A new Deseret Morning News poll shows that 61 percent of Salt Lake County residents support a property-tax hike — some $95 a year on a $200,000 home. But there has been considerable outcry on other tax issues. The Utah Trucking Association has taken a firm stand against proposed toll roads, claiming tolls would be tantamount to double taxation. Still others want to form their own school districts, in part because they don't want to pay for new schools on the growing west side of the Salt Lake Valley. Others say they want to be part of a smaller school district because they feel they are underserved.

If certain industries or property owners decide they do not want to share the responsibility — and yes, the burden — of paying for services on the whole, who will?

Isn't part of the problem the manner in which we choose to develop our communities — large houses with Kentucky bluegrass lawns in the second most arid state in the United States in locations farther and farther from our centers of commerce and government? Surely this model isn't sustainable over the long run.

Since 1997, Envision Utah has pushed a vision to protect the state's environment, economic engine and quality of life. The private/public partnership espouses strategies that preserve critical lands, promote water conservation and clean air, improve regional transportation systems and provide a wide variety of housing options. Envision Utah spreads its vision through the training of county councils and commissions, city council members and mayors with the hope that the smart planning principles will result in workable policies and good planning and zoning ordinances.

Between our more-frequent collisions with Mother Nature and more complicated tax deliberations, we have to attend to these growing pains. It's time to embrace smart growth principles and develop realistic strategies to pay for it before we, too, are up to our elbows in alligators.

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Marjorie Cortez, who believes she is in greater risk of attack by a mutant brine shrimp than an alligator assault, is a Deseret Morning News editorial writer. E-mail: marjorie@desnews.com