2 million acres gone by 2027!? … This post at BlueNC laments the development of Wake County and other urban areas in North Carolina. They want open spaces and other natural areas protected from developers:
Environment North Carolina just released a report showing that the Triangle will lose 37% of its natural areas, the Charlotte area will lose 30% of its natural areas by 2027 unless legislative action is taken. Developed area is increasing faster that the increase in population.
Before shedding any crocodile tears for the endangered Wake County Possumrat, let’s consider, just for a moment, the poor people in an area so-called progressives claim to care about. When you slow development through legislative fiat, you make housing less affordable for everyone — especially the poor. That is, you create an artificial scarcity which drives up property values for those lucky enough to live there already. So basically you create a subsidy for the rich! Doesn’t sound very progressive to me. But then again, those on the left have never been particularly adept at considering unintended consequences of their reckless demands. Oh–and if you slow development in one county, neighboring counties grow. That’s called sprawl. So you want to protect urban wilderness, but create more rural sprawl? (So much for smart growth.) Or do you simply want to arrest the economic growth and development that’s propping up all your social programs? I’m not sure progressives can answer these tough questions.
Who said anything about slowing growth? I’m all for growth as long as it’s quality growth that includes affordable housing and, it should be true economic growth not some artifact of having jobs in one county and homes in another that exists solely because it transfers economic and environmental burdens onto taxpayers.
We’re moving more and more into a an economy based on service and information.A lot of information work can be achieved without a physical commute. With a fewer polluting manufacturing facilities we have less need for exclusionary zoning. Job and homes can be closer together. Mixed use is a hot in real estate, reducing commute times, the need for more roads giving us more open space, cleaner air, more commerce and more free time to spend with family or earning more money. If you could walk to work you could drop one of the family cars and put the savings into a mortgage.
There are lots of ways to think about this that don’t involve “either, or”.