Comment on J. Terrence Farris's "The barriers to using urban infill development to achieve smart growth''

Farris's article shows that urban development has changed since the Housing Act of 1949 was enacted more than half a century ago. The problem is that greenfield locations have a competitive advantage over vacant or underused sites in existing urban areas. Only a small percentage of development is co nstructed on existing urban land. But even as the NIMBY ("not in my backyar d") factor plays a major role in driving development out of existing urban locations, greenfields have now sprouted their own NIMBYs. Suburbs that wer e land-rich a generation ago are land-poor today, and instead of stealing d evelopment from the central city, they must now-like the central city itsel f-fight to protect their turf from greenfield suburbs farther out on the fr inge. Despite his well targeted arguments, Farris misses a larger point abo ut the changing metropolis and what it means for the greenfield-infill rela tionship.