A primer on planning and people

By Dr. James “Jim” Kadlecek

“My right to swing my arm ends where my neighbor’s nose begins.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Living in the Rio Grande valley along scenic Highway 28 allows me to view a veritable panorama of American life as it passes by on the road in front of my home.

Each early morning, the tillers of the soil pass by on the way to the fields of chile, cotton or corn, driving their mammoth tractors and tugging expensive farm equipment. Following, and frustrated at the slow pace of the farmer, is a young woman on her way to her job in the city.

Coming the other way from the city is a gaggle of bicyclists, all decked out in skin-tight athletic-bike attire, heads protected by colorfully striped helmets. They have their heads down and are peddling madly, obsessed with their heart-pumping endeavor.

Not today, but on weekends, we see groups of middle-aged motorcyclists, usually wearing vests over tee-shirts that do not hide their pot bellies. Riding behind and clutching their macho mates are semi-attractive females, hair blowing freely.

Oh yes, now passes the construction worker, usually driving a huge black Ford F-250 pickup that is burning gas worth more than he makes at his job. Wonder how (or if) he can feed his family these days? And here comes a van loaded with hard-working farm workers heading for a nearby field to do the work that most of us shun. Wonder how many are “illegal,” and whether they will successfully avoid the Border Patrol guys that also pass by from time to time? (I hope so.)

Now, where else could I live where I could daily see such a parade of Americana and be able to watch it from my office window as I type (‘scuse me, “word-process”) little columns such as this?

Planning in a diverse community

I’m thinking today about the city and county 2040 plan, and out my window is passing this amazing variety of personalities. And I’m wondering, how can you plan a growing county and successfully accommodate the differing characteristics of our people?

I’m sure some planner-disciples of trendy smart-growth and new urbanism would like us to all live in space-saving condominiums with well-manicured landscaping. Of course, we also want to protect our farm land from development, conserve our scarce water and live in neatly planned communities. Everything would be orderly and efficient, with certain places for shopping, plenty of parks, land set aside for schools and maybe even community gardens. In short, ideally, everything would be in its proper place. Well planned. Orderly.

But you know what? It ain’t gonna happen. Democracy, Americans and particularly Doña Ana County residents are a bit messy, and they cling to their rights to be that way.

Americans resist being planned. It pisses us off to be told that we can’t do what we want with our property. We want to go where we want and do what we want when we want. I guess you can say we are spoiled that way, but you can also say that we are free and we intend to exercise our freedoms to live, work and play in whatever way we wish. And though it’s increasingly difficult to exercise our freedoms with so many of us around, for the most part we attempt to respect what Oliver Wendell Holmes pointed out in this column’s opening quote. We want our rights respected and we know we must respect the rights of others.

If the 2040 plan follows the course of most well-intentioned efforts at comprehensive community planning, it will, as some fear, be a collection of colorful land-use maps that will be proudly displayed in planning offices… for a while. After a time, they will gather dust on office shelves in the city hall and county building.

Is planning a waste of time?

So is planning per se a waste of time in a freedom-oriented democratic society? No, I don’t think so; at least it doesn’t need to be, as long as it’s realistic, and as long as it takes into account much more than just the land-use aspect.

A useful community comprehensive plan must analyze and comprehend the socio-economic and cultural makeup of the population. It must understand how people currently live, work and play. It must try to set some general goals that relate more to the well being of the people than to the use of land. Then, with that background thoroughly understood, the plan can recommend some public policies that guide the growth of the county and the city both physically and economically. And, of course, the plan has to be adaptable to change and take into account trends, technologies and the larger socioeconomic influences that impact us as a part of the United States and the State of New Mexico.

In short, comprehensive community planning can be useful, if it is in fact comprehensive.

I guess there is hope for progress in planning. In 1860, the capital city of Washington, D.C., with a population of 60,000, had unlighted streets, open sewers and pigs roaming about its principal avenues. Well, some might say… no, forget that thought.

Kadlecek has lived in Doña Ana County since 1996, served in the Colorado Legislature and holds a doctorate in public administration. He’s the author of the book “Capitol Rape.” His column runs on the first and third Tuesdays of each month and other times that he gets fired up about something.