Folks are concerned about the rapid growth in Beulah. As a long term resident I am, too.
Going by existing zoning out here is one thing--and I have supported the requests that fall within existing zoning. But requests for upzoning shoul be studied and considered carefully before approval. As I stated in my first post on this topic early last week, For my part--I do not favor nor am I inclined to support any upzonings in this area unless and until after we complete the overall Beulah Master Plan and we see what suggestions are offered by the professional planner who will complete this plan based upon the citizen input provided in 2019-2021.
A very well written email in opposition to this upzoning was sent to all commissioners late yesterday afternoon. Here's the email:
"Dear Commissioners Bergosh, Underhill, May, Bender and Barry,
On the
surface, sprawling subdivisions and commercial zones are an economic boon for
our local economies and municipalities. It creates employment and provides
additional revenue to our local government through additional taxes. However,
such development also produces drains on the local environmental resources,
shifts the economic burden of development to longtime residents, increases
transportation and energy costs and diminishes overall community character.
The most obvious effect I'm seeing out here in Beulah is the destruction of wildlife habitat. We have lived here for over 25 years and have had chickens a good portion of that time. In all that time, we rarely had any trouble with wildlife, in fact the worst we saw was an occasional hawk flying about. Our chickens slept out on top of their coop in warm weather and roamed about free in the day. Since Navy Federal purchased the 250 acres from the 4-H in 2012 and all the building of multiple new subdivisions began in our area, especially the last 4-5 years, the wildlife problem has continued to exacerbate. We began seeing raccoons, possums, more hawks, owls and most recently, we lost 10 chickens over a 4
