"Smart Growth" in the Okanagan

[John Zeger]

There was a letter to the editor in the Saturday Okanagan (Aug. 20, 2005) from Denis O'Gorman of Penticton who wrote about changes to the Penticton Official Community Plan to encourage high densities ("smart growth"). O'Gorman writes "Under Penticton's OCP flexi-plan, big impact players [investors, architects, and other professionals] put on the rush for rule changes -- from medium to high density. No caps to worry about in this league. ... There seems to be no requirement for coherent reasons for OCP rule changes. Fast and loose reliance on game cliches such as 'densification, infill, local suppliers, dynamic,' etc. seems to suffice. ... But good planning under the OCP should entail balancing objectives such as both densification and view protection, rather than just achieving the density goal. Medium density could have delivered some of each. Officials gave a cavalier dismissal to protests by the local team at the official hearing. Their dismissals were supported with a range of contestable cliches such as 'the buildings define the views.' After all, there seems to be no such thing as unfair blocking of the vviewscape, and certainly no penalties were called for."

A big problem with advocates of "smart growth" is that they are so eager to achieve higher densities that they are willing to sacrifice almost everything including the quality of life of residents to accomplish this. The sad thing is that many well-meaning people are sucked into the "smart growth" ideology because they believe it will spare the environment. It will do no such thing, and will destroy communities in the process.

[Rick Shea]

Given that L.A. has some of the highest urban density in the U.S., I find the following quotation at a "smart growth" website illuminating:

Even as many Los Angeles area residents leave the suburbs and move downtown, they rarely leave their cars behind, reports Los Angeles Times writer Sharon Bernstein, quoting Southern California Association of Governments policy and planning director Hasan Ikhrata, who notes that downtowners take transit for just 7 percent of their total trips and doesn't see ''less reliance on the automobile in the near future.''

The balance of the article talks about the failure of increased residential densities to solve parking issues, and how businesses are reluctant to relocate to the downtown.

And this is what people want here? Duuuh.

www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=4484