{"id":576,"date":"2025-07-28T05:43:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T10:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/?p=576"},"modified":"2025-08-09T23:31:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T04:31:43","slug":"whats-your-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/whats-your-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s your plan?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"457\" src=\"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/one_week_3.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-578\" srcset=\"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/one_week_3.webp 500w, https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/one_week_3-300x274.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>&#8220;We cannot do everything at once, but we can begin with a definite goal.&#8221;<\/em> <sub>&#8211; Calvin Coolidge<\/sub><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>We don&#8217;t have a clear goal when it comes to growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week I met with a group of <s>grumpy old people<\/s> concerned seniors, and several members of the group expressed frustration with my reluctance to articulate a clear plan with specific details outlining, step-by-step, my approach to slowing Fairhope&#8217;s explosive growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need to have a common goal before we can debate a plan. I sense a real lack of leadership on this issue. Many people here seem to be unhappy with Fairhope&#8217;s growth. Others are resigned to it as inevitable. Still others think it is a positive good to be encouraged. I count myself in the first group. My hope is that enough like minded people will get out and vote, and that by doing so they will create a mandate for slowing down. With such a consensus, we can start to push back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are plenty of ways to protect our character and charm provided we have the will. We could &#8211;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>enact a strong tree protection ordinance such as Gulf Shores&#8217;, which prohibits the cutting of live oaks greater than 6&#8243; in diameter, even on private property<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>reenact an ordinance on setbacks for new construction, to stop the building of huge homes on small lots<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>stop providing water to, and annexing large developments<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>pressure the County to protect farmland and green space<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>establish a historic overlay district to preserve Fairhope\u2019s historic neighborhoods, requiring new construction to align with the city\u2019s architectural and cultural character, as seen in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghamal.gov\/government\/city-departments\/pep\/historic-preservation-urban-design-division\" title=\"\">Birmingham<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eufaulapilgrimage.com\/history\" title=\"\">Eufaula<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>enact an ordinance similar to the <a href=\"https:\/\/jur.ph\/law\/summary\/planting-of-tree-every-month-by-every-citizen-of-the-philippines\" title=\"\">Philippines&#8217; Presidential Decree No. 1153<\/a>, which required every citizen over the age of 10 to <em>&#8220;plant one tree every month for five years, with penalties for non-compliance.&#8221;<\/em> (of course, I&#8217;m kidding&#8230; &#8230;but maybe&#8230;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Without leadership and consensus-building, none of these things are likely. Instead, we will continue to allow unbridled growth, and cause a lot of Fairhopers to have anxiety about the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The big developers have a very clear goal. They want to build as many houses as they can, as quickly and as cheaply as possible. They don&#8217;t wrestle with their mission statement. No one raises her hand in a conference room in Dallas and says, &#8220;I think we should build fewer houses next year, give some of these little towns a chance to catch up.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need to be as focused and determined about what we want Fairhope to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope I&#8217;ve made it clear where I stand on the issue of growth. Perhaps I&#8217;ve misjudged the electorate and there are more people out there who like the way things are going. We&#8217;ll find out soon enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more Comments-->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We don&#8217;t have a clear goal when it comes to growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":914,"href":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions\/914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}