And job growth is also primarily in the suburbs. So most of the discussion accepts the inevitability of suburban growth, and covers a broad spectrum of ideas about how it should be shaped. The list is long and the issues can be technical and interrelated in complex ways, which is why the average person's eyes might glaze over. But most of the talk comes down to two or three of these topics. The big ones are housing density and transportation.
Open space is right up there as well, and in fact they are all connected with each other.
The very mention of increasing density causes many suburbanites' heartbeats to race. But for a wide range of smart growth advocates, from home builders to environmentalists, getting municipalities to increase the number of houses per acre they will allow is a primary planning objective. For one thing, clustering homes in a compact segment of a given piece of land enables builders to preserve open space within the rest of the parcel. For another, concentrating enough population in a single area makes possible stores and transit stops, which require density to operate efficiently. In effect, a subdivision becomes more like a traditional village or neighborhood.