Commentary

Smart Growth Backlash

Local politicians have to be careful if they are going to implement Smart Growth. Wisconsin adopted a Smart Growth law that required cities to adopt comprehensive planning several years ago. Near Stevens Point, local residents of Sharon Township weren’t so happy. In the highest turnout in recent elections, town board members voting for the Smart Growth plan were ousted. “One connection most of TUesday’s winners share is their efforts in getting the townshp ou of Smart Growtin in 2003 and challengin the outgoing town board members in a move to strip some of them of their powers,” Andrew Dowd of the Stevens Point Journal writes. Daniel Sekerka, a landowner of 300 acres elected to the town board, was one of the anti-Smart Growth residents elected to the board. The Journal reports that he ran “because he didn’t feel the town government had been working with landowners in their municipal planning efforts.” Notably, the town did not strip planning authority from from the town. Apparently, they are more concerned about who is planning rather than whether they are planning.