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  Our Story, Our Mission

  Jan 2, 2022

  OUR STORY:  Our family has lived in the Rathdrum Prairie area for many years. We homeschooled our children and most still live in the region, as do our grandchildren.   We know and love the community but have never taken much interest in politics.   However, the housing market insanity over the last year has opened our eyes to the misplaced priorities of local government.  Twenty five years ago, when we were dismayed by the leadership of our hometown, we ran away and came here.  Now we are too old to run.  Our family is here.  Our life is here,  and we have no choice but to stand and fight.  We fight mostly with words, hence:  the Slow Growth Research website.  

  It was the City of Hayden Future Land Use Map which rezoned much of the city for higher densities, that got our attention. Developed with only superficial public input, it could not have been more pleasing to large scale, corporate developers, and was inimical to everything that local residents value.   But just as distressing as the underhanded way in which the "comprehensive plan" was developed,  were the duplicious arguments used to explain how the planners were "preserving the small town feel" by "concentrating growth".  Evidently green-lighting Hayden for massive high density housing was a "balanced mix of land uses" that would "promote greater choices and opportunities" and "protect our natural areas."  

  The more we investigated the policies that our government officials were recommending as solutions to the problems of growth, the more we realized the way the issues were presented to the public was intentionally misleading.   People with zero genuine concern for the dignity of "low income families" were ardent advocates of "affordable housing".   Yardless homes on undersized lots were "cottages",  high density apartments were a "variety of housing options", monstrous, boxy, corporate owned complexes were "urban villges", and caving into wealthy developers demands at every turn was "smart growth".   All these warm and fuzzy phrases were straight out of the urban-growth, pro-densification playbook, and were designed to give government officials the cover they needed to betray the citizens of North Idaho.

  OUR MISSION:  It is the mission of the Slow Growth Research website to help expose the real agenda of corporate developers and to warn residents of the false promises of densification. We believe that more people should be aware of  what LIHTCs, PLAPs, LLCs,  and HCVs, are so they can understand what a massive racket "affordable housing" really is.  We also intend to reveal the manner in which local officials skirt responsibility by claiming they are just "following the law", but also point out laws at the state level that really should be changed.    Most importantly, however, it is our mission to help build some kind of consensus among North Idaho residents about the kind of future they want for their region, and to help articulate a vision for that future.  

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