Utilize Existing Infrastructure. Define your city limits. Define development limits. Establish urban growth boundaries to help put an end to unmanaged growth. Revise your zoning codes to build density downtown, encourage mixed-use development, and discourage strip development.
Subdivisions are costly.
They are costly in terms of dollars, but also in terms of a lost sense of community. The price tag for new infrastructure is very high. The greatest cost of a new subdivision, however, is not related to finances, it is the price you pay for a lost sense of community. Subdivisions are typically developed in an isolated area, outside the city limits. Although the subdivision itself, if planned well, may form a sort of neighborhood, it is still isolated from the heart of the community.