There is a lot of talk in environmental circles about the benefits of multiple communities, getting together and discussing their common destinies. At the same time, it's a particularly difficult thing to do in a state that believes strongly in the principle of home rule – allowing localities to govern affairs that exist totally within their borders.

In many ways it makes sense for their to be forums where multiple communities can talk together and plan together. If your going to build a highway, Or if your going to build a development in a one community, what is going to effect on traffic or air quality on surrounding communities. A dialog can do much to get people to make decisions that minimize the impact on others.

A serious problem with regionalization is it often involves a series of government entities trying to coerce smaller governments to do things that are unpopular and contrary to the interest of their communities. A region might want a highway or a landfill sat in a particular community, and a community oppose it. Why should one community be forced to take what it does not want?

You might not like what a particular community is doing to it's land or it's people. Yet, if doesn't effect you, then why should you be involved in their governance? Problems can easily spill over borders, yet until they do, you have no right to say how a specific people choose to their lives.

There will always be a need for some centralized planning. Major highways need to be planned by state and federal governments, with minimal interference by local government. Centralized constitutional rights such as enumerated freedoms and commerce can not be unduly interfered by local government, except to protect their own personal interest. Local governments must be restricted when their acts reach beyond their borders, in ways that are clearly intolerable to other communities.