
Bob Wagner and Andy Barnett. Photo by Karim Olaechea
By Emma Castleberry
Development can feel like a dirty word when it comes to environmental conservation, but not all development is created equal. The world is facing a housing shortage and a climate crisis, and there is one strategy that addresses both of these issues at once: urban infill, the practice of rededicating urban land for new construction.

Launch party attendees, from left, Susan Bean, Greg Borom, Vicki Meath, Andy Barnett and Traci Thompson. Photo by Maddy Watson
A new initiative by the regional nonprofit MountainTrue, Neighbors for More Neighbors WNC (N4MN WNC), is devoted to promoting this practice. “Now that our nation’s housing shortage has reached such a crisis level, we wanted to put a bigger spotlight on our land use work and help our members and supporters understand the climate implications of how we address the housing shortage,” says Susan Bean, housing and transportation director for MountainTrue. “We desperately need to build more housing, especially affordable housing, in our region. We all know this. However, what we didn’t hear anyone talking much about was where and how this housing should be built in order to minimize our collective carbon footprint and protect our region’s farms and forests.”
Urban infill is the green counterpart to urban sprawl, the expansion of newly built suburban communities outward from a city’s center. The idea of fitting more people into the existing footprint of a city can be triggering for residents when they anticipate the greater demand on resources that comes with a denser housing situation. While the American Dream of a suburban home with a spacious lawn and white picket fence is deeply rooted in our society, an urban lifestyle is actually more suitable for many. “From older adults looking to age in place in their communities to young professionals who want to live in an efficient space without roommates, our housing policies simply need to allow for a greater diversity of housing types,” says Bean.

North Asheville neighbors. Photo by Susan Bean
Another common refrain in criticizing urban infill is that it contributes to the loss of urban tree canopy and has negative impacts on urban wildlife. “However,” says Bean, “when we don’t build in and up near our town centers, the only other place to build much needed housing is on land that hasn’t yet been developed and is often either farmland or forest. When we build further away like that, houses can be bigger (so they usually are), new roads and infrastructure have to be built, the loss of tree canopy and impacts to wildlife are actually far more harmful on a macro-level, and people end up driving longer distances to meet their daily needs which results in greater greenhouse gas emissions than if those families could live closer to jobs, schools and amenities.”
N4MN WNC promotes legal and regulatory changes that will increase access to modest home choices like accessory dwelling units, duplexes, triplexes and townhomes. The N4MN WNC platform also encourages the preservation and repurposing of existing homes and buildings over new construction, as well as increased investment in multi-model transportation like bike lanes and bus systems that will mitigate vehicular congestion.
Healthy communities are a core part of MountainTrue’s mission, alongside resilient forests and clean waters. Urban infill addresses all three of these issues at once by creating more housing, protecting forests and their critical biodiversity from development, and also improving water quality. “Urban areas usually have better stormwater policies and enforcement than do rural areas, and sprawling development causes greater harm to parts of our watersheds that haven’t yet been impacted,” says Bean.
N4MN WNC is joined in this work by a number of community partners, including Mountain Housing Opportunities (MHO). “MHO has spent the last 36 years working to improve neighborhoods by creating safe, decent, affordable homes in good neighborhoods,” says president and CEO Geoffrey Barton. “Urban infill has been and will continue to play an important role in fulfilling our mission. N4MN WNC’s broad coalition of groups encompassing an array of perspectives is a powerful platform for positive change in our development and land use patterns. It shows that there is broad support for many more well-located, affordable homes in our region.”
It’s a major undertaking to try to change our collective thinking about homes and communities, but Bean hopes that as our cities become more densely populated—which is inevitable—these perceptions will shift. “If we can help residents think about neighbors as beneficial to their daily lives, then more of us might be willing to welcome new neighbors into our communities,” she says.
Learn more and support the mission at MoreNeighborsWNC.org.