Mr. Botkin has talked about smart growth for well over a year, but has not divulged his plan in writing. Somewhere, there were hearings and conferences where a consensus was established for Kitsap County. I have been to some of the meetings and heard the rhetoric and I remain concerned about a plan, administered by a few, well-heeled folks, that strives to control how I am allowed to live.

But even without these ideas being public, one only has to do a tiny bit of research to know that the underlying concepts of “Smart Growth” are to reduce “urban sprawl” by requiring increased densities in and around the cities, imposing restrictions that will create congestion in order to encourage people to use mass transit and to create federally backed land use regulations to protect the remaining land so that it is not ruined by human habitation. Sounds great, you say?

The “Smart Growth” folks want to build high-density projects within the established cities, like Bremerton, to “attract” growth where they want it to be; or as they say, “where it should be.” If people wanted to live in a high-rise in Bremerton, then developers would build them. That’s how a free market society works. But even Mr. Botkin admits that there would have to be some creative dealings to get these type of projects built, because there is no market for them. We would have to support them with our taxes.

Portland found that people do not want to buy this new, beautiful housing consisting of tiny condos with little or no parking (in order to reduce the dependence upon cars). The strongest growth area in Portland is, well, Vancouver, Washington. Portland residents live with smart growth regulated high-density development standards that have created small, expensive homes, increased congestion, smog, crime, and high taxes. People are choosing to commute long distances and to cross the state line in order to live the way 85 percent of Americans would choose to – in a single-family home.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to retain the rural community that I live in, but frankly, I am not willing to forfeit all of my dreams of living on my little slice of heaven when the government decides that my property should have 24 people living on it, instead of 2. And, unlike some of those supporting “Smart Growth”, I don’t want force other people to live in a Bremerton high-rise just because I already have my home and I don’t want new people messing up my view.

As one smart growth advocate admits, there is “a gap between the daily mode of living desired by most Americans and the one that most city planners believe is appropriate.” And that really is the key. When our government takes the leading role in deciding how we live and legislates our decisions I think it has gone too far.

The smart growth process reminds me of an old Outer Limits episode where some very tall aliens landed on earth offering a plan to save mankind. They gave the government a book called “Serving Mankind”. The leaders were convinced and reported to the world that their intentions were good and the people believed them. As the citizens happily loaded into the spaceship one woman ran up desperately looking for her friend. She had finally translated the alien text, and it was a cookbook.