Madison, WI - The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance
Committee recently voted 10-6 to repeal the state’s
Smart Growth Law. While both houses in the Legislature
and the governor would have to agree to the repeal for
it to go into effect (which is unlikely), the
committee’s action presents the WRA with an
opportunity to reiterate why we originally supported
and continue to support the law.
Some members of the Joint Finance Committee who voted
in favor of the repeal maintain that the law allows
the state to control local land-use decisions. Others
claim that the law takes away rights from property
owners. These are the same unfounded arguments that
have been raised by anti-planning groups since the day
the law was passed. Ironically, local government
groups and groups that defend property rights, like
the WRA, continue to support and defend the law.
Over the years, some REALTORS® have questioned and
even criticized the WRA for supporting the Smart
Growth Law. They claim that we have gotten “soft” on
our support for property rights, “sold out” to the
environmental groups from Madison, or supported the
law only as part of some bigger political compromise.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Good Planning is Important to Maintaining a High
Quality of Life
The WRA originally supported this law, and continues
to support the law, because good planning is critical
to maintaining a high quality of life in a community
and thus benefits both the housing industry and
property owners alike. Among other things, good
planning helps communities:
- Anticipate and invest in the infrastructure
needs necessary to accommodate new development;
- Provide sufficient groundwater, parks, and open
space to make their communities attractive to both
new and existing residents so that people will want
to live there;
- Meet the needs of local businesses to ensure
their doors stay open and the jobs stay in town
rather than moving to another state or country;
- Provide adequate services at a reasonable cost
to property taxpayers;
- Maintain high property values;
- Avoid making decisions in reaction to events,
conditions or proposals without the vision or
direction to assess how those decisions will impact
the future well-being of the community.
Improved Public Participation Requirements Will
Help Property Owners Better Protect Their Interests
Wisconsin’s Smart Growth Law made fundamental changes
to the planning process that provides the public and
affected property owners with an opportunity to
participate in the creation of the plan. Prior to
Smart Growth, state law did not require public notices
or public hearings prior to the adoption or amendment
of a plan. The public and affected property owners
were often unaware of the plan until after it had
passed. Furthermore, elected officials, who are
directly accountable to the public, were not
responsible for approving the content of the plan.
Today, more property owners are aware of the planning
efforts in their communities than ever before. People
are debating the merits of planning and the key issues
that impact their communities. While this open
dialogue often makes planning more difficult and
time-consuming, both individual property owners and
the community benefit in the long run.
Greater Consistency Between Regulations Will Make
the Development Process More Predictable
The Smart Growth Law requires planning and zoning
regulations to be consistent so that property owners
and developers have reasonable certainty as to how
they can and cannot use their property. This is
particularly helpful with respect to proposed
subdivision plats, which may be denied on the basis of
a plan or a zoning regulation. Without consistency,
communities can have plans that say one thing and
zoning ordinances that say another, often resulting in
subjective decision-making at the local level and
great confusion for property owners.
Housing and Economic Development Issues Will be
Considered as Part of Every Plan
Under the Smart Growth Law, communities are required
to consider various housing and economic development
issues as part of their plan. Communities are not
required to limit or approve only certain types of
housing or economic development, but they must
determine how their policies and actions will impact
the availability and affordability of housing and
economic development in the community. Prior to the
passage of Smart Growth, housing and economic
development were afterthoughts in many communities.
Anti-growth policies were often adopted without ever
considering how such policies would affect the cost of
housing, the local workforce, area businesses, or the
property tax base. While the Smart Growth Law does not
prohibit communities from adopting anti-growth
policies, it will hopefully provide them with better
information about the destructive impacts of such
policies and encourage them to adopt more responsible
alternatives.
Conclusion
The Smart Growth Law is by no means perfect, nor will
it guarantee that local comprehensive plans are
favorable to all property owners or to REALTORS® who
live in the community. For better or worse, this is
the price we pay for local control and giving property
owners and the rest of the public a stronger voice in
the process.
Although the Smart Growth Law will not go into full
effect until the year 2010, many communities have
already begun or finished their comprehensive plans.
This has given planners, developers and the public
some practical experience working with the law and the
planning process, which has generated many ideas on
how to improve it. While new ideas should be discussed
on how to improve the Smart Growth Law, repealing it
is not the answer.
For more information, please contact Tom Larson (tlarson@wra.org)
at
(608) 240-8254.
Published: 6/8/2005
