USA Today: Letters
By Jim Durrett
Published March 16, 2006
Many Americans choose a longer commute for the big house arid big yard, but many are not 'so much marching away from costly and congested areas as being driven by the lack of diverse and affordable housing choices near our nation's job centers. ("Metro area 'fringes' are booming;" News, March 16).
In the Atlanta region; expected to grow by 2 million residents in the next 25 years, there is greater demand for housing choices and higher density higher-density urban housing - such as town homes and condos - and waIkable, mixed-use communities near job centers than is available.
Yet, it remains extremely' difficult to permit these developments in many areas because zoning regulations haven't been revised to address changing realities.
Until we increase housing choices by removing barriers that artificially restrict the market, support greater densities and mixed-use developments in appropriate areas, and integrate transportation investments with appropriate land use, Americans will have little choice about how their regions grow and the quality of life
those choices afford.
Jim Durrett
Executive director
Livable Communities Coalition
Atlanta
