THE LIST: 'You've gotta know what county you want to land in'

I don’t know what it is about the generations that have come before me, but one thing they’re good about is their one-liners. Both of my grandpas had a lot of them, and many times I look back on them and smile.

One I remember from my Grandpa Pedersen happened before I was alive.

The story goes that he was out looking at new cars with my aunt Lila, who is my mom’s younger sister. They were testing out a Ford Mustang of some sort, I believe, and he told her that before she pushes in the clutch to put it in gear, she had better decide what county she wants to land in. Evidently it had some “get up and go” that was about to take her by surprise, if she didn’t heed his fatherly advice.

If you’re like me, you have a tendency to bulldoze your way into making decisions. Sometimes that ends up alright and other times it doesn’t.

I was impressed with the board of supervisors’ actions of listening to the public about the data center ordinance, which now isn’t about data centers. They’ve changed it into large commercial structures of 50,000 square feet or more. Neither those for or against a data center coming to our county dominated the conversation, as I felt there were good arguments shared on both sides.

A measured approach is always a better one, and as I write this Tuesday afternoon, the supervisors are scheduled to have a second hearing on the matter tomorrow morning. Setbacks were changed from the original version, as well as the aforementioned wording change.

I don’t think I’ve ever left a conversation with an ISU Extension and Outreach expert disappointed in the quality of information I was given, so I decided to reach out a week or so ago to a field specialist on community development, local government and housing with some questions about community growth, Luke Seaberg.

Now, I’m just talking about the data center and rural growth right now, but I understand that some of these topics I asked about are great for housing development too, which Greenfield has been talking a lot about in recent months. More on that in a week or two.

Seaberg said housing, attracting and retaining residents and thinking strategically are three of the biggest challenges cities or counties face in wanting to grow. One of the most interesting pieces I took away from this part of Seaberg’s email pertained to thinking strategically. He said a community should consider what kind of growth it wants to encourage or discourage and develop a growth strategy. He said it’s wise to consider the direct, indirect or induced effects of various growth strategies and define which kind of growth makes the most sense for a community “in a proactive, as opposed to reactive, way.”

There are pros and cons to having zoning. Looking at adding planning and zoning in the future is only part of the board of supervisors’ discussion. As Jeremy Rounds from Southern Iowa Council of Governments told the supervisors recently, a comprehensive plan is a foundation for zoning, and that can take awhile to formulate. The ones the supervisors currently have are on the outdated side. Seaberg said zoning allows for orderly development, helps optimize property values and provides a mechanism for public involvement and provides a justification for most land use decisions for the local government.

Pros and cons to not having zoning are “the same: people can do (almost) whatever they want to do in terms of building on their property,” Seaberg said.

Seaberg said that when faced with opportunities to grow, local governments should get unbiased and factual information on the table regarding costs and benefits of projects. We don’t have the answers to these yet on the data center, for instance. Hopefully we will sometime soon. Until then, I think it’s all speculation.

Seaberg said it’s also important that we don’t just listen to the loudest voices in the room, which is also good advice. That’s where his previous point comes in so strongly.

I hope we continue taking a measured approach on this. Let’s not inhibit growth, but let’s not grow without at least counting the cost first.