Letters to the Editor
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NIMBY
I lived in Atlanta until a few months ago, and I saw the good and bad sides to Atlanta's development issues. Although I left before the water shortage kicked in, I'm not that surprised.
However, there have been some attempts to reign in "sprawl", and in large part, they've been defeated due to NIMBY attitudes. I lived in an area where there was a proposal to build compact, affordable housing. It was near public transportation (as much as Atlanta has) and major highways, and because it was compact, it would have had much less impact than the same number of people living in typical suburbia. There were plenty of people willing to buy this kind of housing, but the locals wouldn't have it. They all screamed about how it would "bring down the value of their houses" and "bring in the wrong kind of people". I think the project was eventually dropped.
The result is, people end up moving outward in order to find affordable housing. (There are some fancy-shmancy condos downtown, but they're not anywhere near "affordable".) Which means more sprawl. I saw the same issues when I lived in the NY suburbs, and I'm seeing it here in PA where I live now. Current homeowners don't want anything built in "their neighborhood" other than McMansions, because they feel that anything else will "lower their property values". And because homeowners vote, and go to zoning meetings, and scream loudly, their views carry the day - and you end up with more sprawl.
Until someone solves the NIMBY problem, it's going to be difficult to combat sprawl.