As a Realtor, I can't possibly be against development. It wouldn't make any sense for me to be in this business. I do believe that some developments (including commercial developments) are better planned and executed than others, and that some are downright awful. I also believe that development can be done responsibly, following the ideas of smart growth. A great, GREAT resource for information on this is http://www.smartgrowth.org/ Locally, we have an advocate group for responsible development, 1,000 Friends of Connecticut. I feel their input is important because, among other things, they are encouraging discussions about what the Connecticut of the future will look like. The Hartford Courant's Rick Green wrote an article on Sept. 11, 2008 discussing 1,000 Friends of Connecticut and their new "smart growth scorecard" that I found interesting. The article can be viewed at: http://www.courant.com/news/local/columnists/hc-rgreen0909.art.artsep09,0,5849117.column