GROWTH: No obligations

I watch the city council hearings and see the planners “selling” the annexation, zone changes, subdivisions, etc., to the council for the developers.

Of late, the planners have gone into great detail about the claimed extensive public outreach and input for the development of the Comprehensive Plans. What they did not tell the people then, or now, is that cities are not obligated to accommodate all of the people projected to want to come here (in fact, they lead them to believe they couldn’t do anything and to accept it was going to happen, so they have to plan for it).

They didn’t tell the people that cities are not obligated to annex any land into a city, and if the cities do annex, they can manage density through zoning and conditions. People were basically told that the people are coming, so here are your choices. Not one city has ever asked if the people wanted to plan to accommodate less than the projected numbers who want to come.

They were not told the full facts and options. They were given choices provided by the cities, not allowed to give their ideas or desires. In the written public comments, a large number of people tell the cities that they do not want to see the results that we are all seeing with all of this development.

People want to preserve space and keep somewhat of a small-town atmosphere, not the urban, metropolitan crowding that these plans are bringing to us.

H. LYNNE

Hayden