The main justification for acerage and road frontage requirements is that in much of the state each house needs it's own septic tank and water well. So the footprint of a house is a bit larger than the house itself. These towns are not capable or willing to provide water and sewage, but the net result is that the town has to keep pushing into undeveloped land as it grows. It would make sense for a town to have a higher density zoning in areas of the more densely populated parts of town, but they would then have to address the issue of water and septic. Towns are required to allow for 'workforce housing' in at least half the town, but with the minimum size and frontage requirements, these lots hardly represent 'workforce housing'.