The Challenge of Restricting Growth
At its July 10 meeting, the Gilbert planning and zoning commission continued its discussions with the two consultants from the Public Resource Management Group who are working with the town to develop a comprehensive land use plan. One of the consultants, Gary Reiners, addressed a key provision of the plan that would limit the growth rate of single family homes in Gilbert to three percent per year. Gary said, "Gilbert wants to control its destiny by controlling single family housing." He suggested that much of everything else in the plan is nuts and bolts to put into place.

In contrast, he said that implementing restricted growth rate policy can present a real life, contemporary issue and that either in the five months or five years a problem could descend out of the blue. He also suggested that the commission members needed to anticipate future problems and said a situation could arise in which three developers all proposed new construction at the same time. He asked, "What do you do?" He said that the easiest solution is to authorize the plans on a first come, first serve basis. However, he contended that is not always the best approach and described some options.

Thwarting Competition
The commission members have talked occasionally about how Rich Lepper, the town’s major, if not only, developer, is building homes on the south side of town at a rate of three percent per year. According to the commission, Rich’s projected plans will continue at the three percent rate and could fill the town’s allocation for new single family homes for decades to come. The question then arises how permits for new homes will be distributed in light of plans by Lepper Construction and requests from other developers and Gilbert citizens with a few extra acres who want to build homes on their lots.

Maintaining Small Town Qualities
One reason for the restriction on housing is a desire for Gilbert to maintain its small town character. We would argue that Gilbert’s leaders also need to address what it really means to have a small town character. We would also argue that having a wholesome small town character has as much to do with working toward certain values as it does with maintaining a numerical quota. When is the last time that Gilbert leaders talked about governing more openly, supervising more fairly, communicating better with the public, developing volunteerism, breathing life into the dormant parks and recreation commission, providing more festivities and other events where people can interact, and fostering a greater sense of community. There are towns in central Iowa that are larger than Gilbert but who appear to do much better when it comes to fostering a wholesome community life.

In some ways, it is commendable to establish policy to restrict the growth rate of single family homes. Not many of us in Gilbert would want urban sprawl such as in towns on the west or north side of Des Moines. But the plan could further promote the status quo of Gilbert being a one-developer town with little if any competition.

The restrictions could also lead to Gilbert being an elitist town where few of the kinds of working class and other low and moderate income people who have been part of the heritage of this town will be to afford housing here in the future. And finally, a growth rate restriction by itself without the city leaders working in other ways to foster a whole community seems doomed to fail. The town coulc possibly end up with good suburban housing as an appendage to Ames but lose its sense of identity, or do we dare say it’s soul, along the way.

A Healthy Balance of Commercial and Housing Construction
Another reason why the commission wants to restrict housing growth to a three percent rate is to keep a balance of home and commercial construction. The town receives much less tax revenue from single family housing than it does from commercial property. Without the rate limit, the commission is afraid that the town would face increased demand from citizens for services while not having an increased budget to pay for those services. One good note is that rental housing would be unrestricted since it is classified as commercial property and provides good revenue to the city coffers.

History of the Land Use Plan
The P and Z commission has been working on the land use plan for at least four years. The commission met nine times in 2000 but only three times in 2001 and 2002. Then there was a hiatus from November of last year until April 3 of this year. We question why the lull in commission discussions when a project as important as a land use plan is in the works. The purpose of creating a land use plan is for the community to determine the vision for its growth rather than developers.

At the July 10 commission meeting, Sue Costner, who is the other consultant with PMRG outlined a schedule that would perhaps see completion of the plan this fall. There has been a long-held vision of coordinating the plan with Story County and Ames. In fact, the three judicatories held a joint meeting a couple of years ago at the city hall in Ames where there was talk of agreeing on a demilitarized zone between Ames and Gilbert where there would be no development but a green belt.. However, the plan has been slowed down while waiting for the Story County planners to make progress.

Projected Completion of the Plan this Fall
It does appear now that the county is in a better position to continue talks with Gilbert and Ames. In addition, Ames director of planning Brian O’Connell will be leaving Iowa for another job later this summer. Brian has been extremely supportive of Gilbert’s planning and zoning commission, and Sue is rightfully pushing to have joint meeting of Story County, Gilbert, and Ames officials before Brian moves. She hopes that meeting can take place in July.