Several times a week, I drive by a new car wash under construction and I think, “How was this allowed to happen?” There was a news report recently that our current drought is the worst in 1,200 years, as in 12 centuries! Yet, our government planners seem to think that a new car wash, the sole purpose of which is to make cars shiny, is an appropriate use of this increasingly scarce resource. Google tells me there are six businesses of fixed address in town calling themselves car washes, a couple of mobile car washes, and various others, which offer a car wash even though they call themselves something else – an oil change place, for example. Perhaps the planners thought, “Well, we have approved these in the past, we should approve this one.” If so, it is time for a paradigm shift in our planning priorities.
When a project is approved, does the landscape requirement include a minimum amount of grass? Is xeric encouraged or discouraged? The questions, “Do we have the water to support this, and is this an appropriate use of the water if we do?” should be the first ones asked. And we need to accept that very soon, very worthy and desirable projects will need to be denied simply because we don’t have the water. This will fundamentally change the path of Durango’s growth, so it should be anticipated and debated now, while there is time to be thoughtful rather than reactionary.
Chuck Leech
Durango
