Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 3

[VelvetElvis]

Originally Posted by Orlando

All this inversion stuff has got to be a boon for all the anti-sprawl sentimentalists. This is the evidence that needs to be brought to the republican dominated Utah government to start putting more controls on bad development policy in the wasatch metro!! They need start looking at using urban growth boundaries, more new urbanist developments like Daybreak, and placing harsher penalties for people living out in Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs, etc. When I say penalties, I mean that their needs to be a higher rate to be paid for for public utilities. So, instead of saying you can't live out there, you just stick them with the just cost that it takes to build further and further out. Where are the smart growth and the Invision Utah advocate lobbyists now?!

I've been reading a book by Peter Calthorpe(the very renowned New Urbanist who designed Daybreak) called, "Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change". So far, from what I've read, he is saying that the smartest way to be use less energy and pollute less is not by using more technology(solar panels, fuel efficient cars, etc.), but by developing smarter, by developing closer together. He likens the early suburbs of the 19th century (ie. 9th and 9th, etc. as a model for today's suburban development) because it creates a place where people don't have to drive everywhere, they can walk to the corner store, restaurant, etc. Smarter development combined with smarter technology = less energy used per capita, and less pollution, etc.

This inversion thing is only going to get worse as the populations increases and they continue to be so non-restrictive about development. It's time to act now! Let's contact Governer Herbert, the Salt Lake County government, and Utah legislators!

I haven't read the book, but surely Mr. Calthorpe doesn't present his recommendation as a choice between clean energy technology or smart developing. I would be very skeptical of any proposal so void of nuance. Harnessing the power of the sun is undoubtedly one of humanity's top, longterm projects!