FAQ
Would New Homes Destroy the Remaining Forests and Rural Areas?
Look at the data and draw your own conclusions!
We’re Already Sprawling Too Much
It’s a fair concern: if we need more homes, does that mean paving over the places we love? The truth is, the best way to protect forests and farms is to build more housing inside our existing cities and towns—not on the outskirts.
Massachusetts loses thousands of acres of open space every year—not because of dense housing in downtowns, but because of large-lot suburban development.
According to a 2020 state report on land conversion, the Commonwealth is losing about 13 acres of natural land every day, mostly to low-density housing.
That kind of sprawl increases car dependency, fragments habitats, and makes climate change worse. Building more compact housing near jobs and transit is the antidote.
More Homes in Town Means Less Development on the Fringe
When we build infill housing—think apartments, triple-deckers, townhomes—we take pressure off rural areas. In fact, one of the best tools to fight sprawl is to increase zoning capacity in the places we’ve already developed.
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A 2019 policy brief from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy found that smart growth strategies like upzoning and transit-oriented development protect open space while still allowing communities to grow.
Put simply: if we don’t allow more homes in walkable places like Haverhill’s downtown and village centers, people will still need homes—and developers will look farther and farther out.
Rural Sprawl Hurts Everyone
When homes get built far from town centers, it leads to:
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More traffic
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Higher infrastructure costs for towns
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Worse access to schools, jobs, and healthcare
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Loss of farmland, wetlands, and forests
A 2019 study in Landscape and Urban Planning showed that dispersed sprawl had a much higher environmental impact than compact urban development—even when new homes were built “green.”
We can’t claim to be protecting nature while banning new apartments near bus stops.
Bottom Line
The question isn’t whether to grow—it’s how we grow. If we care about forests, farms, and our planet, we need to steer new housing into the places that are already built up. That means saying yes to more homes in town, so we don’t have to bulldoze what’s left outside it.