Editorial: Break out the growth management toolbox

July 15, 2007

Frontiersman Editorial

This past week we espoused about how Proposition 1 on the October Mat-Su Borough ballot is bad public policy. In an effort to protect private property rights, supporters of this horror show have unwittingly spotlighted another glaring shortfall our local government bodies must remedy.

Rather than making the Borough, cities and other special districts open their wallets every time a land use decision could affect the property values of any single landowner, we need updated and comprehensive planning for our sustained growth.

If passed, Prop. 1 says private property owners would be compensated by public entities enacting land use regulation that could decrease the value of their land. As growth throughout the Mat-Su Borough continues, how lands are used, for what purposes and how those uses will need to change to accommodate growth will be critical to our economic and social health.

In simple terms, there are two types of growth: good growth and bad growth.

Bad growth is often unregulated, under-managed and its deleterious affects not felt until it's too late.

Good growth is planned for, anticipated and reflects the overall wishes of the community.

With the huge expansion of the Wasilla Wal-Mart store and pending construction of a new Target, the Valley has reached a population threshold that is becoming more attractive to big box retailers. How big boxes are integrated into our communities is up to us. Wasilla, Palmer and Houston can enact their own zoning guidelines independent of any Borough regulations, and should. Conversely, the unincorporated Borough is prized for less regulation and more freedom for private property owners.

Now is the time to decide how this growth is to be integrated into our communities. Should future big box outlets be just that - a big box - or should they include appropriate landscaping and construction to blend in with the other appropriate uses around them? Like runoff flowing down a mountain, big box developers will travel the path of least resistance - or the path of least regulation.

We aggressively support private property rights, and this isn't a call to regulate away the freedoms and liberties that make living at the edge of America's last true frontier so appealing. We also need to protect this frontier from the growth that continues and is projected for at least another two decades to come.

The Borough needs a reasonable, sensible and comprehensive growth master plan that addresses these and other growth-related issues. Cities like Wasilla, Houston and Palmer should have the same. Even a joint growth plan and/or intergovernmental agreement between the entities would be in order.

Noah didn't build the Ark after the flood. It's starting to sprinkle outside, so let's break out the toolbox.