Amidst the hemming and hawing and hesitating and protesting around Raleigh City Council member Thomas Crowder's notion to establish water impact fees and other conservation measures came a reasoned voice. Crowder's ideas include temporarily raising fees for water connections and considering "water capacity impact fees" to help cover the costs of future growth. These steps would be intended to hold down rates for customers of the city's water system.

Crowder, who brought his ideas to the fore Wednesday, had several items on his list, some from city staff, some his own. They also ranged from installing low-flow fixtures to expanding the reuse of water. The fee proposals, however, left conservative councillor Philip Isley appalled.

"This," Isley said, "is a de facto growth moratorium." In other words, any fees that would hit new construction projects would mean a slowdown or worse. His position is familiar, but the fact is that Raleigh citizens signaled clearly in the last election -- as did voters in communities nearby -- that they wanted more careful planning when it came to growth, perhaps including more control.

Let's consider, however, not just the Isley position and not just the Crowder position, but that reasoned voice.

It belongs to Bill Holman, a senior fellow at Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. Holman is a former secretary of the state Department of the Environment and Natural Resources and one of the state's most respected authorities on conservation and environmental protection. In his view, the whole issue of the impact of growth on services is one whose time has come.

"Better to start the public debate about growth and water," Holman told The N&O's David Bracken, "than wait till 2030 when we don't have any options."

To that, council members of all philosophies should say, "Amen." And it's important to note that this growth issue, and how a community is to shape growth while encouraging and accepting it as inevitable in an area such as the Triangle, goes far beyond the boundaries of Raleigh. The debate Holman is talking about needs to be held in Wake Forest, and in Holly Springs, and in Cary, and in Johnston County. Go further. It ought to be taking place in Charlotte and its bedroom communities.

The Raleigh City Council didn't need to be awakened to the water crisis. It already has taken action and has warned of more drastic conservation steps soon to come if water resources don't enjoy a substantial rebound. If anything, those steps come too late.

Other communities in other parts of North Carolina -- this severe drought has touched many parts of the state -- have done the same. Governor Easley has made conservation a priority of his. This underlines the importance of serious discussions by serious people about making sure that a precious resource, water, remains available to serve a fast-growing state. And it may be that Councillor Crowder's ideas can find their way into those discussions wherever they take place.