Saundra McDavid

The key issue of the 2007 Eagle mayoral election was managing the growth. Mayor Bandy claimed that he managed growth just fine. However his “management” appeared to be blanket approvals for every large development presented to him, over the objection of many of the residents that he was supposed to be representing. Hopefully, he realizes that he indeed must manage the growth if he is to remain in office. He has all of the residents of his city watching him to ensure he follows through on his campaign promises.

There are many ways cities can manage the growth. I was concerned over Bandy’s comments along the lines of “the market will manage itself.” I don’t want my city managed by the “market.” I want my city managed by the elected leaders; those who are supposed to be the representatives of the residents of the city.

The real estate downturn has given us a chance to fix what could be a disastrous situation. The previous city council has approved over 4,000 new homes to our area. Add the M3 foothills development and that number skyrockets to 11,000 homes. I know during the election Mayor Bandy claimed these numbers were exaggerated, however if one goes through the city council minutes for the last two years and adds up the lots that have been approved, the numbers are accurate. Mayor Bandy was trying to claim during the election that it was the building permits that are a more accurate reflection of how many homes are being built.

So let’s talk about Mayor Bandy’s plans to manage the number of building permits. ……… Unfortunately, we can’t have that discussion, because there are no plans to manage the building permits. So, when the real estate market turns around and those developers who have survived bankruptcy are ready to build on the 11,000 lots that have been approved, there is nothing preventing them from being granted a building permit, so long as they meet the building requirements of the city. Throughout the campaign I was repeatedly stating that there are actions we can take now to protect our city from unmanaged growth in the future. (Six percent growth equals doubling the city size every 11.5 years!) I provided some examples of how responsible cities don’t leave it up to the “market” to plan their city for them.

In 1971 Boulder passed a referendum which directed the local government to hold the rate of growth substantially below the rate the city had previously experienced. In 1976 the city capped the number of building permits to 450 per year in order to keep the growth rate at 1.5 – 2%. A portion of those building permits were earmarked for the city center, in order to help the revitalization of downtown. Small projects, fewer than four units on existing lots were exempt. The growth rate cap was lowered to 1% in 1995.

In addition, Boulder raised the funds to acquire 33,000 acres of greenways and mountain parks, which defines the city with open space and parkland, and acts as a natural boundary to block urban sprawl and leapfrog development. (An example of leapfrog development is the M3 development recently approved in our foothills.)

Eagle would be wise to implement such a system to cap our own growth. No one associated with my campaign ever stated that we wanted to stop growth (yet another rumor that was propagated by the Ada County Association of Realtors); we need to manage growth so that it does not leapfrog ahead of our infrastructure and services.

Come on Mayor Bandy – put that Masters degree in Public Administration (paid for at taxpayer’s expense) to work and come up with some creative plans to manage the growth of our city.

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