RALEIGH — It’s like giving criminals a reduced sentence if they promise to commit their crimes only during the daylight hours, so that the police department could cut back staff during the night shift.
It’s like pressuring parents to move closer to major highways so that school buses will take less time and gas to pick up students.
It’s like having the Division of Motor Vehicles close down all but one of its offices and requiring would-be license renewers to camp outside as if waiting for tickets to the next Star Wars movie.
Uh, make that the next Harry Potter movie.
What am I talking about? Try the latest manifestation of the “Smart Growth” mentality, this time in Charlotte. City planners there are taking flak from developers for proposed land-use rules that try to steer future development into corridors served by the planned regional-rail system. The rules would make it difficult to respond to the demand of actual consumers who might want houses in between the transit stops, or who want to live in neighborhoods that aren’t optimal for train travel. The result, say those in the real-estate business whose job it is to predict consumer demand, would be either a lot of dissatisfied Charlotteans — or perhaps a lot of satisfied ex-Charlotteans.
Poppycock, respond the planners. They insist that the public wants alternatives to the auto-friendly development patterns that typify Charlotte and other North Carolina communities. Sure, the public doesn’t show any signs of realizing that, yet — but that’s why governments exist, to “lead.” Improbably, they also reject warnings from the business community that too many controls will choke off growth. Instead, the planners say that controls are needed to keep growth from slowing. You think I jest. The city’s planning director “told council members the revised policies will create more sustainable growth,” The Charlotte Observer reported. “Without the changes, he said, ‘In fact, Charlotte will peak and development will run out of Charlotte.'”
Unless you step on the brake, the car will slow down. Got it.
Charlotte will never be a “true urban city,” according to newspaper’s version of the Smart-Growther argument — I’m wondering whether the reporter or the planning director come up with that nonsensical phrase, as if there could be a “false urban city” or a “true rural city” — unless it uses urban-planning devices to increase density and mixed-use developments.
OK, let’s assume that’s true for the moment, but only for the moment. One might wonder what the point is of having a “true urban city,” as opposed to the current suburban hellhole that, well, seems to be such a popular place to move to. The answer is simple: it would be easier to run trains around in. Real people in the real world want to choose how they will live, and then see private and public services respond to their preferences. Real government planners in the unreal world want to chose how to deliver services, and then force consumers to comply with their — the planners’ — preferences.
Which is why this policy is like trying to tow burning mobile homes from all over town into a single block so that the fire department can concentrate its water-hose fire. This is like the cart before the horse. This is like the tail wagging the dog. This is like scrimping on dessert in order to save room for the appetizer.
A not-very original conclusion presents itself. There’s not much smart about Smart Growth.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.