I’m in the northwest Berkshires, and we want to remain largely rural but also want to increase affordable housing. Enough of us still remember fondly the small town intermingling of people from different occupations and backgrounds in schools and churches, on town committees, and so on. Remaining rural is also important because tourism is crucial to our economy, and the tourists come in large part for the rural beauty. At the same time, we have a lot of second home owners, which wreaks havoc with housing stock and prices for locals, including the services workers who contribute directly to the tourist economy. Affordable housing, even for people with middle class incomes, has been a major challenge for decades now.
Like other towns and cities in Berkshire County (I think there are only two cities), our population is concentrated in the town center; for the most part, the population decreases as you get further from the center, and most of the town’s borders abut other rural areas. Most of us would like to see zoning changes to allow for more housing in or near the town center, but that’s where we run up against (among other problems) the fact that sewer lines would be strained. Development of the rural lands is impeded not just by our desire to keep them that way (and by the economic advantages of rural beauty for tourism), but also by the cost of extending sewer lines AND the paucity of places where percolation rates allow for septic tanks. A completely different set of water and sewer challenges!