Comments on: Trinity Triangle Project Should Begin Construction Next Year

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 12:55:04 +0000

Not necessarily disputing anything but a couple additional thoughts:

First, didn’t we determine in recent discussions that downtown apartments (as opposed to condos) were considered a commercial enterprise and thus were taxed even higher than the condos?

Second, while I agree that CSD is bulging at the seams, it’s also true that we have many single family homes in Decatur that don’t currently have kids but could. Unless we’re prepared to put breeding restrictions on currently childless homes (an intrusion no one would tolerate), I don’t see how we can apply a similar logic to downtown by preventing landowners from legally meeting market demand for apartments. A wider spectrum of residents (age, income and ethnicity-wise) is a goal of the city; packing more families into more SF homes is not, so we shouldn’t — policy wise — behave in a way that incentivizes what we’re not seeking while obstructing what we are seeking.

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 06:36:07 +0000

This is a critical issue to establish. I’m instinctively for density and walkability because that’s what I enjoy. But my sense is that CSD is at the breaking point in terms of retaining its unique value in the face of burgeoning numbers of students. I’m worried that there’s a tipping point at which every additional student, no matter how much money we have to deal with them, is hard for the system to assimilate. Of course, tipping points are tricky to predict. I suspect that you often identify them retrospectively.

By: brianc

brianc — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 04:22:57 +0000

The Artisan residents, for example, probably pay close to a half-million in combined property taxes, and I believe there are three kids in the school system who live there. ( I meant to add this to my comment above, but the editing timed out on me.)

By: brianc

brianc — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 04:06:51 +0000

“I thought it was businesses that offset us revenue-negative households with kids, much more than no-kid households.”

I doubt it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the downtown condos payed more in property taxes than all the businesses combined. And I’d guesstimate they have less than 20 kids in the school system.

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 01:47:34 +0000

I thought it was businesses that offset us revenue-negative households with kids, much more than no-kid households. If the bottom line was the only issue, I’m not sure that lots of childless condos and apartments will help the school system enough, especially since they will increase the number of schoolchildren, however small that increase. CSD’s problem isn’t purely a financial one but that it has a finite ability to grow in terms of classroom space, no matter what it obtains from local tax support.