In the spirit of community cohesiveness and unity, let’s start with an acknowledgement: Those who worked tirelessly to put the Water Adequacy for Residential Development (WARD) initiative on the ballot next month merit a salute.

Like all of us, they care about Bozeman. They worry about a future fraught with water issues. And they fret about housing so expensive only the wealthy or those who’ve been here since 19th Avenue was dirt can afford to live here.

At a time when solutions for combatting our frenetic growth are elusive, instead of whining WARD backers came up with a constructive answer.

All that said, laudable intentions notwithstanding, WARD simply isn’t the answer.

We are not persuaded the initiative will soften the affordable-housing problem — not when developers are required

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