If you’re active in local city council meetings, reading the paper, listening to the radio, or scrolling your local social media pages, you’ve likely encountered increasingly more voices in conversations surrounding the Sundog Connector Highway project.
And if you’ve followed along with Save the Dells in the last few months, you’ve seen us amplify the concerns of citizens and community groups with our own official statement about the project, laying out the key concerns informing our stance that this is “No Place for a Road.”
But our official statement can really be boiled down to two crucial reasons that Save the Dells has gotten involved in the community discussion about the Sundog Connector Highway project:
The project, and its implications of increased development of the natural areas along its length, pose a direct threat to the original and enduring Save the Dells conservation goal of protecting the greater Granite Dells area as regional park and preserve.
The project offers an invaluable opportunity to address two key Save the Dells issues of Regional Cooperation and Growth and Development as part of our Greater Mission.
Over 60 citizens attended the meeting to voice their concerns about the Sundog project and to support the request for a public study session to provide definitive answers to existing ambiguities in project planning and details.
Thank you to Mayor Goode for special consideration allowing public comment, and thanks to the council for respectful listening and their thoughtful questions to Vinny Gallegos and Lindsay Post of Central Yavapai Metropolitan Planning Organization (CYMPO)!
Jan 26th | City of Prescott General Plan Committee Meeting
The General Plan Review Committee members asked thoughtful questions regarding the CYMPO presentation and listened carefully to public comments.
Thank you to Mayor Goode for his appointments on this committee.
Feb 9th | Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) “Munch & Learn” sponsored by the League of Women Voters
In a presentation attended by about 80 members of the public, representative of CYMPO stated several times they wanted all input, whether for the Sundog connector or against it.
They showed slides referring to surveys from the CYMPO open house and the Yavapai HOA. These slides showed the majority of people surveyed did not want this road.
NOT ALL GROWTH IS CREATED EQUAL
The way we talk about growth matters. The single most important thing we can do to have productive conversation about growth is to reject the false, binary premise that we have only two options: embrace full throttle, undiscerning growth in all directions, or adopt an “anti-growth” attitude.
Just as the Arizona Eco Development annexation negotiation allowed Arizona Eco Development to exercise private property rights while also allowing the citizens to preserve the heart of the Granite Dells for public and environmental benefit, our communities can find solutions to growing pains that don't compromise the heart of what we value, and inadvertently, the future we are building here together. To do this, we need critical and honest assessments of the true costs and returns of different growth strategies--beyond just the dollar signs.
The proposed Sundog Connector project is a litmus test for how well decision makers and planners are aligned with and informed of the values and priority issues of the community.
It offers an opportunity to clarify and reinforce the shared values that guide us in building a thriving and resilient future for our communities and forces us to evaluate how effective (or ineffective) a given project or strategy is at reaching those goals.
DITCHING THE ‘ALL OR NOTHING’ FALLACY – A VOTING MATTER
It's time to add nuance to our conversations about growth, and this can start right now in 2023 as Prescott voters prepare to elect the new city council that will make critical decisions about the Sundog Connector, impacting the trajectory of the community for decades to come.
The questions of how we grow, and how we plan to accomplish this in a way that is compatible with our finite and strained water resources are more important than ever. As voters, it’s our job to ask candidates to answer them head on, ditching the all-or-nothing fallacy once and for all in favor of specific, actionable solutions.
City of Prescott office candidate hopefuls will be ready to talk to you about their positions and ask for signatures on their petitions in order to get on the ballot in the 2023 election.
This is a nonpartisan election. Anyone residing within the City of Prescott and registered to vote can sign petitions! Having options on the ballot is a benefit to Prescott voters and important for the community's future.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Gurley Street side of Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Prescott Public Library, west entrance, lower level
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., two sites at Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza
