When far suburbs and exurbs have to pay their own way they often wind up not being able to. Those that don’t have an equivalent to California’s Prop 13 cap on property tax increases will have to raise property taxes substantially to continue maintaining roads, sewers, providing fire and police services, public schools, and so on. Places that do have an equivalent to California’s Prop 13 cap on property tax increases will have to find some other way to fund these services (local income and sales taxes, transfer taxes, toll roads, collection and insurance fees, etc.). Either way, a lot of the people who live in far suburbs and exurbs—which are extremely energy-hungry compared to cities, which is what many costs ultimately reduce to—will wind up pricing out not just future but current residents.

So yes, in fact, the “plan” is to pack people into high-rises—because that’s all they’ll be able to afford due to their relative energy efficiency.