Growth is not a panacea

I’m in full agreement with Ward 5 candidate Matt Francis that towers belong in the downtown area, and duplexes and triplexes don’t belong in singlefamily-home areas.

What I’ve always heard from politicians and some environmentalists is that intensification is a better use of land, but l have yet to find someone who can say why. From my perspective, it’s worse for the environment. Just an example: where l live, there are currently 60 townhouses being built where there would typically be 15 to 20 homes on normally a 50-by-110-foot lots.

Don’t you need three to four times the electricity, water, gas, and three to four times the number of cars? How is this better for the environment? So l ask again, is this better use of land or is it to line developers’ pockets under the guise of increasing the tax base for infrastructure improvements? Checked the condition of the roads lately? Growth is not a panacea.

Aldo Castelli, Winona