On UGA Expansion
On UGA Expansion
County Councilmembers,
You were earlier given good reasons to reconsider the Planning Committee’s recommendation to expand the Bellingham UGA by Mr. Horowitz. Allow me to give you some more p
You were earlier given good reasons to reconsider the Planning Committee’s recommendation to expand the Bellingham UGA by Mr. Horowitz. Allow me to give you some more p
County Councilmembers,
You were earlier given good reasons to reconsider the Planning Committee's recommendation to expand the Bellingham UGA by Mr. Horowitz. Allow me to give you some more philosophical and heartfelt reasons for the same.
Mr. Horowitz has addressed the technical grounds upon which to adjust the analysis of the need for lands for additional urban growth around Bellingham. He has shown you that not one more acre is required. Some time ago I also, upon study, came to the same conclusion and have discussed the same with him, and we are of a mind. I agree, there are no technical or legal reasons that you must allow the city to expand.
The mandate to manage growth, yours and ours, is above all, first and foremost, about preserving and protecting resource lands and rural character. When embracing growth management, these two duties were addressed by the legislature before any other goals were considered. Do not let this fact be lost. This twin mandate is the heart and soul of the Growth Management Act.
Conceivably, sadly, some day someone might be asked to expand our urban centers to take the last acre of rural land. Would the desires of that moment for growth justify it?
Lest we forget amidst the cacophony of special and personal interests, it is all about the land. The land, not some commodity to be turned to commercial advantage, but our most critical resource, our common wealth and means of continuing to produce wealth.
This is why the Legislature has asked us to protect and preserve the land.
When I was a very young man, I was given a book by one of my professors, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. To paraphrase Mr. Leopold, a thing is right when it preserves the integrity and stability of the community; and the community includes the soil, water, fauna and flora, as well as the people. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we instead see land as a community to which we belong, we will begin to use it with due respect. It is inconceivable that an ethical relation to land can exist without respect, and regard for its value; something far broader than mere economic value, value in the philosophical sense.
Rachel Carson was one of the great patrons of nature. She observed that we still hadn't become mature enough to think of ourselves as only a tiny part of nature, and realized we had acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. She understood that we're challenged as never before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.
We sometimes see land as little more than open space belonging to this or that one of us. On this earth there is no open space, only open land and open waters. And all open land is already put to useful purpose. Every decision you make is about converting that land to another purpose. Do not make that decision without truly understanding the purpose it now serves, a purpose that will abide long after any of us.
There is little I can imagine that is more important than reversing the rush towards destruction we are on. You can understand the technical argument I am sure. But please understand that it is you, and it is now that is critical.
You were earlier given good reasons to reconsider the Planning Committee's recommendation to expand the Bellingham UGA by Mr. Horowitz. Allow me to give you some more philosophical and heartfelt reasons for the same.
Mr. Horowitz has addressed the technical grounds upon which to adjust the analysis of the need for lands for additional urban growth around Bellingham. He has shown you that not one more acre is required. Some time ago I also, upon study, came to the same conclusion and have discussed the same with him, and we are of a mind. I agree, there are no technical or legal reasons that you must allow the city to expand.
The mandate to manage growth, yours and ours, is above all, first and foremost, about preserving and protecting resource lands and rural character. When embracing growth management, these two duties were addressed by the legislature before any other goals were considered. Do not let this fact be lost. This twin mandate is the heart and soul of the Growth Management Act.
Conceivably, sadly, some day someone might be asked to expand our urban centers to take the last acre of rural land. Would the desires of that moment for growth justify it?
Lest we forget amidst the cacophony of special and personal interests, it is all about the land. The land, not some commodity to be turned to commercial advantage, but our most critical resource, our common wealth and means of continuing to produce wealth.
This is why the Legislature has asked us to protect and preserve the land.
When I was a very young man, I was given a book by one of my professors, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. To paraphrase Mr. Leopold, a thing is right when it preserves the integrity and stability of the community; and the community includes the soil, water, fauna and flora, as well as the people. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we instead see land as a community to which we belong, we will begin to use it with due respect. It is inconceivable that an ethical relation to land can exist without respect, and regard for its value; something far broader than mere economic value, value in the philosophical sense.
Rachel Carson was one of the great patrons of nature. She observed that we still hadn't become mature enough to think of ourselves as only a tiny part of nature, and realized we had acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. She understood that we're challenged as never before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.
We sometimes see land as little more than open space belonging to this or that one of us. On this earth there is no open space, only open land and open waters. And all open land is already put to useful purpose. Every decision you make is about converting that land to another purpose. Do not make that decision without truly understanding the purpose it now serves, a purpose that will abide long after any of us.
There is little I can imagine that is more important than reversing the rush towards destruction we are on. You can understand the technical argument I am sure. But please understand that it is you, and it is now that is critical.
