Let’s be clear about this: The Boone County Smart Growth Coalition is an alliance of 14 community and environmental groups collectively representing more than 1,000 members. Together these groups encourage sustainable, prosperous communities that strike a balance between private and public interests, between urban and rural land use, and between developed areas and natural spaces. We believe that by working together we can find common ground and mutual understanding that will eventually lead to creative solutions to the inevitable problems that accompany rapid growth.

Probably the biggest problem we face, and the most misunderstood area of our mission, centers on the question of government’s role in managing growth and its support of the kind of infrastructure that seems to encourage haphazard growth. We understand that one person’s sprawl is another person’s progress, and we’re committed to discovering the fine line that divides the two.

The issues the coalition has worked on so far are in line with this goal. We have urged government to make Stephens Lake and the Phillips tract into public parks and to develop a county park system. No one who thinks seriously about such activities can conclude they are either designed to reduce growth or are likely to have this effect. We think efforts to retain the natural beauty of the area and to make it accessible to residents are likely to make the area more attractive and promote population growth rather than impede growth.

Columbia and Boone County are growing at a rapid clip. New subdivisions spring up practically overnight, and schools are at capacity almost before they are built. Our roads are congested, the state wrestles with finding a solution to the Interstate 70 problem, basements in long-established neighborhoods flood in the wake of new development, and streams are in danger.

Well-planned growth ensures that a community will thrive. When we talk about "smart growth," we do not mean "no growth." We are not an anti-tax group and are not simply trying to shift infrastructure expenses from old to new residents of the area. We realize, however, that development follows infrastructure and believe we must know the true costs of extending a road or sewer into undeveloped regions of the county. We realize as well that truly smart growth need not and must not ignore the need for decent and affordable housing.

Further, our interest in examining the funding of capital infrastructure costs, admittedly a controversial issue, is an effort to determine those costs. We embarked on the study because we need to understand the true costs of growth before we can determine whether our current methods of paying for infrastructure encourage rapid, expensive, noncontiguous growth that will eventually destroy the natural beauty and rural atmosphere of the county. The study is not complete, and we look forward to engaging with other interested parties in the kind of lively debate that will eventually lead to positive and creative solutions.

We believe that if neighborhood groups, environmentalists, developers, business people and government come together, we can find solutions to the problems engendered by our success and protect the things that make this such an attractive place to live and do business.

This region is at a turning point. At current growth rates, Boone County’s population will be about 250,000 in 30 years or so, when our children and grandchildren reach maturity. The residents of Boone County can accept the piecemeal development of land - forgoing careful study of the economic and environmental consequences that might follow - or they can work to ensure a future characterized by revitalized urban and town centers, thriving businesses and farms and a healthy, beautiful natural environment.

If all of us are careful and wise in our choices now, those who come after us will be able to enjoy some of the natural beauty and rural atmosphere that make the area special. This preservation will occur only if we work together to make it happen. It will not occur by accident.