After reading in the July New Falcon Herald that city planner Mark Gebhart was looking for public input with regard to revising upcoming development plans, I called to add my two cents. Much to my dismay, I discovered that my two cents was not even worth that! After talking back and forth for over an hour (Mr. Gebhart by the way was most gracious, extremely informative and impressively patient with the myriad of basic questions I unloaded on him regarding the rape of the prairie that is happening out here), I finally understood that I do not have any say in whatever population density happens out here. It’s all in the hands of the elected few.When I bottom lined it and asked Mr. Gebhart if he was saying that there was no way the Falcon citizenry could affect the issue of DENSITY, he informed me that the only way I could affect development was during the orientation of the building projects (like Sante Fe Springs). It’s all a done deal decided on by the elected county commissioners, possibly a FEW informed bordering neighbors and the developers.After my conversation with Gebhart, I remembered reading the mission statement of the elected commissioners: to do the WILL OF THE PEOPLE. I wondered why more effort wasn’t made to find out the people’s will. Why isn’t there a questionnaire sent to each resident asking for input? Usually, no one knows anything until it is over and passed. Then I ruminated about water conservation. I thought about the cries of our city officials to conserve water, and the public announcements asking us to turn the water off and on while brushing teeth, doing the dishes, etc.I thought about the “water police” issuing citations for water-ban violators. And then, I thought about the astronomical development that is taking our prairie hostage and draining our water sources. Then it hit me! I thought about the absolute HYPOCRITICAL NERVE of asking us to cut down on our water usage, basically to curb our lifestyles, in order to accommodate the overall grand vision of the combined efforts of the developers and the elected chosen few to super saturate the area with even more people who are making more demands on the water sources. So, do we use even less water in order to bring in more people?It doesn’t make sense to me. Cut your water usage or beware of legal and/or survival repercussions, and accept the outrageous density of development because you have no choice. Oh, you could always move.Though righteous anger was my first reaction, it was suddenly followed by an option that I’d not considered before: the freedom of acceptance of the inevitable. But acceptance on my terms.So here are my terms: I will never turn the water off again during my morning brush; I will never inconvenience myself when it comes to watering my garden and trees; I will stop draining half my tub water out and using the rest for my delicates; my husband will never be subjected again to my evil eye while he is shaving and running the water full force because it is a “man thing;” my washing machine will not always agitate with a full load, neither will my dishwasher; and my horses will have clean, fresh water every day. After all, there couldn’t possibly be a water problem if twenty thousand or so homes are slated for development here in Falcon within the next several years, could there?Jill SpangenbergFalcon
