Bulldozer Academy faces backlash
By KEN MIDKIFF
Published Friday, April 17, 2009
(http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/apr/17/bulldozer-academy-faces-backlash/)

What members of the Central Missouri Development Council (aka Bulldozer Academy) — headed up by the never-at-a-loss-for-words Don Stamper — can’t seem to recognize is that they are their own worst enemy. They have met the enemy, and it is them.

Now, there’s a backlash — one of their own making. But in their eagerness to assign blame, they’re pointing fingers at everyone else.

Columbia Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe easily won re-election to her Sixth Ward seat, even though Stamper and friends backed her opponent. Even those in Columbia’s Second Ward, when presented with the choice of Tweedledee and Tweedlededum, expressed concern about the amount of destruction going on in the city. (The robo-calls of the “Club for Growth” were a joke, probably turned off more people than were convinced and are not even worth considering.)

But those who have made their living pushing dirt around, building residential “communities” and leveling sites for retail establishments won’t give in easily. They apparently define “economic growth” only as developing subdivisions where now grass, trees and bluffs are present. When you’ve had your hand in the money machine for so long, it’s hard to withdraw.

In their zeal to make Columbia look like Blue Springs, they inadvertently honked off those who value things that the developers were busily destroying. Wooded areas? Just weeds. Stream buffers? Everyone knows that the closer a house is to running water, the more valuable it is (never mind an occasional flood). Scenic bluffs? Level ’em.

It is not just the usual group of naysayers who are upset. Rather it is the rank-and-file resident, the common homeowner, who is concerned that dirt work might have gone too far. When our creeks are filled with sediment from construction runoff, when there’s precious little open and green space left, when farmland is disappearing to be replaced by retail outlets and subdivisions, it doesn’t take a genius to recognize something has gone wrong.

For years, the city manager and Columbia City Council catered and kowtowed to the enticements of those who saw green only as money to be made in some prime or subprime area. Almost every development project and request for rezoning, no matter how ill-conceived, was approved.

No more.

If establishing reasonable regulations on zoning variances, stream buffers and subdivision standards makes us unfriendly to business, so be it. We have been overly friendly to business in the past, and look where it’s gotten us.

Hinkson Creek and Grindstone are on the state’s list of impaired water bodies; Flat Branch, Hominy Branch and County House Branch aren’t on any list but hardly support much of anything in the way of insect larvae.

Our jail is overcrowded to the point that we occasionally need to send prisoners to Fulton or Boonville. Our library is thriving to the point that there’s no place to park and private, uniformed security guards stalk the shelves. Our schools are overcrowded and in dire financial straits. We now have mini “rush hours” in the morning and evening. Infrastructure is stretched to the breaking point. Just mention any aspect of such amenities — water, roads, electricity, sewage — and all have severe problems.

Almost all of the items on the city council’s agendas relate to past actions on growth and development.

And did I mention the disappearance of open and green spaces?

Enough is enough. Stop the madness. Perpetual growth is not inevitable — and, if allowed to continue, will destroy its host. Let’s keep Columbia a nice place to live and not let it be choked with ugliness.