Although there are elements of “Smart Growth” we all can agree on, “Smart Growth” is an unprecedented attack on basic American freedoms. It limits our ability to choose where and how we want to live and work. These decisions will be made for us by unelected bureaucrats. Housing costs and property taxes skyrocket and cities become less – not more – livable.

Commissioner Botkin tells us that “Smart Growth” does not take away people’s choices. He doesn’t tell us that he has redefined our “choices.”

Your tax dollars have funded the American Planning Association’s Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook. This is a guideline for “Smart Growth” regulations to be adopted by state and local governments. It will take the responsibility and accountability of land use planning away from local elected officials and put it in the hands of the federal government.

Land use violations will become a criminal offense. Existing single-family homes will be phrased out of neighborhoods targeted for multi-family.
As we’ve seen in local Salmon planning issues, the “escape clause” of local government is (check one):
____ the feds made us do it!
____ the state made us do it!

What is the feds hook for state and local governments to adopt these policies? Grant money! As you may already know, this county has never seen a grant it didn’t like. Grant money, my friends, is the tax money you send to state and federal government and they send it back with strings attached. They dangle grants in front of local governments and say, “You get the money — we pull the strings.” What are the strings this time?

Federal bureaucrats want to control local land use regulations, the water we drink, the air we breathe, our natural resources and YOU!!!

Vivian Henderson
Executive Director
Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners.