They ask, towards the end of this editorial, “The next logical step in this concern is to wonder, again, why county commissioners would seek to expand the growth plan that was decided last year.”
The answer, of course, is simple. The level of growth for this county doesn’t really give a damn WHAT the commissioners plan for or don’t plan for.
But the reality of the situation, not a particularly difficult concept to grasp, is that the growth factor of 1.5% per year, chosen by last year’s county commissioners is a figure so ludicrous as to defy belief.
In 1990 or so, this county had a population of about 200,000. Here, 15 years latter, we have a population rapidly approaching 400,000.
Does that equate to a growth factor of 1.5%?
The Columbian asks these questions without making any real effort to answer them. The fact is that we have these problems not because of our explosion of population… but because past county commissioners failed to adequately plan for the increase.
And one huge factor in that failure was their past insistence on using growth factors that bore no relation to reality.
Reality. THAT’S what I want the county commissioners should be dealing with. And the REALITY of our situation is that our growth has equated to roughly 90% over the past 15 years… and when one divides 15 years into 90%, one does NOT get “1.5%” as a realistic growth rate.
So, in direct answer to the Columbian’s question is this response: Why? Because our reality should not include the imposition of artificial barriers that have no relation to the reality with which we live.
Applying artificial barriers such as bogus growth factors overburdens our infrastructure (How can an infrastructure plan for 1.5% growth hope to cope with a 5 to 6% REAL growth increase?)and helps to drive up real estate prices like a bolt of lightening in a vacuum… or did the Columbian fail to notice a 25% increase in real estate prices here over the LAST YEAR?
Increases such as those, which clearly combine to make “affordable housing” a pipedream, are not ONLY attributable to increased population, but are exacerbated by the short-sighted and artificially imposed barriers of Growth Management as it has been applied to Clark County.
The responsible position to take is to acknowledge the reality of our 5 to 6% annual county population growth and plan accordingly. Insisting that the county commissioners take the head-in-the-sand approach advocated by a 1.5 percent growth rate in the face of a totally different reality is irresponsible and smacks of ignorance.
Thanks for asking, though.
In Our View: Jams Worsening
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Columbian editorial writers
The most productive perspective of the growth issue in Clark County is dual, that is, learning from the past and applying that knowledge to the future. A new report from the Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council provides unsurprising but interesting data about local traffic congestion, and it ought to catch the attention of Clark County commissioners as they ponder a possible expansion of the 2004 growth plan.
The unsurprising part of the 57-page 2004 Congestion Monitoring Report in a nutshell is that traffic jams are much worse than in 2000. But here's where the traffic experts are able to provide enlightening specifics:
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