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Sunday, January 26, 1997 Page:
Which will we choose: Vermont or Santa Fe?
The headlines are scorching in Santa Fe, the lawsuits against the city are
fiery in their wrath, and the claims and counter-claims are fueled by racial
friction and appeals to the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. The climate’s
so hot it burned a hole in last Sunday’s New York TimesWhy?
Because Santa Fe waited too long to protect its mountainsides from
development.
Let’s not make the same mistake in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Once-sleepy Santa Fe, N.M., got “discovered” in recent years, according to
the Times. The publicity drew tourists by the tens of thousands — as well as
rich newcomers, who promptly started building million-dollar show homes on the
ridgetops that overlook the town.
“Around that time, many of Santa Fe’s 62,000 residents woke up to the fact
the city’s green mountain backdrop was in private hands,” the Times reported.
“The community became highly sensitive about trophy homes being built on
hillsides over the city.” And locals “began to have nightmares that their
Sangre de Cristo Mountains were turning into a Southwest Sunset Boulevard.”
As a result, the Santa Fe City Council passed an ordinance banning
construction on hilltops, ridges and some hillsides.
But that has amounted to shutting the gallery door after the Navajo
blankets have disappeared. Much of the land surrounding Santa Fe already was
in the hands of West Coast millionaires, including celebrities such as actress
Shirley MacLaine. Many had paid top dollar for their parcels and didn’t take
lightly to the city’s meddling. They planned to build at any cost — and that
cost very definitely includes legal fees.
As a result, the city of Santa Fe now faces lengthy and hugely expensive
battles in court.
It didn’t have to happen that way.
Santa Fe should have started acquiring the mountainsides decades ago,
before the city got discovered and land prices soared. Back then some parcels
could have been bought for a relative song. More expensive ones could have
been saved up for and purchased over time.
Had that happened, Santa Fe today would own those hillsides outright. The
court docket would be clear. And the parks and scenic overlooks that would
have resulted would be adding immeasurably to the city’s charm.
If you think that’s unrealistic, think again. In 1972 the Wilkes-Barre
Record printed a long letter from Ed Schechter, who was then as now one of our
city’s most respected leaders. In his letter, Schecter sang the praises of
land-use planning in Vermont. A few excerpts:
“I have just returned from a brief trip to an area in Southern Vermont
which I last visited two years ago, and I am amazed by the significant changes
I saw.
“In 1970, as in Pennsylvania today, Vermont’s roads were closely lined with
signs advertising all forms of goods, services, and entertainment in a
continuous billboard display of garish colors, eye-catching slogans, and
flashing lights. Today they are gone and you can see the real Vermont again.
“A new law that works has removed signs from all locations but the owner’s
own property … (This has), as a result, returned the spectacular views of
the Vermont countryside to the motorist.
“In 1970, as in parts of Pennsylvania today, Vermont’s mountain resort
areas faced the unrestrained exploitation of the large land developers …
Today this has been stopped. A new law, with teeth, now controls the
developers, and forces proper land care and management …
“In 1970, as in Pennsylvania today, Vermont’s highways and rural roads were
littered with refuse — beer cans, cola cans and non-returnable bottles
reflected from every curve and lined each field. Today that blight too is
being curbed by a new law …
“The average Vermont State Senator or Representative is no starry-eyed
idealist. On the contrary, following New England Yankee tradition, he is
conservative, pragmatic and prudent … But he can recognize a groundswell
when he hears one, and his constituents made sure he would hear. The result
was a model package of laws which will preserve the beauty and the grandeur of
the Vermont countryside.”
“If Vermont can do it, Pennsylvania can, too,” Schechter concluded.
Northeastern Pennsylvania could have listened to Ed Schecter in 1972, 24
long years ago. But it didn’t.
Will we do so today?