How To Kill A Small Town

Mesquite is on the cusp of an historic accomplishment.  We're probably going to make it into college textbooks somewhere.

Unfortunately, this notoriety will not be for something positive.

We are actually in danger of becoming a cautionary tale, a case study in how to go from being named one of the fastest-growing communities under 25,000 population, to practically gaining a spot on the well-known "Map of Nevada Ghost Towns." All within a decade.

Back in the early 2000's, Mesquite was absolutely booming, and was recognized as the fastest-growing small city in Nevada.  Since Nevada was highlighted in several magazines during the same period as the fastest-growing state in the U.S., we were in rarified air.

Unfortunately, we became a victim of our own success.

Beginning around 2006, a word started creeping into the political vernacular: "controlled growth."  Most people didn't understand that this was a euphemism for "no growth."  Council members actually got elected on this platform.

A lot of laws were put into effect under this approach, including a stifling sign ordinance, increases in business license fees, more restrictive rules on construction, additional impact fees for development, impossible hoops to jump through to purchase city-owned land, and a general anti-business atmosphere at City Hall.

Almost two years ago, I happened to be sitting in a booth at Famous Dave's Barbeque in St. George.  In the booth behind me was a gathering of three businessmen.  It turned out that they were in the development industry.  I couldn't help overhearing their conversation (I've learned that guys in the development business tend to be loud anyway.)  They were talking about some project they had been considering to build in Mesquite, but that the rules and requirements were too restrictive.  They talked about requirements for landscaping, parking lot demands, fees for this inspection and that review, and all the bureaucracy they were facing.

The rest of their conversation was about the other places they could go, most of them in Utah, where they wouldn't have to face this battery of obstacles.

I don't know what the project was, but I'm pretty sure it never came to Mesquite.

Also, as I mentioned in a previous article a couple of months ago, St. George is absolutely booming.  It's hard for me to understand why anyone would choose Utah over Mesquite.  We have basically the same climate, we're retirement-friendly, we have more and better golf courses, we have a large and welcoming Rec Center with two gyms and two pools, we have a nationally-known Sun City development, and our casinos make Mesquite a more vibrant and alluring option.  We don't have the traffic congestion St. George endures.  We have better and newer infrastructure.  Also, Nevada does not have personal income tax and is very generous to corporations.  To their credit, our Utah neighbor has way more shopping options and better health care facilities, but those are simply functions of being nearly 10 times bigger.  Overall, Mesquite is a much better place to live.

Unfortunately, it's not a better place to do business.

Today, Mesquite is reeling from the triple whammy of "controlled growth" actions, horrendous decisions and direction by an ego-driven city administration, and of course the putrid national economy.

The combination has all but killed this once-thriving community.  The few builders still in existence and still capable of actually getting the almost non-existent financing to build houses are looking at other places to ply their trade.  One longtime Mesquite-based construction company has reportedly been considering relocation to North Dakota, which is experiencing explosive growth despite the moribund economy.

Worse, people have stopped looking at Mesquite as a retirement option.  Retirees aren't interested in moving to a place whose emphasis has been on pie-in-the-sky sports parks for kids, mythical factories and facilities for alternative energy projects, a place where it's still not clear whether a coal-fired power plant might be built, and a community which still has very few shopping options.  After all, what kind of community doesn't even have something as basic as a shoe store?

The people of this community have taken the first step toward fixing the second problem by dumping the previous mayor and one of her hand-picked anti-growth council members.  Another problem child on the council decided not to seek re-election, which was a smart move.

Now the hard part starts, which is to solve the first problem.  We have to figure out how to make Mesquite more growth prone and business friendly.

There are lots of struggling communities begging builders and businesses to come to their towns, places that have far fewer rules and way lower business fees.

We have to be competitive, aggressive, and welcoming.

Here's how to kill that effort, and finish killing off Mesquite:

Allow the water district to impose another impact fee.

Yet that is precisely what the Virgin Valley Water District seems determined to enact.

They are proud of themselves for lowering the price of the proposed Habitat Conservation Plan fees from the original level of $500 down to $200, but that's just the starting point.  The fees can reach as high as $31,000 for larger projects and business construction.

Water board member Ted Miller is right.  This is absolutely the worst time possible to add another layer of bureaucracy and another stack of fees to construction.  Builders are already reluctant to build in Mesquite.  Adding more costs will guarantee that they'll look elsewhere for their next project. 

Like moving it to St. George.

Ditto for businesses and home buyers shopping for a place to relocate, because housing and commercial buildings will be more expensive here than in places where the government doesn't gouge the builders.

Board member Kenyon Leavitt is also correct in stating that this fee will be "double dipping."  The City of Mesquite already charges a $500 impact fee for the HCP.  That's more than enough to cover any future plans for building luxury condominiums for the snail darter or whatever mythical creature the federal government wants to pretend to coddle in the future.

Mesquite's City Hall and the Virgin Valley Water District need to understand that the golden goose is on life support.  The days of booming development and tacking on fees nobody will notice are over.

If they want to watch this city's feeble heartbeat completely flatline, then go ahead and tack on this fee.

Then maybe we can start drawing visitors from colleges across the country who are interested in studying the town that died by its own hand.