Why Bother with the People?
The Sierra Club's letter to Gov. Huntsman exhibits another trait that I've found to be predominant with the group -- their disdain for the actual citizens who will be affected by their "Citizens' Smart Growth Alternative."
When the Sierra Club representatives first proposed the Redwood Road alternative in meetings on the Supplemental EIS over a year ago, Woods Cross City Manager Gary Uresk and other local community people invited the Sierra Club to come out and visit with the cities to discuss the proposal, because that alternative would likely have severe impacts on the communities. Nothing. They were never heard from again.
In their letter, the Sierra Club said, "...we sought assistance from some of the nation's most talented and respected transportation planners to help us define our proposed alternative more carefully. ... We met with UDOT along with all of the pertinent federal officials more than a year ago, in January 2004, in an effort to urge them to consider our proposed alternative on a level playing field with the current proposal."
In Utah, the State Code gives responsibility for the planning of local communities to the cities and counties. The Sierra Club is constantly saying that the Legacy Parkway would cause more sprawl, cause our communities to develop inappropriately. They even go so far as to call their Redwood Road alternative the "Citizens' Smart Growth" alternative.
The quote above from their letter shows clearly their disdain for what happens at the local community level. Not once have they met with or invited the communities along the Legacy corridor to their meetings, nor have they accepted numerous invitations to come to our community meetings to discuss their proposal.
Instead, they focus on the federal process, which they know they can manipulate to get their way, through endless study and lawsuits.
Who is the Sierra Club really concerned about? Is it the citizens of our communities?
posted by legacyman @ 7:19 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Hey Legacyman! Did you notice in the letter to the guv that the groupees didn't mention local government once. They are clearly missing the point. Land use planning is delegated by the State to local governments and they don't seem to understand this. Their so-called Citizen's Smart Growth alternative is totally by-passing local government and those who traditionally have a lot to say about the location of roads, since they have a huge impact on the development of a community. Could it be that they are trying to Federalize the Land Use Planning Process, since Denver or Washington know what is best for us?
It's true Utah code gives cities and counties responsibility for planning and development.
What happens, then, when the planning decisions of one city will directly and negatively impact the planning decisions of another.
Mayor Anderson enjoys support in SLC for his actions against the Highway not because of environmental concerns, but because Salt Lake City sees the Legacy Highway as negatively impacting its own vision of the future IN SALT LAKE CITY.
That is the core problem, not the bird nests.
Davis county can and should find other solutions.
And what would that alternative be, that would work, Ethan? Have you studied the issue to see what would work? Also, does this mean that if one community does not like what another is doing, it can veto that community's plan?
Ethan you make a good point concerning communities may have differences in plans. However, the solution is for the communities to get together and work out the differences. Rocky has the right to disagree with the building of the Legacy Parkway, but he doesnt have the right to petion the Federal Government to approve the Redwood Road plan which none of the Davis County Cities it effects have had an opportunity to give input on.
The Sierra Club and Utahns for Better Transportation have not even given the Davis County Cities the courtesy of showing them the details of their propsed plan let alone give comment on. If you lived in one of these cities and lived near the proposed route wouldn't you be a litte upset with Rocky?
That this blog is run by city managers, "planners," only goes to show the depths of that profession's bankruptcy.
The "planners" have produced this ignoble state of affairs: the entire Wasatch Front covered with hideous strip malls, wretched big box stores, junk-plastic Ivory Homes, and oceans of parking lots. Quite a testament to the majesty of my homeland.
Of course, it's never enough. The veritable birthright of all suburbanites is a swift commute on publicly financed freeways, from their mindless subdivision to the nearest wholesaler of low-cost appliances. Such is the political philosophy, at its core, of this stupidass blog.
You say why bother with the people, but your attitude is "Why bother with earth and mother nature". Get the point people. How come no one can seem to see that if you have hunting groups and tree huggers, both up in arms about an issue, it must be serious because tree huggers and hunters don't get along. I know I'm a hunter and I hug trees for a living, because if I didn't I'd fall out of them. Realistically what is more important to our lives and existance, clean air and open spaces or roads? I'm not saying building this road is going to increase pollution output by 46.298%, but destroying those wetlands and eliminating that open space will do more damge than anything. I think if you tear down a bunch of houses to build the road it may give the people a chance to move closer to where the work so the commute won't be such a big worry.
ethan you mentioned What happens, then, when the planning decisions of one city will directly and negatively impact the planning decisions of another. Might I remind you of quite a few months back when the Davis County Chamber of Commerce staged a boycott of downtown. It seems the The Salt Lake Chamber came crying really quickly - Don't do this. It seems that most of the business and the heart of down town disagree with your comments. Legacy Highway helps promote the future vision of a vibrante active downtown.
Davis county can and should find other solutions Salt Lake city should listen to the core of the infrastructure before they start shooting off their mouths about finding other solutions.
Justin - This has nothing to do with your idea of The veritable birthright of all suburbanites is a swift commute on publicly financed freeways, from their mindless subdivision to the nearest wholesaler of low-cost appliances. The majority of people from Norhern Utah commute for work! - How do you purpose to house the next million people that come to the state without devloping other subdivisions?
Wetlands4life - but destroying those wetlands and eliminating that open space will do more damge than anything. if Legacy does not happen then you will have private developers developing the same land. The Wetlands can be recreated on the other side of the lake. The animals and waterfowl with migrate to the other areas. Have you ever noticed when we have large puddles that form after heavy rains and how the ducks land there even though the water area was never there before. Kind of funny how the ducks always try and land on the blue turf of the Boise State football stadium thinking that it is water. The birds will find their way to the western shores of the Great Salt Lake into the areas that can be modified and fixed to be wetlands.
Browningboy, I take it you are seriously asking, Where will humans live, if not in crass subdivisions?
What a crystal-clear window into the withered soul and shriveled imagination of the modern Utahn.
Here's an idea: in the city. Near where they work. Within walking distance of school, office, church, park, store. How about that?
Or are they truly entitled to my money to build them another freeway to take them from point A to B?
There is plenty of space in downtown SLC. Plenty of vacancies in apartment buildings. Plenty of empty lots for the building of homes/condos/apartments. (Granted, our wise city leaders have made it illegal to live in several of these places, but laws can be changed--just ask Sandy and Wal-Mart.)
Maybe they could move next to a light-rail stop. Maybe they could focus their energies on demanding serious public transit. Maybe they could open an office down the street from where they live. I don't really care.
What I do care about is living in a region that is not swallowed whole by freeways and suburbia.
Blogers,
It appears to me that some out of state interest have come in to help the “Dumb” Utahans. They did such a wonderful job in Seattle, Los Angeles and of course “back east” they build cities that have no zoning or long term planning. In the last 20 years “planning and zoning” have become popular political issues, they still have problems that will not cure themselves for many generations.
Why can’t the leaders of Davis County do there jobs without all the extra help from Salt Lake City’s Mayor Rocky? The only reason Salt Lake City is planned so well is because of the early pioneers and not the Sierra Club. Utah will grow, even if nobody from out of the state moved in, Utah will grow! We have large families and extended families.
Let our planners do their jobs; let Davis County grow at her pace. In the future new growth and industry will move into where it wants to. We welcome growth not at the expense of the environment or the residents. But let’s keep this as a Davis, Utah and Tooele County issue and not “King Rocky’s” issue.
Pat Valdez
These are some nice blogs here and I thought I would share this URL with everyone, www.profitbig.com I have found them to be great to work with and are flea market which really helps me with my business.
I hope everyone here will find this as helpful as I did.
Thanks for the great blog and keep up the good work!
Hi, I was surfing the internet and here I am at your blog. I'm quite impressed , with how you have put it all together.
I'll be coming back again.
Cheers,
binoculars, birdwatching
Post a Comment
<< Home