It was just a line on a
piece of paper. A line on a map, actually.
But it might just as well have been a knife to the heart of Prescott’s
only cohousing community, Manzanita Village.
The innocuous flyer arrived in the mail in mid-July, with a cheery
invitation to participate in an open house the City of Prescott
was conducting to address traffic flow in the city.
The firm of Carter + Burgess (C+B) was hired by the City of Prescott to
count current traffic, study traffic flow, and determine future land
use projections to come up with a map that shows current traffic and
future traffic in 2030. The project's goal was to “achieve a
balance of internal and
through traffic, while preserving the integrity of the surrounding
neighborhoods.” Their
conclusion: traffic will get worse.
You have probably heard the expression ”bad planning on your part does
not constitute an emergency on my part.” I am not exactly calling
out
the National Guard yet, but I am beginning to hear alarm bells go off.
Although C+B was quick to point out that the alignment of the new road
had not been seriously studied, their proposed option to alleviate
traffic congestion south of town was to cut a swath to the north of
Acker Park, and
go right through a portion of the open space of Manzanita Village.
A little history here.
Manzanita Village
is a resident developed
cohousing community of 36 houses. The original zoning for the
community would have allowed as many as 55 homes to be constructed on
the 12.5 acres that it currently occupies. Founding members of
the
community however, opted to cluster their homes on about 4 acres of the
land, leaving roughly 8 acres of undeveloped common land for the
enjoyment of the entire community. Open space. Space which
looks like
undeveloped land from a satellite photo.
Why should this concern you? Because Manzanita Village is a model
of
community planning. It fosters a sense of neighborhood. It
provides
pedestrian pathways where children can ride their bikes and seniors can
enjoy their company. It encourages water harvesting, community
gardening, ride sharing, and, perhaps most importantly, stewardship of
the land.
There is a certain school of thought that states that a person or
company should have the right to develop their property as they see
fit, as long as it is within the law and the standards of planning and
zoning. Manzanita Village has designated two-thirds of
their land as
open space. It is not idle, vacant, or underutilized land.
It is
integral to the success of the community.
There is another school of thought, known as the right of eminent
domain, which states that the welfare of the many outweighs the rights
of the few. Perhaps, it is in the interest of the many to seriously
look at alternative modes of transportation in this city, to reduce the
number of automobiles on our streets, rather than applying band-aides
to the problem that, if unresolved, will result in the sprawl that we
all so despise. One of the reasons that many of us have moved
here was
for the beauty of the hills and mountains that surround us.
Let’s stop
making molehills out of mountains, and leave our natural beauty
intact for everyone to enjoy.
