Potholes, flickering streetlights, unkempt lots and yards — it’s about the only time people want someone to show up and say, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
Yet in one of the fastest-growing corners of Clark County, a more abstract problem is hitting city desks. A look through nearly a year of comment and complaint forms in Ridgefield shows the fast-expanding city has just a few growing pains.
“Citizen came in today concerned about the large potholes and damage caused by construction” on North 45th Avenue, reads one such form from January. “She stated that there are no warning lights or signs. Wants to know what we are doing about it?”
This resident’s comment isn’t too common — growth-specific issues came up only seven times so far this year. Still, it is the largest single issue cited among 59 complaint forms Ridgefield received.
“I think that overall, people like the growth, but they don’t want it to go too fast,” Mayor Ron Onslow said. “They would want us to grow a little slower, but sometimes we can’t control that.”
What the city can do is set standards and codes to control the impact new development has.
“All new developments need to have an HOA (homeowners association) and need to give 25 percent of developing land to parks and trails,” Onslow said.
Ridgefield City Councilor Don Stose has been president of his HOA for years, and said they are a tremendous help.
“It keeps people from parking boats and 18-wheelers in their front yard, makes sure people keep their yards up, and the homes are built using upgraded materials,” he said.
Still, it’s not a perfect system — a complaint form from June pointed out “hazardous” 3-foot-tall grass behind two empty lots that the HOA wouldn’t respond to.
Then again, if that is the biggest issue facing a neighborhood, maybe it’s a pretty good area.
“People probably don’t realize it, but there’s a lot of little things that go into something to make it attractive,” Onslow said, again pointing to the rules made by the city council to help keep the town’s “Mayberry” charm. “The positives outweigh the negatives.”
The negatives are few, if the comment/complaint forms are any indication:
• In April, a La Center woman who works in Ridgefield called in to say development construction had damaged her new car.
• A resident in May called about “inordinate waits” around construction at Pioneer Street and 45th. “It’s pretty bad out there,” she told the city.
• Near the 100 block of 32nd Avenue, a resident wrote in March: “Contractor needs Dumpsters on site.”
• And in the Pioneer Canyon neighborhood in April, an orange plastic fence was blowing into the wetlands near a trail along new townhouses.
“You don’t want to see things change, but you can’t help that,” Stose said. “Change is going to happen one way or another, and as a council and city staff, we want to see that growth we are going to experience and are experiencing is done the right way.”
