Development decisions in the United States frequently fail to consider the values of environmental amenities. As a result, devel- opment may occur in ways that greatly reduce these amenities with negative environmental, economic, and social consequences. Communities rarely intentionally omit such amenities from their planning, rather, they fail to consider them because they lack means for incorporating them into market driven land use decision- making or because they are unaware of their values. If the values of these amenities were better-recognized and incorporated into land use planning, negative impacts associated with urbanization could be minimized. In this way, greater recognition of the economic impacts of environmental amenities could provide justification for actions that seek to preserve them.