Colorado Chooses Sprawl For Earth Day
By Joe Guzzardi
From coast-to-coast, concerned citizens have formed “Save our Neighborhood” organizations to protect their communities against relentless, all-consuming development. Politicians at the federal, state and local level demand more growth, residents’ wishes be damned.
Consider Colorado. Because of the Centennial State’s environmental bounty, thousands of disgruntled Americans left home to make Colorado their new residence. But Colorado’s appeal is on the wane. Gov. Jared Polis’ bill, SB 23–213, also known as the “More Housing Now” proposal, will keep Colorado sprawling, especially in already overcrowded metropolises like Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Boulder. More Housing Now designated these, and other major cities, as “Tier One,” targeted areas where single-family-only zoning would end, allowing permitting of duplexes, triplexes and add-on housing units. The land-use bill would block established limits on how many unrelated people can live in the same home.
The Polis administration’s dream plan would, over the objections of residents and elected officials, allow more dense housing across Colorado’s increasingly expensive metropolitan and resort areas. Traditionally, local governments in Colorado have had the authority to make their own growth decisions; under SB 23–213, that authority would shift to the governor’s office.
Polis’ power grab will put the governor and state legislature on a collision course with cities and counties. Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, who attended Polis’ State of the State announcement, declared the bill “a pretty scary prospect” for local officials who would lose local land use control, as it’s transferred to the state capitol.
The Colorado Municipal League is also critical. In its statement, the League said that the bill would alter more than 100 years of municipal authority over Colorado’s land use and zoning: “It’s a vote of no confidence in local government and in citizens in having a say in how they would like their own neighborhoods and communities to develop.” Although the few Republicans in the legislature will push back, the stark reality is they’re the minority party and have little influence over which measures pass.
In Colorado, and in other states, building can never catch up to population growth. Developers attempting to match ever-higher population levels to housing starts are on fools’ missions. Colorado has experienced a population boom that has recast the state’s image as a final destination to get away from it all. Since 2010, Colorado’s population grew 15.1 percent to 5.8 million, more than twice the 7.3 percent national average. The U.S. Department of Agriculture calculates that Colorado, over the last four decades, has turned more than 1,250 square miles of open space, natural habitat and agricultural land into housing, shopping malls and streets.
Demographers project that the state’s 5.8 million population will, by 2050, increase by another 1.8 million. Colorado Springs, Denver and Fort Collins, all Tier One cities, will become a single mega-city. When polled about growth, Coloradans are opposed. They want a future that has fewer arriving people. Nearly three of every five voters, 59 percent, prefer either a complete stop or a decline in the state’s population growth. Population stability is a key issue that few elected, corporate or civic leaders will discuss. To help Colorado reach sustainable population, the state needs manageable immigration, the federal policy that, along with births to immigrants, drives more than 75 percent of all growth.
Coloradans should brace for more housing. Polis is pro-growth, but opposed to immigration limits. During his five terms as a U.S. Representative where his districtincluded the Tier One cities of Boulder and Fort Collins, Polis consistently voted in favor of expanded immigration and less enforcement at the border, as well as in the interior.
Under Polis, Earth Day celebrations will be de rigueur, but meaningless charades. Other Coloradans, now deceased, like former Gov. Richard Lamm and Professor Al Bartlett, who spoke about protecting the Centennial State’s environment, would be disappointed and dismayed about what lays ahead.
As Professor Bartlett said: “The first law of sustainability is that you cannot sustain population growth; you cannot sustain growth in the rates of consumption of resources. That’s just arithmetic — it is not debatable.”
Joe Guzzardi writes about immigration issues and impacts.
Boy do we ever need government for the people. Real clean honest elections, of people who really care for their countries, Canada is the same a real mess.
Saying that though, the Province of Alberta here in Canada has a really great leader, refusing to take in the not Canadian foreign fraud elected Federal WEF ‘s governments human trafficking people, brought in illegally by our fake WEF government? (our only border is with the USA so many flown in) but Alberta have accepted and wants smart talented people with a trade or medical educations. Alberta has the 3rd most proven oil fields in the world but the WEF has been closing it down and Alberta has no way to the coast to ship it and the pipelines are stopped where ever the WEF puppet feds can do so. They are also refusing the WEF’s puppets stealing their guns and the fact that they have to like other Provinces have to pay billions++ to Quebec yearly. But the WEF Feds are trying to over ride them and seize all their natural resources now too. It is ugly. Ontario’s WEF government has lost over 22 thousand highly trained people to Alberta and so have other Provinces so we see the WEF now trying to fix Alberta’s coming election.
You have a republic in the USA, I thought each State had more rights than our Provinces do, watching Florida, really repairing and protecting itself is a real wonder, Texas too?
Our once Freedom of speech and thought are about to be removed especially on line, our internet provider warned us not to reset our modems, but by August their company by law has to block what we can see. So I guess I have to get all my comments out now and I do not know if we will be allowed to read anything outside of our tax paid government propaganda media. Independent or truthful media has to be licensed or stopped, what can we do? As no one else wants their bank accounts frozen plus. from the WEF globalists. If we do not fight it will get much worse though. Praying for us all to fight this unethical tyrant takeover off. So keeping in touch with the Hero Truckers and Independent truthful sites is a must, somehow.