Smart Growth, silly legislation
7:02 PM 10/06/03

Here's an anomaly in the annals of Wisconsin public policy: A land-use program that enjoys support not only of environmental activists but also real estate agents, builders and local governments. <

It's called the Smart Growth law, and it's working so well, lawmakers want to repeal it. <

Some anachronistic town government officials have hoodwinked Rep. Mary Williams, R-Medford, into introducing a bill (AB 435) that would repeal Smart Growth, which was approved as part of the 1999-01 state budget. The Assembly Rural Affairs Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on Williams' misinformed bill. <

The law, now being applied in 700 communities statewide, is credited with preventing sprawl, protecting farmland and preserving the environment - without strangling local development. <

To be sure, state government places a lot of onerous mandates on local communities - but Smart Growth isn't one of them. Critics seem to misunderstand the law willfully. Some have deliberately spread misinformation that state-supported planning is a back-door effort to abridge local property rights. Smart Growth has been wrongly blamed in disputes over zoning restrictions, natural resources regulations and other unrelated rules already on the books. <

Smart Growth doesn't impose the state's will on local government or usurp local planning authority. But Smart Growth does: <