Sustainable Janesville Committee to examine comprehensive plan
From the WCLO newsroom:
The Sustainable Janesville Committee explores the city's comprehensive plan in greater detail Tuesday.
Committee Chairman Tom McDonald says the first chapters to be reviewed are land use, natural resources and agriculture.
The committee previously decided to ask the city council to delay adoption of the comprehensive plan until the committee further reviews sustainable aspects of the plan.
The plan outlines growth in Janesville over the next 20 years. It's scheduled for city council adoption in early 2009.
Click here for an audio report.

Dec 17, 2008 at 9:03 a.m.
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Yes, I vote to grow my ole hometown to the size of Calcutta. A city larger than the entire current population of the state of Wisconsin.
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This would mean all 8 WI congressmen would be redistricted to Janesville, giving the city huge clout to keep GM operations there.
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Or, it could tilt the Earth's axis off by .00000000001% - leading to the draining of the Great Lakes into the Ohio basin, opening-up fertile lake bed soil for tillable acreage.
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Of course, Ohio would then become the nation's source for fresh water, draining their new lake for sugar in FLA, and lawn care in AZ.
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Gosh, the tragedy, all because Janesville could not control becoming another Calcutta.
Dec 17, 2008 at 12:36 a.m.
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Ask yourself if you want Janesville to be as densely populated as Calcutta? Unending growth, whether cells in the body, or members of a species is a cancer within it's environment. We not only need to reduce our individual impact on the environment, we need to reduce the number of individuals impacting the planet.
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This isn't just a local problem, be we are contributing to the global problem by paving over good farmland and putting more houses on it and allowing the population to grow. The world needs not just zero population growth, but a negative population growth until the human race has a much smaller impact upon it.
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We can't do much about overpopulation in India, or Indiana for that matter, but we can take a stand for zero growth here in Janesville. Start setting an example for a steady-state population, rather than growth-until-collapse.
Dec 16, 2008 at 2:49 p.m.
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The City of Janesville has an in house engineering dept. But all the hard costs of site construction are borne by whoever develops the property (and ultimately whoever buys a lot). And a fee for engineering work.
Dec 16, 2008 at 2:31 p.m.
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I watch as I drive to work everyday the parade of GIANT SAFE SUV's sitting in line to drop off children in the morning and pick them up in the evening after school and I wonder how many of those drivers wasting hundreds of gallons of fuel and depositing tons of carbon emissions into the air are the same people driving the sustainable Janesville Committee to second guess the years of work already done on this plan.
What qualifications do ANY of these members have to even sit in judgement of the plan?
Or are they just well meaning citizens frailing about in an attempt to make a good show?
Limiting urban sprawl has been accomplished in other communities by making the developers PAY for the improvments required to turn farm land into residential areas. In Janesville the City foots the bill for almost all the engineering planning and construction of new deveopments.
How about looking at something practical and cost effective to limit growth?
Dec 16, 2008 at 12:01 p.m.
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This is asinine. The entire city of Janesville residents have put input into this plan for the past three years thru open houses, surveys and neighborhood meetings. A respected planning firm working with the Janesville planning department has created and revised a fair and balanced plan that preserves farmland on all sides of the city while also offering land for reasonable growth patterns around the perimeter for housing retail and industrial. this plan was recommended for approval by the planning commission after a well attended public hearing. I think the sustainable committee is overreaching is function in trying to enter into the picture at this late hour. They are a thinly disguised group of radical no-growth activists who are attempting to skew the planning process with suggestions that do not protect the rights of landowners, that fly in the face of reasonable growth models. The plan as proposed includes elements that work to protect the city of Janesville's interests in regard to development, rezoning and annexation issues for the next 20 to 30 years. These interests include orderly, planned growth of a higher density that current practices using new urbanism policies. If Janesville does not protect these interests, most likely we may see the land platted as big lot rural subdivisions, which would be a sad waste of valuable land. It would be a rare person who is not in favor of protecting good farmland (Including developers), but before you jump in and tightly restrict the use of the lesser quality farm and grazing lands, ask where are your children going to live and at what price. Areas in the country that have sought to draw rings around their cities have found housing costs skyrocket and most new developments are the large apartment type or the mini mansions for the wealthy. Janesville is fortunate to be able to supply high quality affordable housing for single family ownership at a variety of price levels.
Dec 16, 2008 at 10:17 a.m.
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Well, you sort of answered yourself, shamesville. If they use a commercial trash collector, as almost all businesses do, then the city has very little leverage to compel recycling. This would be something that the state legislature could ultimately address. Right now, the recycling industry is in a slump (less economic activity = less demand for substandard materials) and trash haulers would put up a stink at any new requirements.
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Just as with the plastic bags, though, the committee can educate and urge voluntary compliance. It would be great if there were more can receptacles in public places and where cans are consumed, but it may not be economical to separate anything else.
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