Focusing all its time and effort on regional planning issues and not enough on marketing its successes may have done in Hailey-based Citizens for Smart Growth.
On Friday, April 16, the 12-year-old nonprofit organization announced that it will close its doors due to funding shortfalls. The group's last hurrah will be at the end of April.
Concerns over the environmental, social and economic consequences of poorly planned growth in the Wood River Valley led to the founding of Citizens for Smart Growth in the late 1990s. At the center of the fledgling group—which in the beginning was a small coalition of citizens who showed up at public meetings to testify about development proposals—was Hailey resident Steve Wolper.
Speaking Tuesday, Wolper said he was able to recruit others to become part of a mission to bring regional planning to the valley. He said their desire was to provide balance during meetings where city and county officials were considering development plans that had the potential to bring massive change to the valley. For too long, local officials were only hearing from the developers, he said.
Wolper said it was a lot like showing up at a wedding where the bride—or developer—had all the guests.
"On the groom side there would be one or two citizens," he said.
Wolper said one of Citizens for Smart Growth's greatest successes was helping to get strong ordinances passed to keep the valley's stunning hillside vistas uncluttered and undeveloped. In the beginning, he said, they ran into stiff resistance when advocating for open hillsides and a prohibition on new construction there.
"We went to meetings where people said, 'It is the view, stupid,'" he said.
Wolper said Citizens for Smart Growth's emphasis on comprehensive regional planning led the county to eventually hire a regional planner.
Those involved in the organization point to their efforts to engage the public in important planning issues as one of their most significant missions.
The group has also focused on the need to create walkable, bicycle-friendly and transit-oriented communities and to protect wildlife habitat, working farms and ranches and opportunities for local outdoor recreation. But Wolper said Citizens for Smart Growth was never against growth.
"We were for planned growth," he said.
Wolper said the current economic climate has certainly had an effect on Citizens for Smart Growth's funding woes. He said he's unsure what will happen without Citizens for Smart Growth showing up at meetings in the valley where development on other regional planning issues are discussed.
"I don't know who is going to fill that gap," he said.
Citizens for Smart Growth's last public event will be held Thursday, April 22, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. The organization will be showing the film "Tapped" at 6 p.m. at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey.
The documentary is about the bottled water industry and its effects on our health, climate change, pollution and our reliance on oil, a news release from the group states.
Jason Kauffman: jkauffman@mtexpress.com
