Comments on: Strategic Plan To-Do List: Protect Neighborhoods, Promote Growth

By: UDog

UDog — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 15:16:26 +0000

I don’t get your point. What part is a crock?

By: Keith F

Keith F — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:23:13 +0000

You’re right, it’s a crock because your personal experience is the same one everyone has.

By: Julia Levy

Julia Levy — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:10:35 +0000

Ha ha! I live in an historic district, and I challenge you to find anywhere else in Decatur where more construction/renovation is going on and with greater property value stability/growth. What a crock.

By: Keith F

Keith F — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:56:45 +0000

This is where it will get fun. “Protecting” a historic district, zone, or home when it’s not yours to begin with can be a good trick. If I own a home and want to tear it down to build a new one, someone telling me I can’t do it won’t fly to high with me. Especially if I’m in an area where other homes have already been “upgraded” and now I’m stuck protecting value for someone else.

By: Glockenspieler

Glockenspieler — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:34:31 +0000

I think these sound great but of course, it will all be in the execution. One aspect of this that concerns me is, and I’ll put this delicately, that some of our development decisions are actually overly solicitous of homeowners in areas surrounding the proposed development. So, the ‘protecting existing neighborhoods’ is great but I would not like to see this translated into ‘allowing surrounding homeowners to veto projects’.

I say this as a homeowner. As owners, we have a vested interest in maintaining property values and one way that homeowners do this is to restrict development and attempts at increasing density. At the same time, the city benefits from the increases in density that make amenities more likely, and service delivery more efficient.

I would love to see a continued increase in density because I enjoy the benefits of good food and convenient shopping and I hope that the ‘protecting existing neighborhoods’ will be balanced against the desirability of greater density for the city as a whole.