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by Amy Maestas
A local grass-roots organization concerned about the city’s
boundaries sprawling into undeveloped areas is mounting a new
campaign to get a responsible growth initiative on November’s
ballot.
Friends of the Animas Valley, which formed last year to defeat
the proposed River Trails Ranch north of city limits, is beginning
work on getting a petition approved to circulate among registered
city voters. If successful, the petition would secure a place
on the ballot during this year’s general election. Essentially,
the initiative would ask residents to vote in favor of requiring
the city government to get voter approval before annexing property
into city limits.
To achieve this, says Renee Parsons, president of FOAV, voters
would choose to amend an article in the city’s Land Use
and Development Code. The amendment would include a new section
titled Responsible Growth.
“We don’t consider this (initiative) as anti-growth
or no-growth,” Parsons says. “It’s just an avenue
to get city voters to be part of the process.”
The key elements of the proposed initiative would require the
city to:
-Obtain voter approval of all annexations except parcels of 10
residential dwelling units or less and permanently dedicated open
space.
-Obtain voter approval for any development applications resulting
in new commercial construction with a combined size of 40,000
square feet or greater.
-Provide adequate public infrastructure (e.g. roads, schools,
water, sewer) for any proposed annexation and/or final plan approval
unless adverse impacts on the public infrastructure are judged
insignificant.
Parsons says that the group and supporters of such an initiative
are concerned that unbridled growth in Durango will inevitably
destroy the city’s sense of community and character.
“Growth seems to be uncontrolled (in the city) right now,”
she says. “But we don’t look at this as stopping all
growth. We think it’s a pretty responsible package.”
This attempt at putting such an initiative on the ballot is a
first in the history of Durango. In 2000, Colorado voters were
asked to approve or reject a similar initiative. That effort took
a bottom-up, local-control approach and proposed that citizens
in Colorado communities be allowed to vote on developments in
their respective communities. Ultimately, voters defeated the
statewide initiative. But since then, several Colorado communities
have proposed – and many have approved – similar responsible
growth plans. Parsons says FOAV members have studied what these
communities and about 25 others in Oregon have done for guidance.
To get the initiative on the ballot requires organizers to circulate
a city-approved petition and obtain signatures equal to 15 percent
of the number of ballots cast in the last city election, which
City Clerk Linda Yeager says amounts to just more than 550. Parsons
says the group is in the process of certifying petition circulators,
after which they will turn over the proposals to Yeager’s
office. Once the petitions are confirmed, organizers will begin
a 30-day effort to educate city residents and gain their support
by signing the petition.
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