As cities continue to grow outward, certain fallacies about the land conversion process are becoming incessant. First, there is the notion that metropolitan areas on both coasts and around the Great Lakes are growing together and that few opportunities remain for introducing order into the urban pattern. A second common view is that farmers are being pushed off their land by a few large homebuilders who are in position to call all the shots. And, a third fallacy is that local officials are bound to a passive role in this process by the limits of local government. In this article, these views are disspelled. The thrust of the authors' argument is that not only are there low population densities and high amounts of vacant land within the urbanized areas, but also that land conversion is a process based upon numerous day-to-day negotiations, and that any ineffectiveness of local officials is attributable to their electing to participate as accommodators, not initiators.