Conference explores growing Montana economy, quality of life: Planned growth, corralling sprawl beneficial to economic development, say speakers

At the annual state conference on smart growth, the theme was how to blend economic prosperity with land-use planning.

Conference speakers argued that planned growth saves money and encourages economic development at Friday’s Big Sky or Big Sprawl Conference, held at Carroll College and hosted by the Montana Smart Growth Coalition and Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

By DANA GREEN Staff Reporter

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2004/11/22/business/bus01.txt

Local taxpayers pay for unchecked sprawl, argued keynote speaker and former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening, a champion for planned growth during his two terms as governor and now president of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute.

By building roads to new developments and letting taxpayers foot the bill for the impact on schools and other services, local governments often encourage sprawl, he said.

Smart growth means "not subsidizing sprawl and its harmful effects," but instead encouraging growth near sewer and water infrastructure, protecting agricultural land -which puts less of a strain on county services – and putting funding back into existing communities, he said.

"If people say they are fiscally conservative, they ought to be aggressive about this type of (planning)," Glendening said.

Governors can use state economic development funding to prioritize and encourage planned growth projects instead of favoring new construction outside of existing infrastructure, Glendening added.

"If a business says it will bring in 50 new jobs, ask them to put that company in an existing community," he said.

Other speakers continued to sound the same note: planned growth, particularly in fast-growing counties, was essential to insuring sustained economic growth.

Montana could grow its economy while retaining its quality of life, argued Ben Alexander, associate director of the Sonoran Institute, a nonprofit research institute with offices in Bozeman.

While rural Montana communities used to have a competitive advantage in natural resource extraction, the Western economy has shifted away from extractive industries, according to Alexander.

Traditional industries such as agricultural, wood products, and mining have fallen to eight percent of the overall economy in the rural West, Alexander said.

But that doesn’t mean rural communities have to trade high-paying resource jobs for low-paying service jobs in tourism or retail, argued Alexander.

Not all service jobs are created equal: Communities should focus on attracting high-paying "producer services" businesses, he said.

Marketing, idea-creation, design, research, and product development are all "knowledge economy" businesses that generate wealth without harming the natural environment, he said.

The key to attracting these types of businesses is providing a high quality of life – by protecting the natural characteristics that make Montana unique, according to Alexander.

An international technology firm recently based its new office in Bozeman because of the "one-hour rule" – one hour to hunting, fishing and hiking, Alexander said.

"We used to think create the jobs and people will come," Alexander said. "Instead, people are deciding where to live and bringing jobs with them."

Economic prosperity in the rural West will, at least in part, mean creating or attracting high-paying producer service companies while protecting the environment that drew them in the first place.

"New people coming into your community have ideas and capital," Alexander said. "They are the bridge."

On the down side, rural communities must be wary of becoming a playground for the rich at the expense of the rest of the population, Alexander said.

"There are people who are being left out – they can’t afford to live in the place they call home," Alexander said.

Diverse groups in the community have to find a way to come together and determine what the community’s future should look like – and how to retain affordable housing and maintain a high quality of life for all residents.

"Otherwise, change can seem like a threat, not an opportunity," Alexander warned.

Gov.-elect Brian Schweitzer, who spoke briefly at the conference, voiced his strong support for the tenets of planned growth.

"If we don’t plan for the future, the future will come without a plan," Schweitzer said. "It makes no sense to have people who teach our children and run our governments living 27 miles away."

But when asked what Bitterroot residents could do to encourage planning, Schweitzer made it clear that state government could only do so much – planning was the responsibility of local elected officials.

"You are electing the wrong people in the Bitterroot," Schweitzer said. "Start sending me a Legislature that’s looking to the future instead of the past."

For Bitterroot realtor and recent state House candidate Kathleen Driscoll, who attended the conference, planned growth was not just about improving the economy but also improving the lives of Bitterrooters.

"If you start to look at our homes as a way to do business, then we don’t have to build the roads, and the taxes won’t go up so much," Driscoll said. "You’re also going to make the quality of life better because (people) are going to be closer to stores, they will be able to walk more, and have a community feeling."

Reporter Dana Green can be reached at 363-3300 x28 or at [email protected]