Proposed Initiative-66 to limit new housing on Front Range ignites fears in real estate industry (Denver: how much, homes)

[BornintheSprings]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

I do think mountain living is desirable, but still question just how sustainable it is versus denser city living.

Dense cities are the most sustainable and efficient communities. Urban residents consume less water fuel and electricity than there rural counterparts. Thank goodness we don't all live in low density sprawl or the resource crisis we are facing would be astronomically worse.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by MountainEarth

Once again you guys are off the mark with your assumptions. Yes I do live close enough to enough services that I could live car free (if I so chose). Downtown Woodland Park actually has a Walk Score of 65, not 0. Groceries, hardware, my bank, my doctor are all within 0.4 miles or less of my home, and I live 0.64 miles from dead center of town. Bet you guys also didn't know Woodland Park has one of the very first true "tiny home" communities anywhere in Colorado at Peak View Park, or that this year two new affordable multi-family housing developments (one for individuals and families that make less than 50% of the median area income, the other a Habitat for Humanity redevelopment of an old hotel) come online on infill lots, or that we recently built a 168 unit apartment complex in our urban core, or that our community's Harvest Center is producing locally grown food in backyards and on scrap properties throughout town to be shared with those in need through area charities, at our local natural foods store, or sold at our community farmers markets (one of the best small town markets in the state, BTW) to raise funds for community gardening education. We're doing a lot up here. How about you two? What are you two doing to make your communities better places to live for all?

This is great info about Woodland Park. Thank you! The last time I saw Woodland Park in my rear view mirror, it was just a sprawl of isolated houses on large lots with a tiny "down town." Your post suggests to me that I shouldn't assume anything about a place I haven't seen in over ten years myself. Can you tell me if the city of Colorado Springs in its vast wisdom has finally implemented some sort of public transit between Woodland Park and the Springs?

BTW, I think folks should lay off MountainEarth who seems to be leading a less consumptive lifestyle than many. If anyone gets to whine about sustainable lifestyles and overcrowding on the Front Range, I'm going to promote myself to the head of the line. I'm a Colorado native who grew up in Colorado Springs when it had a population of around 75,000 or so. Denver was an overgrown cow town in a hick rural state. My how times have changed! I've been living on the Western Slope for the major part of my adult life because the Front Range had already become too crowded for me way back in the 70's.I don't live in some green environmental mansion in the clouds. Rather, I'm out here in some of the most beautiful country on earth - right in the shadow of the Sleeping Ute Mountains and a skip across the mesas from Mesa Verde. Increased population pressure in my old home drove me out here and the incredible increase in the price of housing elsewhere in Colorado keeps me here.

I live about 6 miles south of Cortez smack in the middle of farming and ranching country. On the one hand I am blessed to have my very own water share which allows me to grow my own fresh veggies in the summer and sell off the surplus at the local farmer's market for a bit of spare change. I am extremely environmentally aware and I see all too clearly the problems we are getting into as our species is rapidly depleting its own habitat. I also see the difficulties that us everyday folks have to contend with when just trying to find work and a place to live. Every time I have to make the 12 mile round trip into town, I cringe inwardly, imagining another species going extinct because of me and my gas guzzling ways.

I think that we all need to figure out better ways of doing things, but attacking one another for not being environmentally "pure" enough is not the way to accomplish this.

Just saying.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by BornintheSprings

Dense cities are the most sustainable and efficient communities. Urban residents consume less water fuel and electricity than there rural counterparts. Thank goodness we don't all live in low density sprawl or the resource crisis we are facing would be astronomically worse.

Could you document that?

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

I think that we all need to figure out better ways of doing things, but attacking one another for not being environmentally "pure" enough is not the way to accomplish this.

Just saying.

They've tacitly voiced their support for artificially inflating prices in order to make Colorado an exclusive club, going so far as to call growth cancer, supposedly in the name of sustainability. It's worth questioning the motives of people who'd be so elitist.

If this vote actually goes to ballot, people's ignorance and/or hypocrisy could quite literally force me to move for no other reason than that I was born too late.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by Katarina Witt

Could you document that?

Bigger yards, houses and commutes in the suburbs generally.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

Bigger yards, houses and commutes in the suburbs generally.

I'd like to see some numbers. "Conventional wisdom" isn't always accurate. Lots of people in the Denver suburbs work in the suburbs as well.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by Katarina Witt

I'd like to see some numbers. "Conventional wisdom" isn't always accurate. Lots of people in the Denver suburbs work in the suburbs as well.

I agree about conventional wisdom. Most of my posts today have been dispelling myths that people think are fact (in shape people don’t get altitude sickness, you get drunker at elevation)

This one makes sense to me because the bulk of water usage is watering your lawn and suburban lots are much bigger. Suburban homes also have more square footage in general so use more energy.

As for commutes, if you look at the traffic flows during rush hour, they are going in to the city in the morning and out of the city in the evening. Again I’m generalizing because I’m sure there are outliers, but this would seem to make sense.

[DrDog]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

I agree about conventional wisdom. Most of my posts today have been dispelling myths that people think are fact (in shape people don’t get altitude sickness, you get drunker at elevation)

This one makes sense to me because the bulk of water usage is watering your lawn and suburban lots are much bigger. Suburban homes also have more square footage in general so use more energy.
.

Don’t forget the large hoa common areas covered with heavily watered grass.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

I agree about conventional wisdom. Most of my posts today have been dispelling myths that people think are fact (in shape people don’t get altitude sickness, you get drunker at elevation)

This one makes sense to me because the bulk of water usage is watering your lawn and suburban lots are much bigger. Suburban homes also have more square footage in general so use more energy.

As for commutes, if you look at the traffic flows during rush hour, they are going in to the city in the morning and out of the city in the evening. Again I’m generalizing because I’m sure there are outliers, but this would seem to make sense.

Water, yes in the growing season. Re: energy use-many urbanites live alone in 1000+ sf condos, while suburban household size is larger. For many years there were 4 of us in our 2500 sf house, 625 sf per person. So we were probably using no more energy per capita, maybe less.

Actually, there is no "against traffic" in many areas during the morning/evening commute times, certainly not on I-25 except at the extreme north and south in the metro. The main employment nodes are downtown, ETC, Broomfield and Boulder. People are coming and going everywhere.

[BornintheSprings]

Originally Posted by Katarina Witt

Could you document that?

https://www.citylab.com/life/2012/04...e-greener/863/

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...bon-footprints

Urbanization: An Environmental Force to Be Reckoned With

https://books.google.com/books?id=tF...%2033.&f=false