have made life harder for developers. The level of anti-development feeling simply drives builders farther and farther away from Philadelphia, to the Lehigh Valley and Berks County, he said, leading to even more sprawl. Those houses will be built somewhere. No one is telling us where we can build.