The fight against sprawl has become a rallying cry for environmental activists frustrated by traffic congestion and loss of open land. Increasingly, groups fighting sprawl portray home construction in a harsh light. In a new book, Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl, architects Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk write, "As you creep along a highway that was widened just three years ago, you pass that awful new billboard: 'Coming Soon: New Homes!' Already the bulldozers are plowing down pine trees, and a thin layer of mud is oozing onto the roadway." Such images depict home building as an environmental affront, like factory smoke. "We can do something to manage growth now," says Sandy Bahr, conservation
