Rebchook Reprints Marilee Utter

John Rebchoock's October 1 Rocky column is an article by Marilee Utter which contains a lot of wisdom.

"By curtailing sprawl and sharing facilities regional and local jurisdictions can create affordable infrastructure. This infrastructure includes water, wastewater treatment, roads, transit, power, emergency services, snow removal, schools, fire and safety departments and more. The end of suburban sprawl cuts government service operating costs by 25 - 40+% because there is less physical area to maintain and service.There are many descriptive phrases: 'cluster zoning'; 'connected communities'; 'new ruralism'; 'new urbanism'; 'transit villages'. What it all comes down to is creating compact development in circumscribed areas while devoting a great majority of land to open space that can be used for active and passive recreation. But, what we aim for in 'connected communities' (to use one phrase) is to have a range of housing that goes well beyond the single-family model."