Smart? Growth

In the five years I’ve been writing or contributing for the Pulse, I’ve spent a great many hours attending the meetings through which our local governments work.

Among the most fascinating* things to watch has been how municipalities (I hate that word. I prefer towns, or villages, but each has a specific definition when it comes to local government, so I have to go with the word nobody ever uses when they’re talking in a coffee shop or bar.) implement and interpret their Smart Growth plans.

Smart Growth is a daunting – and debatably worthwhile – task. (Just try to figure out what you might want to do with your own property in the next 20 years, let alone what everybody else in town should do with theirs.) Putting the plan together elicits enough arguments, frustration, and requires more education on mundane topics than most of us would ever want. But that’s not the hard part, really. The hard part is applying it to decisions.

A town’s Smart Growth plan is little more than what it’s called, a plan. It’s not law, and it’s only as binding as citizens demand their elected officials make it. As Baileys Harbor board member Peter Jacobs told me the other day, “nothing in local government is set in stone. You can’t put the document down and think the job’s done and stop paying attention. Things are always changing, and if you want things done certain ways, you have to keep showing up.”

And so it is in Baileys Harbor. Just like it was in Sister Bay when the Marina Landing condo development came up. And just like it was in Liberty Grove when the proposal to build condos where the Grand View hotel was and Liberty Park Lodge cottages stood.

People thought they had etched rules in stone with Smart Growth, when all that was really created were vague (not always so vague though) guidelines left for developers and board members to interpret.

So after towns and counties have spent millions of dollars around the state on these plans, one has to wonder if it was really worth it.

* Fascinating to me anyway, and yes, I realize I am either a superdork, or I’ve lowered my own personal bar for fascination to new depths… hey look, tin foil. Shiny!