In Telluride, Colo., you can live in your car, but only if you park it in the right place. After passing an ordinance prohibiting car camping on all public land and rights-of-way within town limits, on Oct. 18 the Telluride Town Council designated a public parking lot as an alternative. The “campers’ are people who […]
Communities
Posted inOctober 17, 1994: As elections near, green hopes wilt
Reality intrudes on Big Rock Candy Mountain
The bluebirds no longer sing by the lemonade springs: The Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort on the Sevier River near Marysvale, Utah, is bankrupt. The sulphur- and chocolate-colored mountain, celebrated in a song written by Harry McClintock and sung by Burl Ives, attracted visitors from around the world who during the 1950s drank its mineral-rich […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Saved from subdivision
A letter-writing campaign to members of Congress last year helped protect 18,000 acres of privately owned land within central Colorado’s Roosevelt National Forest. The area, known as Cherokee Park, was owned by Union Pacific Railroad and targeted for sale to developers for recreational homes. Once alerted, the Trust For Public Land, a San Francisco-based organization, […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
TUCSON, Ariz. – Plumber Neale Allen likes to tell the story about driving down a strip where builders were bulldozing cacti for homes and shopping centers, and getting tough questions from his 7-year-old daughter Sarah. “She asked me why they had to scrape everything and kill plants and animals,” recalls Allen, who is 42. “It’s […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
The Southwest’s writers are terrified liars
One of the best modern novels about the real Southwest is in technicolor. It takes place in Prescott, Ariz.: A rodeo performer returns to his hometown, finds out that his brother is bulldozing the home ranch and slicing it up into ranchettes and subdivisions, that his dad is about to hit the road for prospecting […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
The real bind is too many people everywhere
I suggest that one of the dominant environmental issues in the West’s future will be: How many people can live satisfied lives here? Population size is a factor of three variables: birth rates, death rates, and immigration. Birth, death and territory. Can any other issue cover such deep atavistic feelings? The issue will divide friends […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
To learn more: a list of sources
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, How to get involved and push the process. Wading into the world of planning is much like walking into quicksand: The more you struggle with it, the more bogged down you get. Fortunately, there are some useful starting points. General information The state […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
Towns angling for tourism should beware of the great white shark
MOAB, Utah – The simplest way to describe what happened in Grand County is to say that, in 1986, our resilient community leaders got in their rowboat and went fishing for a little tourism to revive and diversify our economy. They hooked a great white shark. This monster has swamped the boat and eaten the […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
This boom will end like all the others – in a deep, deep bust
In 1982 a plumber named Jeff Everett and I competed to see who was the greater fool. I won. The competition centered on a 1,000-square-foot building we owned at 124 Grand Avenue, on Paonia’s two-block-long main street. It had been home to Betsy’s and my first newspaper – North Fork Times; by 1982 it stood […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
Can planning rein in a stampede?
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. By now the scenario is all too familiar: Refugees from far-off, disintegrating cities, packing their dreaded California-scale equity, swarm into some previously unfashionable zip code in the rural West. Which leads to congestion and a land […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
A toolbox to shape the future
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. The planning tools being used in the West vary as widely as the character of local communities. Factors such as terrain, population profile and economics determine which tool is wielded where. Some of the tools have […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
A soft-paths approach to land conservation
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, A toolbox to shape the future. Even the most gung-ho planners admit that government can only do so much to protect native plants, animals that need hundreds of miles of habitat, and human communities. Some critics are more blunt. “I left planning disgusted […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
Boulder’s ingenuity has a few drawbacks
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. Few communities in the United States – let alone the West – have tried to control growth the way Boulder, Colo., has. Using imagination and innovative planning, a progressive citizenry and equally progressive elected officials have […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
Golf course splits ranch family
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. CARBONDALE, Colo. – Disagreements about how to plan for growth have reached into a ranching family here. “I’m retiring anyway, and … you can’t divide land equitably (among the heirs), but you can divide cash,” says […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
When planning plays catch-up
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. MONTROSE, Colo. – For decades this town with the stunning views of the jagged San Juan Mountains aggressively courted growth and collectively admitted no downside. When county commissioners tried to adopt a wimpy land-use plan 21 […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
Some state governments try planning from top down
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. The governor of Oregon may have been a little ahead of his time, speaking out against growth and for planning: “Sagebrush subdivision, coastal ‘condomania’ and the ravenous rampage of suburbia in the Willamette Valley all threaten […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
Rural residents defy Washington law
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. Some landowners in rural Washington are so sick and tired of being told what to do by one planner after another, they’ve decided to do something about it: Secede. Under the banner of property rights, rebels […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
‘Wise use’ plans abhor change
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. Cody, Wyo. – This county on the eastern border of Yellowstone National Park has been so sparsely settled, the prospect of a little more than 100 people moving in to work a gold mine helped set […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
How to get involved and push the process
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. Why can’t officials elected on platforms of slowing growth and preserving community character get more accomplished? The short answer is that the sentiment that elects pro-planning candidates is not unified by much else. Environmentalists make up […]
Posted inAugust 22, 1994: Whose fault? A Utah canyon turns deadly
‘Takings’ takes a hit
The state can block development that threatens Native American burial mounds, the Iowa Supreme Court has ruled. The court rejected an argument that to block such developments would weaken property rights, reports AP. The dispute began when developers bought a 59-acre tract in rural Story County, Iowa, to develop a pricey subdivision. When developers sold […]