The Fallacy that Anti-Development is Sustainable

Suburban homeowners frequently complain about the rampant development across South Florida. When a developer eyes a parcel as a good opportunity for increased density, outrage within the community is a given. Complaints range from traffic congestion to decreased privacy– the validity of each is debatable– but one complaint that I hear over and over, which is inarguably wrong, is that development and increased density is not “green."

 Many people seem to believe that building a park or a small single family home in the suburbs instead of allowing increased density is “greener” because, well, lawns and hedges have more of the color green, but this does not mean that they are sustainable. Developers want to build housing because there is a demand for housing: populations are rising and Northerners are tired of freezing each winter. When a developer comes to a neighborhood and suggests a new building with increased density and the neighborhood successfully fights against it, that housing demand doesn’t simply disappear just because a project is halted. The demand simply gets placed elsewhere, somewhere further away. Even though there is plenty of space within the Urban Development Boundary Line to build more homes, because of the numerous obstacles present like neighborhood resistance, developers have moved further west, slowly eating up the Everglades.

We are presently witnessing a mass global extinction of both plants and animals at rates 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than regular extinction rates of Earth’s past. The overarching cause is habitat loss. (You thought I was going to say climate change, didn't you?) Suburban sprawl has consumed immense areas of land and created barriers that do not allow for animals to cross between fragments of remaining green space. While this doesn’t really bother squirrels and pigeons too much, a bald eagle, resident of the Florida Everglades, for example, generally requires 820 feet of distance between it and the closest human or domesticated pet. Many animals need large contiguous wilderness spaces in order to survive, not a conciliatory public park full of eager dogs. One may think they are doing a service to nature by advocating a park space in the middle of suburbia but instead they are indirectly contributing to the loss of more valuable habitat by limiting the neighborhood’s development potential.

But who cares about animals? What’s on every South Floridian’s mind is traffic. Bad news: when we limit development in our neighborhoods and push it further out, we actually make the traffic problem worse. As housing gets built further from where most jobs are located, more commuters driving longer distances get added to the highways. The problem with traffic extends so much further than simply how frustrating it is to waste two hours of your day behind the wheel. Collectively, driving adds inconceivable amounts of pollution and carbon dioxide into the water and air and driving forces us to rely on oil and gas frequently obtained from politically unstable areas. This is not sustainable!

           
Whatever one’s reasons are for opposing development, please refrain from quoting sustainability as a legitimate excuse. The most sustainable thing we can do in South Florida is increase density within the land we have already claimed and leave the Everglades alone.

 You might be thinking right now, no way am I going to let some high-rise condo into my single family home neighborhood! You don’t have to! There is some middle ground available. Townhouses and small apartment buildings or condos can help satiate housing demand and thus reduce the cost of living for everyone while not appearing drastically out of scale with the surrounding neighborhood. The problem is that Miami’s zoning code makes it very difficult to develop small buildings because of parking requirements that essentially force developers to go big or go home. This Thursday, Miami Commissioners will be meeting to hear public opinions on various topics including a proposal to eliminate parking requirements only for buildings under 10,000 square feet that are located close to public transit and not within areas zoned suburban. Allowing this small but significant change to Miami’s zoning code is a big step toward making Miami a more sustainable city. Please email your commissioner or attend the meeting to share your support.