A LOT!

Mandated "low" density development engenders significant adverse economic and environmental consequences, including:

 ACCELERATED URBAN SPRAWL - Mandated low density development requires more land to serve a given population than conventional density restrictions.

HIGHER INFRASTRUCTURE COSTS - Mandated low density development, because it covers more area than conventional development densities for a given population, requires more miles of public roads, water and sewer lines, and other utilities.   Additionally, local governments are compelled to add more patrol vehicles and fire stations to serve the area than would otherwise be required.

LOWER TAX REVENUES PER UNIT OF LAND - Mandated low density development, in reducing the number of dwelling units per acre, reduces the tax revenues per unit of land, thus requiring local governments to increase taxes to pay for the increased infrastructure costs engendered by that low density development.

EXCLUSION OF LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME FAMILIES - Mandated low density development increases the cost of housing beyond the affordability of low and middle income families.  As a result, those very individuals who make any community work - police officers, firefighters, clerks, laborers, technicians, tellers, nurses, teachers - are often unable to purchase a home in the community in which they work.

GREATER COMMUTING DISTANCES - Because mandated low density development accelerates and exacerbates urban sprawl and forces low and middle income families out of the low-density housing market, commuting distances necessarily increase.  This adds to traffic congestion, travel time, increases in traffic accident potential, and a generally decreased quality of life.

MORE AIR POLLUTION - Mandated low density development necessitates greater travel distances regardless of the destination - work, school, day-care, church, shopping centers, medical facilities - and thus results in more vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT).  Given that motor vehicles are responsible for approximately 90 percent of the carbon monoxide and more than 50 percent of the ozone in urban areas, the greater the VMT, the more air pollution will be created.  This not only increases the health risk to urban dwellers, but jeopardizes continued economic development in those areas.

LESS OPEN SPACE AND WILDLIFE HABITAT - Mandated low density development, by occupying more land than a conventional development would otherwise require, actually decreases open space, scenic vistas, potential park land, and wildlife habitat.  Increased noise and light pollution can also result.  James Tripp of the Environmental Defense Fund, in a speech in Washington, D.C., in October 1990, called "mandated low-density development" the "worst thing that could happen to the environment."