Is new development really good for your community?

Is new development really good for your community? Are there limits to what your local community can support? Have we reached the point where further development results in a decrease in the quality of life for the majority of its residents? With the planet heating up faster than predicted and the effects of the global increase in temperature occurring faster and more severely a more thorough look at further development of our local community would seem  necessary. 

Severe rain events that last longer and bring many inches of rain in a very short time are occurring much more frequently and causing extensive damage to local communities. Wildfires that destroy our homes and send smoke that keeps us in our homes, with windows and doors sealed tight so we are not made sick by breathing them. Droughts that destroy crops and grazing fields result in higher priced food for us. More hurricanes with stronger winds staying long and reaching further inland are destroying our local communities.  Homeowner insurance and flood insurance costs are skyrocketing to levels that are causing our neighbors to lose their homes.

Damage to community infrastructure is causing our local property taxes to increase year after year. The cost to protect communities from these disasters is beyond the ability of local communities. It would make more sense for all communities to stop making global warming worse by building in such a way that it increases greenhouse gases, the cause of global warming.

Community planners need to evaluate how a development will affect things like increased electricity demand because that increase will make it harder to replace fossil fuel electric generation with green electricity and result in the continued production of greenhouse gases. 

They must know what effect the development has on water runoff that will cause flooding as well as a reduction in the replenishment of water to the groundwater aquifer.

They must consider the heat that is created by the replacement of forested areas with roofs, sidewalks, driveways and streets. This heat rises up and is trapped by the greenhouse gases worsening severe weather events. 

They have to consider the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere when making the cement used to make the new buildings, sidewalks and driveways. 

Community planners must take into account all these actions that drive global warming before approving new developments. If they fail to do this they will not uphold their responsibility to protect the wellbeing of their communities. Our responsibility is to vote out community development planning board members who ignore the effect on global warming and vote in members who will.