Mitchell Silver, past president of the American Planning Association and chief planning and economic development officer for the city of Raleigh, N.C., spoke about Austin's need to look toward the future in its planning efforts to accommodate the next generations' needs.

"We're going to start seeing values and needs change in our country, and it's going to be ugly over the next 10 years," Silver said. "The battle in our country is not about conservative or liberal, it's about the values of the generation and it will go one for the next 10 years at least."

Silver spoke Oct. 30 at a Congress for the New Urbanism–Central Texas luncheon. The theme of the luncheon was Are We Planning for the New Reality?

As part of this new reality, Silver said people will get older and live longer, demographics will become more diverse and next generations will hold differing values than their predecessors. The new generations will be more environmentally conscious and have a higher focus on urban lifestyles, with an emphasis on where they live and not necessarily where they work—all in an effort to consume more experiences, he said.

For Austin, Silver said the population is expected to double during the next 30 years, and in the next 10 years the area is expected to add approximately 70,000 new housing units. Silver guessed that more than half of those units would be multifamily units and apartments. He also said the Austin metropolitan statistical area ranks third in fastest-growing population in the country.

The Austin MSA includes Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties.

"When people very often say, 'I don't want to grow,' you might as well say, 'I don't want it to rain.' It's going to happen," Silver said.

Silver said that fighting against growth and increased density is a choice that has real consequences.

"In our communities that said no to density, and I said, 'You know what you're saying yes to? Young people and seniors, we don't want you in our community,'" Silver said.

Silver said Austin is very similar to Raleigh in its tale of growth and that his city decided to curb suburban sprawl in favor of density.

"We decided we didn't want to go that route anymore because to maintain that infrastructure would be unsustainable, and we decided that we had to go to a new path," Silver said.

In Raleigh, Silver said that it would take 150 acres of suburban real estate to equal the same taxable value on one acre of urban real estate.

"What I told our tax payers is that if you do not support compact development in the right places what you're really saying is, 'Raise my taxes. I'll take care of the tax load,'" Silver said.

When analyzing Austin, Silver said he sees many of the same trends that he saw in Raleigh.

CNU-CTX is an organization that emphasizes creating better places through development.

"[The board of directors] meets on a monthly basis, we delve deeply into the issue that face us as a city, and I think we do a great job trying to bring to the forefront and to educate opinion leaders and engage citizens on all the issues that affect our ability to grow as a great city," President Cid Galindo said.