Communities Don’t Have to Accept the Idea of Inevitable Growth
A local magazine recently published the following quote from a representative of the homebuilding industry: “It would be nearsighted, if not hypocritical, to try to deny the future growth of our area … in fact, it would be impossible to stop it.” This is hardly a newsworthy quote – we’ve routinely been told that growth is inevitable and cannot be stopped. There has even been the suggestion of a state law that prohibits local efforts to curtail development.
Similarly we are reminded of Sarasota’s failed effort to slow growth in the 1960’s by not building infrastructure. Growth occurred anyway and the County was forced to retrofit excessively expensive infrastructure.
If growth is inevitable, does that mean forever? Sarasota has 367,000 acres of land and if we built to the same densities as New York City or Tokyo, we could accommodate millions of people. While many of us would consider this scenario ridiculous (some may not) I use it to suggest there will be a point where the population of Sarasota County stabilizes. The question is when and how that stabilization will occur.
The concept of inevitable growth has always bothered me. Many communities have had no population growth for years, even decades, and some have even declined. Why doesn’t this rule apply to them?
Populations grow because people choose to live in a community that offers the best quality of life that they can afford. This means growth is inevitable only as long as an area remains attractive. For Sarasota, weather alone will allow us to remain attractive long enough to lose the charm and character that endears many of us to this special place. For this reason growth management and long-range community planning become critical decisions.
For most counties, build-out isn’t deliberately planned, but results from a series of incremental, isolated decisions. Development approvals overstress infrastructure such as roads, parks, schools and jails. When more infrastructure is built, more development is approved that again overcrowds the infrastructure. This mindless cycle repeats itself until all available land is developed.
As bizarre as it seems, this is a standard planning model for many Florida counties. Pinellas, Broward and Miami-Dade are veteran examples. Rather than planning what their future community could look like and determining what facilities would need to be built and what resources should be preserved, they developed by default. Thousands of uncoordinated development decisions made with no regard to a long-term plan. Times change, and plans need to be adjusted, but revising a destination plan is a much better option than chaotic decisions with no destination in mind.
Sarasota County is at a critical point. We can follow the default planning model of over-developed counties, or we can determine what amenities, assets and characters are worth protecting and adopt a plan that preserves them. Rather than competing with other counties or cities to see who can become the next Orlando, Sarasota should strive to become an exemplary mid-sized county that recognizes open space, agriculture and environmentally sensitive areas as permanent uses, rather than lands in a holding pattern for “inevitable growth” yet to come.
Creating a sustainable Sarasota means focusing more on promoting economic, capital, social and spiritual growth than on population growth. Many communities with stable populations develop these other areas and provide a high quality, attractive living environment for their citizens.
A community that deliberately plans to preserve its unique character will prosper economically and distinguish itself from other areas that accepted the defeatist slogan of “inevitable growth” at any cost and over-developed themselves into oblivion
The 1960’s effort to slow growth didn’t fail simply because they did not build infrastructure. It failed because they not only didn’t build infrastructure, they approved the development. This makes about as much sense as buying a fish but not an aquarium.
Not adding additional development capacity to the existing Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan is the most likely way to assure that Sarasota County doesn’t become an accomplice in the same botched planning exercise that created Florida’s lower East Coast. Our existing Plan assures all property owners the right to use their property and offers the community a last chance to avoid wall to wall suburbanization.