The folks in Camden County are casting a wary eye at the bureaucrats who are touting “smart growth” in their little corner of North Carolina. Some suspect that “smart growth” is short for “we know better how you should use your property so shut the heck up and let us make your life better.” They’re probably right.
All smart growth visions seem a little contrived, as if the planning bureaucrats want to turn America into Belgium, where the population is used to being pushed around by chain-smoking functionaries in blue suits. The artistic renderings of smart growth dreams show happy people walking or cycling — never driving — 40 yards to a post office or a light rail station, then 30 yards to a cafe and another 30 yards to a drug store. It’s all so….compact. It seems vaguely familar. James Lileks, who just returned from vacationing in central Florida, has figured it out:
You’d make many new urbanists bust a cerebral artery if you suggested that communities should resemble Disneyland – but it’s everything many theorists want. Few cars, central shopping accessed by walking or electric carts, circular feeder busses and a planned economy that set aside one-third of the land for preservation.
Sounds like….Chapel Hill.
