07
May
2002
As Davenport awakes from its winter's sleep, we see spring blossoming all around us. We look out at our greening lawns and wonder when it will be safe to plant our garden. All of us who enjoy our gardens look forward to planning and cultivating one that will produce a bountiful harvest all summer long. But have we planned properly for it? How big a garden do we want? Where is the best place to plant? Have we tilled the soil, fertilized, planned what we will grow and how much?
If you've looked around our city lately, Davenport is growing. Attend any planning and zoning committee meeting or a council session, and you will see the multitude of re-zoning proposals being moved forward - 9.87 acres here, 6 acres there, another 23.7 over there, R-4 to R-5, C-O to PUD, A-1 to C-1, big retail complexes where there were none before, multi-unit apartment complexes at the edge of our community, house on top of house in new subdivisions. Sure as spring, we are growing, and that must be good. Right?
But just as a garden left unattended or not properly planned, we can find ourselves overrun with growth that is sometimes unwanted, unpleasant, unnecessary, or not productive for our community. For example, what's wrong with welcoming a Hy-Vee grocery store at the location, Locust and Lincoln, left vacant two years ago by an Eagle grocery store? Not a thing, until you consider it will be nearly three times the size of the original store. Is this area prepared to support the increased traffic, stormwater runoff, and sewer usage? Does an additional four acres of commercial development enhance the value of the single-family homes soon to neighbor it?
Consider the new Super Wal-Mart just announced for northwest Davenport. Davenport's garden just continues to grow. We're going to have not one, but two mega-discount stores in town that hire part-time employees and offer no health-insurance coverage - doubles the chance of Dad finding that second job he needs to support the family. Woo-wee, honey! Let's plant twice as many tomatoes next year - you just can't get enough tomatoes.
But how do we tell growth that is productive from growth that is destructive? Perhaps our garden analogy will lend us a few helpful guidelines:
Will the hose reach it? How can you expect to have a successful garden if your hose doesn't reach far enough to water it? Likewise, how can we expect an area to grow properly without planning for the infrastructure and atmosphere to support it? Preparing an area to accept new growth is vitally important to its ability to give back to the community. Many communities today adopt "adequate public facilities" ordinances to ensure that the infrastructure exists in an area to "adequately" support the proposed growth. Therefore, opportunities are maximized for development to flourish in areas prepared to accept it. Or we can buy a longer hose.
Do my cucumbers cost $54.96 each? Let's see ... buy a longer hose, fertilizer, and top-quality seed, rent that big tiller, spend countless hours pruning and weeding. Now there's something to be said for the sense of accomplishment you feel when you've grown something, but how do you feel when you realize that home-grown salad you just ate cost a week's pay? Similarly, there's a cost to grow and sustain all new development. The key is to reap the most from what you sow. To sustain new development where none previously existed requires an investment in new roads, new sewer lines, and extension of police and fire services. Development that taxes existing infrastructure necessitates improvements, or costs us in backed-up sewer systems, increased flooding, or traffic hazards. And what of the harvest from our investment? Is it wise to pay the cost of development that yields a bounty of low-paying jobs or duplicates the services of businesses that already exist in our community? Do we really need more tomatoes?
Can the dog pee on it? My apologies if anyone is offended with this point, but have you ever tried to grow peonies where your dog could get to them? You can add all the Miracle-Gro you want, but it will still have a brown spot. So why do we continue to question declining neighborhoods, vacant commercial buildings, and an impending budget deficit when we continue to throw money at development without putting the dog on a leash? Planning properly for development enhances the quality of life for our entire community without unnecessarily impeding the prosperity of one area or another.
There's growth that is productive to a community, and there are weeds that choke the life out of it. There's growth that blends with the character of a neighborhood, and there's growth that casts a shadow and stifles the vitality of what exists around it. There's growth that fills the coffers with a bounty of jobs and revenue and enhances our quality of life, and there's growth that costs us more than it returns. Just as we look forward to all the possibilities of another spring, so should we approach the opportunities for new growth in our community. But unless we plant close enough to the hose, avoid the $54.96 cucumber, and keep the dog away from it, Davenport will miss out on the opportunity to enjoy a bountiful harvest.
If you've looked around our city lately, Davenport is growing. Attend any planning and zoning committee meeting or a council session, and you will see the multitude of re-zoning proposals being moved forward - 9.87 acres here, 6 acres there, another 23.7 over there, R-4 to R-5, C-O to PUD, A-1 to C-1, big retail complexes where there were none before, multi-unit apartment complexes at the edge of our community, house on top of house in new subdivisions. Sure as spring, we are growing, and that must be good. Right?
But just as a garden left unattended or not properly planned, we can find ourselves overrun with growth that is sometimes unwanted, unpleasant, unnecessary, or not productive for our community. For example, what's wrong with welcoming a Hy-Vee grocery store at the location, Locust and Lincoln, left vacant two years ago by an Eagle grocery store? Not a thing, until you consider it will be nearly three times the size of the original store. Is this area prepared to support the increased traffic, stormwater runoff, and sewer usage? Does an additional four acres of commercial development enhance the value of the single-family homes soon to neighbor it?
Consider the new Super Wal-Mart just announced for northwest Davenport. Davenport's garden just continues to grow. We're going to have not one, but two mega-discount stores in town that hire part-time employees and offer no health-insurance coverage - doubles the chance of Dad finding that second job he needs to support the family. Woo-wee, honey! Let's plant twice as many tomatoes next year - you just can't get enough tomatoes.
But how do we tell growth that is productive from growth that is destructive? Perhaps our garden analogy will lend us a few helpful guidelines:
Will the hose reach it? How can you expect to have a successful garden if your hose doesn't reach far enough to water it? Likewise, how can we expect an area to grow properly without planning for the infrastructure and atmosphere to support it? Preparing an area to accept new growth is vitally important to its ability to give back to the community. Many communities today adopt "adequate public facilities" ordinances to ensure that the infrastructure exists in an area to "adequately" support the proposed growth. Therefore, opportunities are maximized for development to flourish in areas prepared to accept it. Or we can buy a longer hose.
Do my cucumbers cost $54.96 each? Let's see ... buy a longer hose, fertilizer, and top-quality seed, rent that big tiller, spend countless hours pruning and weeding. Now there's something to be said for the sense of accomplishment you feel when you've grown something, but how do you feel when you realize that home-grown salad you just ate cost a week's pay? Similarly, there's a cost to grow and sustain all new development. The key is to reap the most from what you sow. To sustain new development where none previously existed requires an investment in new roads, new sewer lines, and extension of police and fire services. Development that taxes existing infrastructure necessitates improvements, or costs us in backed-up sewer systems, increased flooding, or traffic hazards. And what of the harvest from our investment? Is it wise to pay the cost of development that yields a bounty of low-paying jobs or duplicates the services of businesses that already exist in our community? Do we really need more tomatoes?
Can the dog pee on it? My apologies if anyone is offended with this point, but have you ever tried to grow peonies where your dog could get to them? You can add all the Miracle-Gro you want, but it will still have a brown spot. So why do we continue to question declining neighborhoods, vacant commercial buildings, and an impending budget deficit when we continue to throw money at development without putting the dog on a leash? Planning properly for development enhances the quality of life for our entire community without unnecessarily impeding the prosperity of one area or another.
There's growth that is productive to a community, and there are weeds that choke the life out of it. There's growth that blends with the character of a neighborhood, and there's growth that casts a shadow and stifles the vitality of what exists around it. There's growth that fills the coffers with a bounty of jobs and revenue and enhances our quality of life, and there's growth that costs us more than it returns. Just as we look forward to all the possibilities of another spring, so should we approach the opportunities for new growth in our community. But unless we plant close enough to the hose, avoid the $54.96 cucumber, and keep the dog away from it, Davenport will miss out on the opportunity to enjoy a bountiful harvest.
