As for closing the gate, I think each community should be able to decide what its ultimate population is going to be. Fast-growing communities always run into problems, Jacobs says, and the people who suffer the most harm are the ones who already live there. For example, If there is rapid population growth, you wind up with the cost of housing going up so fast that local wages can't keep up. Even small growth subsidies irk Jacobs. Look at a telephone bill, he says, and you will see a rate structure or little taxes that provide money so the utility company can expand phone lines.
New lines encourage growth.
If growth cannot be stopped, Jacobs says, then at least it should be made to pay its own way through impact fees or in other ways. What we're advocating, mainly, is that the people who live in a community should stop subsidizing growth. Last month, Fodor, the planning consultant in Eugene, handed proponents of no-growth more ammunition. Very little of that cost is recouped from developers, says Fodor. The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.