House lots of one to five acres consume enormous quantities of land. That's why the region has lost a third of its farmland in the last 30 years, even as its population has dropped by 150,000 residents. If all Montgomery County was built at the same density as its county seat of Norristown, for example, more than 80 percent of its land area would still be undeveloped. Persuading middle-class people to live in towns might seem like a real stretch, but it's doable. Town-like densities can be a strength, not a weakness.
Traditional towns are easier to navigate than increasingly congested suburbia.
They enable families to live without the second or third car by allowing some trips to be made on foot or public transportation. They encourage children and the elderly to be independent, walking where they need to go. They foster community. While traditional commuter towns like Narberth and Swarthmore are still thriving and fashionable, older industrial towns like Norristown and Pottstown are not. Burdened with a large share of the region's low-income residents and social problems, these towns do not have the resources to tackle crime, clean up the streets and attract developers to fix up their magnificent but deteriorating building stock.