Prescott’s 2025 Plan: A Bureaucratic HOA in Disguise
Yes, we found more to worry about.
It’s hard to believe Prescott’s 2025 General Plan could get any worse, but it does take some time to scrutinize this 140-page behemoth document. The more we read through this, it doesn’t even seem like they are talking about Prescott anymore, a city that prides itself on individual freedom. Instead, it threatens us with intrusive, climate-driven rules that mimic an overbearing homeowners’ association (HOA). Residents should reject this overreach, which seeks to control private property under the guise of environmentalism. On page 48 alone, they propose:
Home Energy Audits: Goal 3.1 pushes municipal energy audits, while 3.3 proposes home audits, prioritizing low-income families. These risk pressuring homeowners into costly retrofits, with government-backed auditors invading private spaces.
Landscaping Mandates: Goal 4.1 offers “incentives” for building orientation, window placement, and landscaping design, while 4.2 promotes guidelines from groups like the Department of Energy. Strategy 4.3 advocates “strategic tree planting” to cut HVAC costs, hinting at city control over private yards.
Corporate Collusion: Strategy 3.2’s public-private partnerships for energy retrofits could lock residents into expensive contracts, prioritizing corporate profits over homeowners’ wallets.
Climate Excuse: Residential energy use is a small emissions driver, per Department of Energy data. Audits and landscaping rules financially burden residents in the name of combatting unproven “climate change” effects, either local or county-wide, mirroring federal green agendas like the Inflation Reduction Act.
HOA Tactics: The plan’s “incentives,” permitting fee reductions (3.5), and “educational” campaigns (4.2) feel like HOA-style coercion, starting voluntary but risking mandates when compliance falters.
Residents must push back!
Demand cost transparency, reject mandatory audits, and oppose landscaping controls. Voluntary, market-driven solutions, like tax credits without strings which win over bureaucratic edicts. Prescott Valley’s 2035 plan, approved overwhelmingly, balanced growth and environment without heavy-handed rules. Trust residents and developers, who built Prescott through market ingenuity, to protect it.
In 2025, Prescott faces a choice: remain a haven of liberty or become a city where bureaucrats dictate your home and yard. Residents must act to keep Prescott, Preskitt.