Maybe Owen will need to run the hose to my house

John Torinus has an interesting article on the perils of development planning in Washington County without asking where is the water to sustain it.

So, there’s lots of work to do to save this precious resource. Just tapping Lake Michigan with a big pipe is not the only answer, even though the eastern half of Washington County could qualify for such a project. That part of the county is on the right side of the sub-continental divide.

Part of that conservation work involves land use, which is what the Smart Growth land use planning is all about.

Unfortunately, the regional planning commission has taken forever to finish its regional water study, and it isn’t done. Hence, water was not fully considered in our 2035 county plan.

Because the planners ducked that issue, it became easier for some supervisors to think that they can get away with erasing the protections for secondary corridors.

Water is the proverbial elephant in the room, and how Paul Mueller and his planning staff could develop a document without dealing with that and related issues is beyond me.

The radium in Waukesha's well water may have been a blessing in disguise. At least the water issue is now a part of the development discussion.