From an MPO community…

Participating as a panel member during last week’s property rights forum in Bozeman, Dick Haynes, a city council member from Missoula, called the implementation of “Smart Growth” in his city, an “insidious plot that threatens private property rights.” He said, “A lot of things are being put into place and no one knows it is happening to them.”

He said that the council is split regarding what is happening. The city hired a new director in the office of planning and his goal is to “densify the core of the city,” said Haynes.  “Our objection was that people didn’t move here for density, they came for space,” said Haynes. But, the momentum is behind the planners who, said Haynes, “Want to make it [Missoula] look like East Germany. Their goal is to make Missoula car-less and with about eight buildings per acre, which is what is necessary to support public transit.”

Haines said that the city hired a consulting firm to help “clean up” their ordinances that had been “cobbled together over the last decade or so.” What they got was a document that included a lot of “new ideas” – such as smaller lot sizes and other new ordinances that would create greater density.  They allowed for “additional dwelling units” on lots in single-family neighborhoods. But, while increasing density they did not allow for more parking. “There would be no place for people to park. They allowed businesses in residential areas, and raised occupancy limits,” explained Haines.

“In their process they use a number of methods to restrict public input,” said Haines, including the Delphi Technique. The process is one in which a large group of citizens are broken up into smaller groups who sit at tables, but included in the group is “someone who is in favor of all this,” explained Haines. That person is prepared, said Haines, to make sure that any arguments against the concept never go any further than that table. The smaller groups report out to the larger group and most of the results are, not surprisingly, in keeping with the predetermined plan. Objections that might have been voiced in the smaller groups are not allowed to be raised again.

At public hearings, opponents have to wait two or three hours to make comments and get discouraged, said Haines. “When someone did testify there is no consideration of what they say, they just say ‘thank you, next.’”

The end result, said Haines, is a growth plan that results in a series of lawsuits and reduced property values.