[Looking for Diogenes]

The Ann Arbor planners are likely to witness a repeat of what happened a few years back in Portland, Ore., where ambitious officials established a similar no-build ring around the city's perimeter. Undaunted families looking for bigger, newer houses with generous yards and home builders willing to provide them simply jumped the no-build zone and developed land outside Portland's jurisdiction.

It sounds like Ann Arbor is creating what may someday someday become a ring park, like Berlin has. No one is going to stop development without strangling a city - people need places to live. The best that municipalites can do is to try to channel that development in such a way as to make for a livable city. If the majority of Ann Arborites want a green belt, more power to them. But they shouldn't be surprised when suburbs spring up beyond that green belt.

[farmfriend]

Nor should they be surprised when housing prices sky rocket.