Growth and development expand communities' opportunities by bringing in new residents, businesses, and investments. Growth can give a community the resources to revitalize a downtown, refurbish a main street, build new schools, and develop vibrant places to live, work, shop, and play. However, with the benefits come challenges. The environmental impacts of development can make it more difficult for communities to protect their natural resources. Where and how communities accommodate growth has a profound impact on the quality of their streams, rivers, lakes, and beaches. Development that uses land efficiently and protects undisturbed natural lands allows a community to grow and still protect its water resources. To more fully explore this issue, EPA modeled three scenarios of different densities at three scales-one-acre level, lot level, and watershed level-and at three different time series build-out examples to examine the premise that lower-density development is always better for water quality.

Cover title. "January 2006." Includes bibliographical references (pages 34-38).