Existing urban freeways that would not even be considered now

[hbelkins]

The college basketball team there actually plays very little of a role in my dislike for the city and its culture.

I was referring more to your rural/urban bias than to a certain university...

Yep. I don't like crowds and I don't like traffic jams. Two things that are inherent in bigger cities. I get frustrated on Friday afternoons in the little town of 2,500 where I work because traffic often backs up on KY 15.

[cpzilliacus]

Even in Los Angeles, much denounced by the Smart Growth industry, has a de-facto urban growth boundary to its north in the Los Padres and Angeles National Forests.

Which is caused even without that land being national forest by the fact that it's very mountainous. Can't make urban out of mountains.

Not so sure about that (in Maryland, such proposals would be summarily dismissed by those that approve development, but not so in California). 

I am not an architect (and I don't know how they do it or even how they get building approvals), but there are plenty of homes within the corporate limits of the City of Los Angeles, as well as other parts of Southern California that are built on so-called "steep slopes."  Consider a lot of the development in the Hollywood Hills near the Hollywood sign.  And there's plenty of steep slope development in Pasadena overlooking the Rose Bowl.