Does growth pay for itself in Douglas County? That's the question members of the Coalition for Smart Growth asked of Meridian Business Advisors and their answer was yes.
There are things that growth does pay for. Douglas County hasn't built and paved many roads on its own in quite a while. Rather the county has relied on developers to build most of its roads and on the various improvement districts and towns to maintain them.
Like roads, hard services such as sewer and water tend to pay their own way when it comes to growth.
But there is a question as to what growth pays for when dealing with other services, such as law enforcement, firefighting, parks and social services.
Growth can have an exponential impact on those services. For instance, increased population will drive the demand for a new jail. The last time we built a jail, it was the result of a decision made by a federal judge.
Overcrowding in the jail took the decision out of the hands of county residents, something that could happen again as a result of increased population.
The jail is just a single thing on a long list of capital expenses that neither the county nor the voters have shown any interest in paying for.
We're not sure whether growth pays for itself, but it doesn't appear to have done so to date.
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