Rocky Mountain News Reining in Growth Colorado, neighbor states seek ways to preserve quality of life in face of unprecedented sprawl By Berny Morson, News Staff Writer Growth pressures got so bad in Arizona that even Rusty Bowers, self-described "ultra right-wing wacko," found himself pushing for a tough planning law. Bowers saw the population of Mesa, the Phoenix suburb where he was born and raised, increase thirtyfold in recent years, from 14,000 to 420,000. "I don't have a city I recognize; it's a foreign country," he said. Bowers, a Republican who represents Mesa in the Arizona Senate, sponsored a bill last year requiring every city of 2,500 or more to adopt a master plan and submit it to voters. That's not the kind of legislation Bowers, a property rights advocate, usually supports. But with developers "butchering" the desert to create subdivisions, Bowers feared angry voters would support what he deemed a more onerous ballot initiative brought by environmentalists. Growth, the issue that has sent the Colorado legislature into special session, is a hot topic throughout the fast-growing West. Residents and lawmakers in Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Idaho -- the nation's fastest-growing states -- are pondering steps to preserve quality of life. "Throughout the West, it's like wildfire," said Ellen Pillard, the head of the Sierra Club chapter that includes Nevada and Eastern California. Nevada, which ballooned by 66 percent since the 1990 census, is the fastest-growing state in the nation. Arizona, at 40 percent, is second. Colorado grew by 31 percent, according to the 2000 census. Colorado legislators Thursday began a special session after failing to come up with a plan to deal with growth during the regular session. Legislators, planners and environmental leaders in the Western states express widespread concern about growth-related problems, including snarled traffic, air pollution and high housing costs. While Arizona has adopted the most stringent regulations, other states are taking more tentative steps. No action is expected in the Nevada and Idaho legislatures. Utah has appointed a commission to make recommendations on growth. Dina Titus, the Democratic leader in the Nevada Senate, has sponsored bills to control urban sprawl. She has made little headway against Nevada's tradition of local control. In 1997, she proposed a growth boundary -- which she calls "ring around the valley" -- to control sprawl from Las Vegas, the nation's fastest-growing city. The measure went down in flames. "They're still talking about it," Titus said. "They call it 'ring around the collar,' 'ring around the rosie,' 'noose around the valley.' " She has since proposed a "smart growth" program, similar to Colorado's, in which cities receive financial incentives for good planning and buffer zones between cities. Neither proposal got anywhere, she said. An air pollution bill is making progress but only because Las Vegas, like Denver, faces federal sanctions for dirty air, she said. Jane Feldman, a retired Air Force officer who is active in land use issues through the Sierra Club, said 90% of the air pollution is particles stirred up when developers disturb the desert. The city is strangling in traffic, and, with little public transit, residents have no choice but to drive, she said. "Right now we're chained to our cars." Dean Rhoads, a Republican state senator from Reno, said that growth in Las Vegas is draining the state budget, which pays for schools, prisons and social services. "Growth is supposed to attract more income, but we're finding out in the last 10 years that it did not," Rhoads said. "Our infrastructure needs are more expensive than the revenue coming in. "I'm looked at as a very conservative person, and even I and my fellow senators in the Republican Party are ready to bite the bullet and have us some tax increases ready to go for the next (legislative) session," he said. But he stops short of endorsing Titus' proposals to control sprawl. "I don't think it should be a state mandate. I think it should be a local city-county option," he said. Arizona legislators held similar attitudes, but altered their stance amid public outrage over traffic and air pollution, said Mark Muro, a senior research analyst with Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy. A 1998 poll found that nearly half of Phoenix residents would leave if they could, largely because of growth issues, Muro said. "This is the valley of the sun in greater Phoenix, where growth was a gospel," Muro said. "The production of affordable middle class -- essentially cookie-cutter -- housing for an infinite influx of . . . emigrees from New England or California or the Midwest was seen as absolutely sacred economic trajectory." Phoenix sprawl is gobbling up the desert at the rate of a half-mile a year, according to a report by the institute. Nighttime temperatures have risen eight to nine degrees over the past 30 years because of all the paving, Muro said. Bowers, the Arizona lawmaker, said many of the developers and even some city planners don't understand the fragility of the desert. Some subdivisions are built without any open space. Washes should be left undeveloped, and cactuses should be preserved, said Bowers, whose family has lived in the area for four generations. "I sure sound like an environmentalist," he said. In neighboring Utah, the legislature has taken a more moderate path than Arizona's planning law. A 13-member Utah State Quality Growth Commission is making recommendations. So far, the panel is asking cities to consider air and water pollution, as well as infrastructure needs, in planning. "You're going to say, 'That's not all that startling,' but getting people to sit down and work on and agree on principles has been a lot harder than you'd think," said Provo Mayor Lewis Billings, who chairs the group, which includes developers and environmentalists. The definitions of quality growth are different in Salt Lake City and rural Southern Utah, Billings said. Billings said he asked leaders in rural Millard County to show him an example of quality growth in their community. "It was a big automated chicken operation where they lay eggs, and they had 300,000 chickens in this building and no smell," he said. "I had to agree with them -- for a rural atmosphere, that was pretty impressive." Contact Berny Morson at (303) 892-5072 or morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com. May 14, 2001 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. Questions? Comments? Talk to Us.