Presidential hopeful Al Gore, a man who claims to have been a home builder before entering public life, has managed to raise the hackles of the nation's home builders by saying too much land is being gobbled up by suburban development.

National Association of Home Builders President Charlie Ruma doesn't dispute the fact that during the five-year period between 1992 and 1997, some 16 million acres of raw land was converted to urban uses. But the Columbus, Ohio builder says the Clinton Administration can't have it both ways.

On the one hand, the White House "is the first" to take credit for perhaps the longest and most prosperous economic expansion in the country's history as well as an unprecedented increase in home ownership to record levels, Ruma points out. But on the other hand, the Administration "turns around and blasts development" for taking too much open space.

The Democratic front-runner is a staunch advocate of so-called "smart growth," the catch-all planning strategy that, among other things, encourages comprehensive land use planning in local communities and the use of such innovative techniques as cluster developments and higher density zoning.

But so is the NAHB, which is working with the nation's mayors and the Administration to encourage infill development and to stimulate new housing in the inner cities and older suburbs. Indeed, the 200,000-member trade association has pledged to build 100,000 houses a year in urban areas over the next decade.

Furthermore, while there are probably more avowed environmentalists than there are builders, builders consider themselves environmentalists, too. And considering their long reach into the economy, they may just be able to generate more votes.

Building a single house creates 2.5 jobs for a year. Not just carpenters and plumbers, but furniture salesmen and moving truck drivers, too. In total, new residential construction accounts for 5 cents of every dollar spent in the U.S. economy, and that doesn't include the impact the buyers of all these new homes have on their local economies for years to come.

So the vice president may want to tread a little more lightly, or at least stop speaking out of both sides of his kisser. That said, here's the NAHB's take on the nearly 16 million acres of forest, cropland and open space that was converted between 1992 and 1997: