Congress for the New Urbanism speaker highlights need for new planning, development

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.