Re: P&Z and rural residential

["Sam and Debbie Duncan" <sduncan@turbonet.com>]

Ken, Teton county Idaho , has an 840 acre minimum to control growth. The
overgrowth from Jackson Hole,WY was to much. prime land with no plan being
gobbled up. They did not succumb to developement or realtor pressures. 
Sam

----------
> From: Ken Medlin <dev-plan@moscow.com>
> To: Greg Brown <gregb@alaskapacific.edu>; Moscow Vision 2020
<vision2020@moscow.com>
> Subject: Re: P&Z and rural residential
> Date: Saturday, February 12, 2000 9:25 AM
> 
> >Why 40 acres?  Good question.
> A Moscow city official told me that this amount of acreage would 
> presumably not disturb  the natural land uses (agricultural) while 
> enhancing the county tax base. Each 40-acre plot is required to retain 
> only 5 for residential development needs/interests. As a rationale, it is

> obviously contrived to fit a number of different land use interests; but 
> ecologically, it just does not make any sense. To test out the wisdom of 
> such practices,  we'd have to come back, say, 20 years from inception and

> measure the impacts of such arrangements, of which there are many in the 
> County, and increasing. It's obvious that we do not have anything close 
> to the name of "development planning", or urban planning, or rural 
> planning, or community development. We have a vague 'comprehesive plan' 
> that simply lays out certain contours on the landscape for human impacts,

> some of which relate to density, to services, to water rights, and the 
> like. But if you raise questions about natural resources gain/loss, 
> cost-benefit, communtiy sustainability, etc., there are no data built 
> into the planning programs to answer these questions. It's about time 
> that our planning associations and govt. development officials began to 
> get a little scientific about their work. Otherwise, the politicians, qua

> developers,will continue to write the rules as they go, unmindful or 
> unaware of what they are doing to both natural biotic communities and our

> human ones. It really isn't too difficult to see why they have not moved 
> in these directions, or why the salmon are in such a hell of a mess.   
> Ultimately, we'll all lose.  Ken M.
> 
> ------------------------
> William K. Medlin
> Dev-plan associates
> 930 Kenneth Street
> Moscow ID 83843
> 208/892-0148
> dev-plan@moscow.com