While the outcome was never really in doubt, it was nonetheless welcome to see Suffolk City Council approve zoning changes Wednesday night that will allow for mixed use developments.

Such developments bring residential, office and commercial facilities crammed in to relatively tight areas. It’s a popular concept among planners these days, particularly rapidly growing areas such as Suffolk.

The benefit to the community stems from people being able to live, work and shop within a small area, reducing the need for highway travel. This will relieve traffic congestion as well as taxpayers’ burden in having to build every larger roadways to serve the ever growing number of commuters.

Mixed use developments also preserve green space.

But now more than ever, with gasoline heading higher, it’s even more important that we reduce consumption and our reliance on foreign oil.

People will live closer to their work out of necessity. Few among us can easily afford a daily hour commute to work. Mixed use developments are the wave of the future and city council and the planning commission and planning staff did the right thing in pushing this measure through.