Positive development can renew and update a community, but it must protect stable neighborhoods and enhance such basic systems as roads, schools and parks.

Unfortunately, the Board of Supervisors has endangered our roads and neighborhoods with a policy of "build first, plan later." At MetroWest and other major high-rise projects, the county has failed to adequately study impacts and relied on highly experimental traffic-reduction strategies to justify extra density.

On Oct. 3, 2006, Charlie Hall led a town hall meeting to unveil the "Citizens' Agenda for Responsible Growth." This 12-point plan lays out four goals:

• Protect public infrastructure by knowing the impacts of development before making a decision

• Enforce developer obligations

• Adopt innovative policies to address public transportation and crowded conditions in the schools and parks

• Increase citizen influence in the county planning and zoning process

Return to Issues