[jeremytliles]

I actually live in the Belmar development in Colorado that is mentioned in the article. For the most part, we've been quite happy with it. With a Whole Foods, restaurants, bars, public library, and many stores only a 5-minute walk away, we can go days without needing to use the car.

You're definitely making a trade-off though, paying substantially more per square foot than you would for older, traditional housing stock in the same area, and foregoing space and a yard. I get the feeling most people in this area will still choose the horrors of a 45-minute commute so that they can live in a cookie-cutter home with a postage-stamp yard, as opposed to a relatively small condominium.

The article doesn't hit this point very hard, but I also think it's important to get public transportation into the equation with these developments. Mass transit options are limited in this area, and I hate that I pretty much have to use my car to travel to downtown Denver or Boulder.