For the past 12 years, I’ve worked in Wells and lived in South Portland. As a transplant from larger cities, I’ve paid attention to each community’s approach to development as Maine has continued to grow and diversify. I believe our future is bright, and I welcome progress, but there will be tradeoffs along the way. I do not think we can stand still; the world is changing too quickly around us.

Maine’s lack of available housing is clear from many independent studies, soaring prices and the maddening competition renters encounter. In coming years, rising temperatures and stronger weather will drive even more Americans north to this land of plentiful fresh water, classical seasons and ocean breezes. Migration will bring fresh ideas, money, and energy to Maine, but unless we rapidly add inventory, the housing chasm will only deepen.

There are smart ways to grow and … less smart ways to grow. As someone who works in climate adaptation and coastal science, I’d prefer to see development concentrated into vacant, servable areas than rampaging over Maine’s precious forests and fields. Voters in Wells, a mostly rural and beach community of 10,000, recently enacted a six-month ban on large housing developments to rein in the single-family sprawl metastasizing from its Route 1 corridor.

I respect its citizens for standing athwart their town’s history, yelling “Stop!” as yet another 100-unit subdivision plan emerged. A small municipal staff and volunteer-run planning boards do the best they can, but towns like Wells benefit from a cautious approach, rather than greenlighting every developer’s proposal for every wooded parcel.

My hometown of South Portland, Maine’s fourth largest city, has more resources to apply to long-term development. And with more tools comes more responsibility to use them wisely. South Portland is currently considering a rezoning proposal to redevelop 30 acres of derelict waterfront over the next 20 years through the Yard South project. The submitted proposal is in line with the City’s 2012 Comprehensive Plan, which encourages higher density development and better mass transit, including water service across Portland Harbor. This is a proven way to build a coastal city. Developing Yard South for residential and commercial opportunities could, done well, be a model for many of Maine’s more dense communities.

I have seen larger cities develop their lagging waterfronts over decades. New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, Vancouver and others have experimented with ways to increase density, retain livability and broaden economic diversity. They all started smaller than they are now. Solutions to traffic, pollution and soaring home prices do exist, especially if planned and implemented over time. Deploying better mass transit to connect urban centers makes financial and environmental sense; smarter traffic signals and the coming revolution of autonomous rideshare vehicles will also profoundly improve congestion.

Redeveloping existing brownfields and vacant urban lots, as many Maine towns are doing, is smarter than clearcutting forests or paving farms. Should South Portland permit building units next to the sea, though? Yes, if the development is built suitably above sea level, as the Yard South plan proposes. The rising ocean will submerge lower coastal neighborhoods in the future, this we know. Maine’s Climate Action Plan asks communities to commit to manage multiple feet of sea level rise by century’s end. In South Portland, that adaptation might entail bulwarking certain streets and building up, on top of capped brownfield, instead of sprawling out into the floodplain. In Wells, adaptation may ultimately lead to the difficult conversation of relocating homes away from the beach and out of harm’s way. What both approaches seek is a continuation of place, a way for people to stay in the communities they know, even as those communities evolve to meet a changing world.

Misinformation on social media about real estate development is ever present, and I certainly understand the concerned voices in any community anxiously facing change. It’s natural to expect the worst possible outcome. It requires imagination, experience and time to envision what South Portland’s eastern waterfront, the beach community of Wells and other coastal areas of Southern Maine can be, and even what an entire interconnected, more populous region might become. We have opportunities and, frankly, an unprecedented amount of public funding to plan projects now and do them right. So that others may join us here in the bountiful state of Maine, I’m willing to make some tradeoffs and take some risks.

Build, baby, build? If we do it wisely and over time, I say: yes, in my backyard.