From reading my weblog, you might get the impression that I'm just another ivory-tower intellectual, philosophe, and artiste. It's true I started out that way after earning a degree in philosophy and ancient Greek, but over the course of my 30-year career in business and technology I learned quite a bit about the practicalities of life and slowly acquired traits and abilities that continue to stand me in good stead today, such as communication, negotiation, and public speaking.
Case in point: my current service to the community as president of my neighborhood association. Over the last few months I've been working diligently with folks in this corner of Douglas County, Colorado to oppose a dense, urban-style housing development being pushed forward nearby by mega-builder KB Home. Lest you immediately cry "NIMBYism!", I assure you that there is plenty of building going on around here, which the county's master plan channels to areas already slated for dense development; the difference this time is that the builder attempted to inject a pocket of urban housing into an area which the master plan has reserved for rural living. This is creeping urbanization: if the citizens want to modify the designation of protected areas they have a public process for doing so through modifications to the next version of the master plan, but one-off amendment proposals from developers ain't it.
Thankfully, because of a coordinated community response in my neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods, at last night's well-attended public meeting the county's Planning Commission voted to deny KB Home's request to amend the master plan. I doubt we've heard the end of attempts to develop the parcels in question and similar properties here in Douglas County, but this victory gives the community some breathing room to collaborate with the county and the nearby town of Parker in a more measured manner as we navigate the inevitable tradeoffs between preservation and development. Personally I expect to be right in the thick of those conversations.
(Cross-posted at Beautiful Wisdom.)