GROWTH: Don’t silence advisory group

Regarding your July 24 article (“Worker housing one hot topic Monday”) praising Kiki Miller’s Regional Housing & Growth Issues Partnership:

As a member of its so-called “advisory group,” I can report that after four meetings (one hour once a month on Zoom) no one in the “advisory group” has yet been allowed to speak. That’s right — not allowed to speak.

“Advisory group” members are muted — with “Chat” and “Q&A” controlled by Kiki and Hilary Anderson. Guess how much “advising” happens — or is wanted.

Meanwhile the “working group” — the usual collection of pro-growth political, planning, and development insiders — decides things elsewhere.

Polling identified “preserving open space on the prairie” as the public’s No. 1 priority, but that’s hardly mentioned. The pro-growth “working group” substituted its own choice — more housing.

There’s been no mention of local city councils’ completely legal power to annually limit new dwelling units, building permits and annexations — except to scoff when told about Lakewood, Colo., successfully doing just that.

A charade of “public input?” Providing cover for local political cowardice? I’d say so.

The meetings — and their adulatory coverage in The Press — just happen to coincide with Kiki’s run for reelection to Coeur d’Alene City Council. The last meeting is a week before Election Day.

DAVID LYONS

Coeur d’Alene