By Katherine Boyce
When people think of environmental conservation, their first idea usually isn’t urban density. A common misconception is that density equals noise, traffic, more pavement and less green space. But in reality, one of the best things we can do to protect the environment both locally and regionally is to intentionally build more density where it makes sense to do so. Why? Because the opposite of urban density isn’t green space, it’s urban sprawl.
Unfortunately, most cities in Minnesota and the U.S. have grown through sprawl, not density. The suburbs seem to offer more space, but in exchange they require more people to drive more miles (in ever-increasing size of cars, known as autobesity), producing higher greenhouse gas emissions, all while paying the higher costs of personal vehicle ownership. And because of the way most suburban infrastructure favors the ever growing car (e.g. huge parking lots and no sidewalks), even short trips are often not safe or convenient to walk or bike. Meanwhile, using transit is difficult to impossible. Car-dependent development is why transportation is Minnesota’s largest source of climate change pollution.
Car-centric design is only one side of the sprawl equation; the other is housing. In recent years, awareness has grown around the housing shortage, where supply and development have not kept pace with population growth. A shocking percentage of people cannot afford housing (NPR: Housing is now unaffordable for a record half of all U.S. renters, study finds).
There is bipartisan energy to solve the housing crisis, but how and where we build is crucial. Building more and farther-flung suburbs only exacerbates the transportation problem, as well as increasing the already significant equity gap for those who need affordable housing close to jobs. Moreover, suburbs tend to eat up undeveloped land, paving over farmland, forests, and wetlands that otherwise store carbon and serve as habitat for other species. The beauty of density is it utilizes already developed land (e.g. vacant parking lots) and allows more people to live within short distances of jobs, transit, and amenities.
During the 2023-2024 legislative sessions, climate advocates championed major bills to address both housing and transportation. The 2023 Omnibus Transportation Bill passed historic funding for public transit. In 2024, a growing coalition of lawmakers and diverse organizations and stakeholders worked together on a suite of land use reform bills that would promote more infill development and eliminate single-family-only zoning, a major component of sprawl. Most bills have yet to pass, but some gained meaningful and bipartisan momentum. Sierra Club championed the “Comp Plan Clarity” bill that clarified Minneapolis’s long disputed 2040 Comprehensive Plan, protecting cities from anti-density litigation masquerading as environmental review.
Our growing coalition of climate, transit and bike/walk/roll advocates, combined with housing groups and sustainable developers will continue to work together on bills like Missing Middle Housing, People Over Parking, and Land Value Tax. These initiatives are oriented toward better utilization of land in already-developed urban areas, especially along transit corridors.
The car-dependency of suburban sprawl in the U.S. can feel inevitable—in part, because so many of us have adapted our time, money, and jobs to deal with it. But it doesn’t have to be this way. There are examples all over the world of cities where it is precisely their density and walkability that enchants us. And more and more, there are neighborhoods all over the U.S., including many in Minnesota, where walkability, bikeability, affordability, and accessibility are finally taking priority over car culture.
If we designed a city from scratch, one that prioritized environmental protection, public health, parks, and affordable housing, the best strategy at our disposal would be density. We may not be designing our cities from scratch, but that shouldn’t stop us shaping them to become the kind of place more people want to live—right here and now.
Katherine Boyce has a degree in politics and a certificate in visual arts from Princeton University, bikes a lot, and is communications lead for the North Star Chapter’s Land Use and Transportation team.
This article was originally published in the Winter/Spring 2025 North Star Journal, page 12 (PDF).