Life is a constant series of tradeoffs. One person's treasure is another person's poison. One person goes for quality, another person goes for quantity. Where is the middle ground?

Santa Fe is blessed with a lovely set of mountains supported by a range of captivating foothills, all of which are particularly attractive while viewing or approaching from the southwest. Except of course when, upon closer examination, one notices all the monuments built to satisfy the egos of their owners who rejoice in their westward views.

We have ridgetop laws, erosion- control restrictions, and myriad other controls, but we also have local governance, which seems to prefer to grant variances than to protect the ambience for all of Santa Fe's citizens.

Now comes a large piece of property at the base of Santa Fe's Sun Mountain, the heirs to which quite naturally wish to maximize its perceived value. They have enlisted the interest of a property developer who obviously is equally desirous of capitalizing on the opportunity.

This whole area of inclined slope up Sun Mountain, east of Old Santa Fe Trail, has historically been 5 to 20 or more acres per dwelling, something the terrain, the ecology, and the respect due Sun Mountain could easily support. Unfortunately, this resulted in the city's long-range planning department essentially ignoring future hazardous possibilities and they left the zoning at one acre per lot, rather than ensuring responsible future development at 5 acres or more per lot.

Whether here at Sun Mountain or in the Northwest Quadrant, or any other undeveloped land, where will the water come from? Who will pay for the increased traffic flow? Will the treasured environmental qualities that this City Different brags about be enhanced or irreparably damaged by these multiple housing assaults on the land?

This country, this state, and this city are all resource-limited. We may still be able to import 60 percent of our oil consumption, but for how long? China and India are entering into long-term supply contracts while we stubbornly refuse to utilize our own reserves.

From where are we going to import the increasing demands for water? Are we ready to pay to desalinate the Pacific Ocean and bring it 800-plus miles to New Mexico? What will happen to this city if we have another five-year drought? It could make this past year's housing crash look like a mere ripple.

Many people think the recession in the financial market this past 18 months was the result of too many so called "leaders" thinking greed and only in short-term results with commensurate monetary rewards. This resulted in an overly zealous milking of the market place.

The political process mirrors the same approach. The pols rush to provide today's handouts without the slightest concern for tomorrow. Today's election is more important to them than the debt for our progeny, not to even mention the heritage and freedoms destroyed in the process.

And so it is with Sun Mountain and this little development, so exemplary of short-range thinking. Sure, it is just 14 dwellings where only one stood before. But it is the result of totally inadequate forward thinking by the owners, by the city planners, by those responsible for the wise use of our limited resources, and by those in the city who still are unable to balance short-term greed with the long-term needs and amenities that have made Santa Fe what it has been for the past 400 years. In every organism, there is a tipping point. Could this unnecessary Sun Mountain development be the tipping point launching Santa Fe's decline into the ordinary?

Santa Fean Gregg Bemis is an industrialist/adventurer and concerned senior citizen.