IB-2006-C (July 2006)
Author: The Center for the American Dream
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Smart-growth planning and other land-use restrictions create artificial housing shortages that dramatically reduce housing affordability. Penalties from planning cost Colorado homebuyers $4 billion in 2005, which is far more than any possible benefits from such planning. Local officials should remover barriers to housing construction and find better ways to attain the benefits smart growth is supposed to produce.