A lot of sunbelt cities are just earlier in an development stage than big coastal cities, able to grow via sprawl, but making similar mistakes. There's still time to save them, but without changes things will get bad
Atlanta sees itself as growth-friendly, open for business & families
But as they run out of 1-family land within an hour's drive, they will rudely discover they have circa-1990 Los Angeles zoning
Indeed since AB2011 took effect this July, LA now has looser zoning than Atlanta!