The March 27 editorial “Getting the message in Lake County” added a new label to the raging development controversy–“smart growth.” What that means is still uncertain.
I was surprised that the Tribune gave the Lake County Board, which I served on in the late 1980s, almost a back-handed endorsement in saying, “Not all that much was achieved during the late 1980s when the anti-growthers held a majority on the board.” There is no way we could ever stop growth even if we so wanted. Our aim was always to curb over-development through good land planning, effective zoning, fee-simple land purchases and acquisition of development rights.
The media and politicos had a field day promoting us as no-growthers freely using the power of eminent domain to steal land and throw old folks out of their homes. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
Property owners without exception always received “full fair market value plus” and were offered all kinds of programs such as lifetime estates, giving them the best of both worlds. Few politicians talked about the property taxes that all growth causes, especially new housing. If development was overlaid on just half of the 20,000 acres owned by Lake County, using only three units per acre under our present antiquated impact fee system, the administrative and new school cost would be more than $1 billion during a 20-year period, exceeding the cost of the land to the public many times over.
Along with the Tribune’s plea for “smart growth,” let’s add “smart land preservation” and perhaps we can still salvage much of Lake County.
