Every day, all across the US, huge plots of land
are being cleared, and new homes are being built. With the current housing shortage, this should
be a good thing. But the way we build this new housing is going to have an impact on everyone's
way of living, whether you live in a city, suburb, or rural area over the next several
decades. And unless something changes, some places will be destroyed forever.
So Spot's mother abandoned him. Usually, when sheep abandon their babies,
there's something wrong with them. But I always try to save them, no matter what.
This is Becky Ayesh, and she lives in a rural community called Old Miakka, located in Sarasota
County, Florida. But she's worried for its future. The county had a boundary line in place to ensure
all urban and suburban development happens on this land, and all of the land on this side is
preserved as rural. However, the county recently started allowing suburban development to continue
past the line, including a massive new suburban development that will encroach into Old Miakka.
Rather than try to celebrate the wonders of this historic rural community, instead they want
to pave us over and make us urban development. I asked her what that wonder
of her community looked like, so she showed me around this place is full of
nature, animals, and beauty. It's truly a complete contrast from the generic sprawl that's being
planned. And this itself is part of the issue. Growth isn't necessarily a bad thing. It brings
economic activity and new opportunities. But developments need to be compatible with
the areas where they're developing. And they haven't even tried
To say, "Well, okay, let's sit down. What could we do that we could do a development that
would harmonize with this community, that would be part of the fabric of this community, that would
be part of the growing of this community?" No, no, they haven't done any of that. They said, "This
is what you're going to get. Too bad, so sad." And this exact same style of endless single-family
homes with yards and driveways is happening all over the country. But people like living in the
suburbs. Not everyone wants to live in a dense urban area, and not everyone wants to live in
the middle of nowhere. After all, they wouldn't exist if people didn't like living this way.
So what's the answer here? Can these suburbs continue to grow while still preserving
land? And can they be done in a way that's affordable for people and financially
sustainable? Well, it's complicated. One of the biggest problems with this style of
suburban development is it's kind of an illusion. Not literally, but economically. The thing is,
all of these houses need roads, water, and sewer, and all of that infrastructure takes a lot of
money to build and maintain. A lot of times, it takes these houses several decades to bring
in enough tax revenue to cover the cost of the infrastructure. And that infrastructure
doesn't always last several decades, meaning more money is required to fix it. In
urban areas, they're able to generate much more tax revenue from the same amount of land.
For example, these are two identical sized areas. One is in the suburbs, and the other
is in a city. They both have road, water, and sewer lines. But all of these homes and
businesses provide significantly more tax revenue to pay for it, while these homes provide much less
tax revenue. On the other hand, rural areas don't require many services. Many rural areas have
wells and septic tanks, eliminating the need for water and sewer services. And many rural
roads are much smaller. This problem is fairly unique to building suburban homes in this way.
But this isn't the only way to build suburban homes. We can build homes in a way that's more
financially sustainable for local governments and can help preserve rural land by increasing density
while still keeping a very suburban feel. However, many people in the suburbs live there because it
isn't dense. But increasing density doesn't have to mean building a high-rise apartment
building. Sometimes just changing the layout of how homes are built can have a
huge impact on space. Take this street, for example. All of the houses on this side of the
street were built differently than the houses on this side of the street. Right away, you might
notice these houses have garages and driveways, and these ones don't—except they do, but they're
behind the house, built on an alley. This comes at the expense of a large backyard, although some
of these houses still do have a small outdoor space in the back. And they all have a front yard,
uninterrupted by driveways and cars. These are all still decently sized single-family homes too.
But this setup allows for double the amount of homes to be built compared to if they were built
like the houses on the other side of the street. Homes can be smaller too. This development is all
one and two-bedroom homes under 1,000 square feet for people who don't want or need a huge house.
Not only does this gently increase density, but these homes have a multi-use path that allows
for a safe and easy way to walk or bike to this mixed-use development. This development has
apartments, townhouses, restaurants, shops, offices, and recreation, and it's done with
small, safe streets. This development has three key aspects of more sustainable suburban
living: a variety of housing types, mixed-use, and pedestrian connectivity. It's important that
all three of these are taken into consideration for new development. For example, just increasing
housing density without diversifying how land can be used leads to large areas of isolated
residential use. This benefits hardly anyone. People looking for privacy and isolation end
up living right next to people, but people wanting amenities don't have any because they're
surrounded by residential development. Or in this development, there's both a variety of housing
with apartments and single-family homes, as well as stores and restaurants. But these
large roads and parking lots make it difficult and unsafe to walk or bike. These apartments
here are only 400 feet from this grocery store, but there's no connection through these
trees here, meaning you have to go all the way around if you wanted to walk. This was
not built with pedestrian connectivity in mind. Meanwhile, with developments like this
that integrate all three of these aspects, someone living in this apartment is easily able
to walk to any of these restaurants for dinner, and someone living in this townhouse can take
a short bike ride on the multi-use path over to this park. But this development isn't perfect.
While it's convenient for people living there, it's still fairly isolated. However, if this
development became more common, rather than the expanse of generic sprawl, it could create entire
communities interconnected in an efficient, safe, and convenient way. But do people even want that?
After all, these big, isolated subdivisions are incredibly common. But a lot of times, it isn't
what everybody wants; it's just what's available. Many people still want a single-family house but
don't want to worry about maintaining a lawn or want to be able to walk to a restaurant or just
want a small, simple house. But if that option doesn't exist for people, it forces them to choose
another option. This almost always boils down to two options, especially in the suburbs. Option one
is the traditional large single-family house, and option two is the generic apartment for rent. So
for those people that still want a house and they want to be a homeowner, option one is going to be
a better match for their needs, even if it means they have to maintain a lawn, drive everywhere,
and have more space than they really need. Imagine you're at an ice cream shop, and there
are only two items on the menu: a banana split and a single scoop cone. The cone might be fine for
some people, but some people want more than that, so they go for the banana split. Some love it,
but others might not have wanted that much and end up throwing some away. When you consider all
of the variables that are part of a banana split, this might seem like a bit of a waste
for someone who would have been fine with something else. But imagine the ice cream shop
started serving milkshakes. These are perfect for people who wanted more than the cone
but didn't need the entire banana split. And now not as many banana splits have
to be made. This is the same for housing. Just because you might want to live in a
single-family suburban home doesn't mean that building other housing types is going to take
away your single-family suburban home. Instead, it opens up more options for more people. For
some people, the status quo of American suburbs is all they're familiar with. Some people don't
realize what it would be like to be able to bike to a restaurant for dinner because they're only
used to being able to drive, and they think that walkability and density are a big city thing,
not a suburb thing. But it can be a suburb thing, and it's possible to have really nice, walkable
places in the suburbs. But we'd have to change how we build, and in the process, it would allow us
to grow the suburbs while preserving land, create more affordable housing options, and be more
financially sustainable for local governments. So let's pretend we have 1,000 people
moving to our city, and we have to build a suburban development on this piece of land.
If we follow existing development designs currently being built here in Sarasota County, we
end up with a street network that looks like this, along with the required water retention
ponds that handle runoff in Florida. We start building traditional large single-family
homes and quickly fill up our land with houses. If we consider the average household size of 2.5
people in the US, this means we only have enough housing for 500 of the 1,000 people. So we have
to buy more land, build more roads and utilities, and build more houses. Now we've housed all
1,000 people, but these people have nowhere to shop or eat, no parks, and no schools. So
we need to either buy more land to build these things or all of these people will have to drive
to the existing places, creating more traffic on the existing roads. But if we change how
we build, it would be a different story. Instead, let's start with changing the layout of
our street network. Rather than winding streets optimized for isolation, let's instead optimize
for connectivity and public space. We'll start with this area and treat it as a town center,
building some mixed-use buildings. Buildings like these would provide places to shop, eat, work,
and live. Next, we can build different types of housing. This could be things like duplexes,
which have two dwellings per unit, cottage courts, which are small individual dwellings that share
a common space, townhouses, which are a row of dwellings in a larger building, apartments, and a
variety of detached single-family homes, including ones with front yards and garages in the back,
and some traditional larger ones with big yards and driveways. While the average household size
is 2.5 people, now that we have a wider variety of housing types, different-sized households
can choose a housing type that might be a better match for their needs. For example, a single
young adult might choose to live in a cottage, while a retired couple might choose to live in a
townhouse, and a family of four might choose to live in a big house with a backyard. Taking this
into consideration, we're able to redistribute our average household size by housing type, and
when we look at our entire development, we've managed to not only house all 1,000 people without
having to buy any additional land, but we've also made space for shops, restaurants, and offices.
In fact, we still have some room to spare. We can use this space for a school, parks, public
pools, or more mixed-use. Since we didn't have to purchase more land, all of that additional
land purchased in the first example is able to remain untouched, whether that's natural
wildlife habitat or productive farmland. And the local government doesn't have to pay
for and maintain all of those additional roads and utilities that would have been built.
This example uses 1,000 people and a small piece of land for the sake of simplicity to
show this concept. But when you apply the same concept to the scale of some of the massive
developments going in with several thousand acres, this can equate to huge differences in
terms of land saved. And keep in mind, this is still very much a suburban development.
Sure, it'd be possible to fit 10,000 people into the same amount of space and would be much more
efficient, but that would make this feel much more like a dense urban setting. And the reality
is many people don't want to live in that level of density. In this example, almost half of the
people living here would still be living in detached single-family homes. Everyone can still
own a car, with all of the homes having garages or dedicated parking spaces. But it would also be
easy to get around by walking or biking. And for those driving around a development like this, the
streets would be designed in a way to encourage slow speeds and be significantly safer than many
of the high-speed roads common in the suburbs. It's always fascinating to rethink how land can
be used because it uses problem-solving skills and creativity. And there's a free and interactive way
to use those skills to learn new concepts in math, science, engineering, and data with the sponsor of
this video, Brilliant. Brilliant is where you can learn interactively by doing hands-on activities
and courses related to things like modeling data, thinking in code, or exploring the world of AI.
With thousands of lessons, you'll find something that's tailored to your interests and skill level.
When you sign up, you take a quick quiz, and you're automatically matched with courses that fit
your skill level, so you don't have to worry about it being too easy or too difficult. A key part of
problem-solving is thinking like a problem solver, and one course I found interesting lately is the
scientific thinking course. It engages you with aspects of our physical world with key scientific
principles and theories, from interacting with simple machines like gears and pulleys to
building bridges. These hands-on lessons can help you sharpen up some of your problem-solving
skills that you can add to your daily routine in a fun and productive way. You can begin this lesson
or one of the thousands of other lessons free for 30 days by visiting brilliant.org/streetcraft
or clicking on the link in the description. And you'll get 20% off an annual premium subscription
for being a Streetcraft viewer. If you want to start a new and productive habit that will
teach you new things tailored to what you find interesting, go check out Brilliant.
With this type of development, it would still feel like the suburbs but
with a small-town feel. And it turns out, this kind of development was actually the original
plan for expanding the suburbs in Sarasota. When developers were looking to begin building on
rural land, the county put together a plan to prevent overdevelopment of generic suburban
sprawl and protect the character of these natural areas by creating these small villages
and maintaining the rural open space around them. It was intended to be environmentally friendly, economically self-sufficient, it
wouldn't stress municipal budgets. This is Cathy Antunes, a longtime
Sarasota activist and radio host. Before developers could leverage themselves,
before we had automobiles, development was built always in a way where it was financially
sustainable immediately. And if you think about how did towns in the United States develop? They
had the town part, which was like a Main Street, a mixed-use, stores with apartments overhead, a
place where people come and gather and walk, go to restaurants. And then the rest was rural. It was
farmland and places where people work the land. And this is what the plan was
trying to get back to. But as developers continued building,
the plan was essentially ignored. It was completely gutted by our
county commission. They believed developers who fund their campaigns
that this wasn't economically viable, which is ridiculous. I mean, hundreds of
years, this is the model that's worked. But despite this, developers have
continued to build what they want to. They don't want to change their development
model. Why should they? They can basically get the county commission to do what
they want. They make a lot of money, and people are buying it. But the community
winds up holding the bag on the long-term cost. The thing is, these developers don't have to
maintain this infrastructure over time. They can get their money and move on to the next new
development, leaving the local government stuck with tons of new infrastructure they'll have to
maintain. This might be fine right now since it's all brand new. But if local governments
allow development to continue like this, eventually, something will have to happen.
This could lead to a few different outcomes. First is that the infrastructure
begins to fall apart. Second is that budget cuts happen to
other vital aspects of running a city. Or finally is that taxes increase for residents
to pay for it. This is truly one of the only ways suburbs like this can exist and be financially
sustainable. In most suburbs built like this, people living in these developments aren't
being taxed enough to pay for the services required. Of course, nobody wants to pay
more taxes. But this is an economic reality if you continue to build more infrastructure.
So what if we don't build more infrastructure in the first place? Instead, we can rethink
how we use the land where the infrastructure already exists. And it can be done in a way
that increases housing without completely changing the fabric of existing neighborhoods.
This example in Sarasota built 357 units, primarily as townhouses and apartments, in a
spot previously occupied by an underutilized shopping center and an abandoned warehouse, all
close to downtown and right on a multi-use rail trail that runs through the county. Adding more
housing doesn't just have to be on big plots of land either. Many cities have begun allowing
accessory dwelling units or ADUs. These allow for more people to live on existing property by
adding something like a small backyard cottage, converting a garage, or converting part of an
existing house into an additional unit. Typically, this is illegal due to zoning restrictions that
only allow one single-family residence per lot. But those restrictions are changing in some
areas, increasing housing supply in a smart and efficient way. Sarasota County started allowing
ADUs a few years ago, allowing them to increase density on already developed land. However,
many neighborhoods are controlled by homeowners associations, which follow their own set of rules
and almost always don't allow ADUs. The more that is built like this, the less land that has to
be cleared for new development, and the less infrastructure that will have to be maintained by
the local government. And the county knows this. So why are they still allowing more development
that will end up draining their budget? I mean, we need a different set of values
at the county commission, and honestly, that's not going to come from people who are
plucked to serve the needs of developers. We need homegrown candidates who are committed
to a good, prosperous, strong, financially sound community long term, not just in a few weeks. We
need a more educated electorate. A lot of people walk into that voting booth, and they think, like,
if you're for fiscally responsible candidates, people assume, I think that's changing, that
that meant the Republican Party. And Sarasota has a Republican Party majority very often.
Just because someone has an R by their name, they may be the last person that's
actually fiscally responsible. This is why it's so important to do research
on who you're voting for so you can vote for people who actually represent your interests.
We need to really start and begin with valuing the importance of local government. If you care about
the environment, all of these land-use decisions, most of them are local. If you really want to
save the environment, you need to know what your city is doing and what your county is doing,
because that's where the rubber meets the road. As suburban growth continues, both in
Sarasota County and all over the country, it's crucial that we have the right leadership
that shares the value of smart and responsible development. And when that happens, we
can change what the American suburbs look like. This goes so much further than just
housing, too. It will affect how we build roads, our sense of community, convenience,
and more—all of which you can learn about in this next video. And be sure to
subscribe to see more videos like this.
