Subdivision development doesn't represent progress

Dear editor,

It was inevitable. Sooner or later, another piece of the open, natural space that is part and parcel of a community with a positive quality of life ratio would be targeted by a developer and his bulldozers.

The signs for what has been given the moniker, "Morning View Subdivision," have been posted. The one that caught my eyes is stapled to a post at the intersection of South 5th West Street and Smith Road, or about one mile uphill from Airbase Road.

As has been proven repeatedly in metro areas across our country, current residents of a municipality always end up forking over more in taxes eventually to support the public services needed for new development (also known as sprawl).

Having lived in Pennsylvania for two decades, the spread of sprawl out from the city of Philadelphia is but one case study that comes to mind.

One fine thing (there are several) that comes to mind when thinking of open, natural land is this: It doesn't require any public services, like drinking water, sewage pipes, street cleaning, snow plowing, etc. But it yields, without being asked to, the following: Clean air, wildlife and native-plant habitat and a place for folks to reconnect with wild nature and learn about their place in it.

The late Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf wrote these words: "Our wildlife in the Northwest — from the Rocky Mountain Front across the high desert to the Pacific Ocean — is a heritage for which we are responsible."

Soon, tractors will start prepping the land for the Morning View Subdivision. A pocket recreational park of turf and playground equipment will signify what was lost in the switch from wild nature to tamed sprawl.

The noise of lawn mowers will replace the calls of nesting Western Meadowlarks, Killdeer and even a Burrowing Owl; their nests "taken" by the builders.

This isn't progress. It's more of the same. How about a word for Wild Nature. And how about getting folks into the dozens of existing houses currently for sale in our city before building more?