As a 45-year resident of the Roaring Fork Valley, when I hear on the radio over here all about Eagle River Station, I can only say good luck to the folks living in the Eagle Valley. If anyone wants a taste of what might be on the horizon for your nice, quiet little town, just drive down to Glenwood and turn left up toward Aspen! Growth is all fine and dandy, but in my area at least, it has erased much of the rural quality. And as far as peace and quiet, forget it.

Development does bring jobs to an area, but it also upsets the essence of that area in ways that are irrevocable. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Once your community starts down the path of “improve­ment” with the prospect of more jobs. etc., the gates are open to the hubbub of heavy traffic, higher crime rates and all the “liberation” of the ever more crowding of urbanization.

A rural lifestyle is a fragile thing, and once lost to the siren call of “growth,” it cannot be reinstated.

If, and that is a big if, the whole project comes off as pro­posed, and if it is a success, it will certainly add to the tax coffers.

We all know how municipali­ties love to gather in revenues. After all, with an increased rev­enue stream, all manner of new projects can be entertained. But most of these community proj­ects would never have been nec­essary in the first place were it not for the necessity to chase the new needs created by growth.

Once a community commits to this merry-go-round, there is no way to get off of it!

Sure, it is convenient to live in a more urbanized environment. But at what price comes convenience?

Yes, there will ( theoreti­cally) be more jobs. But that means more people, which means an ever-expanding pressure for schools and sewers and myriad public services that will never quite catch up. Not to men­tion the disruption during all the construction.

Remember, it is inevitable that should this monstrosity take root, there will be others to follow. Once this kind of momen­tum gets rolling, there is no stopping it.

While it is a fact that there will inevitably be growth, I would argue that growth driven by a more organic and patient need for the every-so-often, new busi­ness in an area is far more desirable.

Anyway, I say beware what you wish for, if indeed you wish for anything. Peace and quiet and rural tranquil­ity will be out the window, never to return. If Eagle is a kind of bump in the road, it is an exceedingly well inte­grated into the current envi­ronment kind of “bump,” and it shouldn't be simply dismissed as being some­thing less than it could be were it to exploit all the “opportunities” that a “big­box” lifestyle might hold.

Don't be fooled.

Richard Anderson, Old Snowmass