Comments on: Decatur Releases Details of Proposed Temporary Moratorium

By: Outoftowngirl

Outoftowngirl — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 23:40:05 +0000

+1
Well put!!!

By: Treemendous

Treemendous — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 23:34:32 +0000

Soulless, barren landscapes, seriously?
I missed the part of Decatur that lacks any trees. The idea that trees should take precedent over people is just plain crazy.

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 02:21:43 +0000

I think that many of those responding have missed the point — this isn’t about renovation — it’s about the loss of our tree cover in our city as developers have indiscriminately cleared land for their projects. They have taken lush green forest canopy and created barren, soulless landscapes that are no different in appearance than suburban sprawl. It is also about the escalating loss of smaller, affordable homes in Decatur that have allowed single people, empty nesters and others with more modest incomes to live in our city. We are fast becoming a homogeneous community of four and five bedroom expensive homes and that will change the essential character of our city. And not for the better.

By: J_T

J_T — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 15:45:01 +0000

“Not to go all J_T here”

Ha! Nobody wants to see the Full J_T!

By: J_T

J_T — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 15:44:07 +0000

I know that this is going to come across as snarky and mean, but I would seriously like to require any commissioner that votes to impose this moratorium to publicly disclose their home’s value, how long they’ve owned it, and how much they paid for it.

By: Guitar45

Guitar45 — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 15:18:14 +0000

I can’t believe the commissioners are even considering this ridiculous idea of a moratorium. The real and scarier question is where is this leading? The city either substantially or entirely tears down the high school gym, beacon and the rec center because they are all functionally obsolete (of which I agree needed to happen) but we individual residents have to keep some of decaturs non historically significant functionally obsolete housing stock? Hey – let’s all drive in 1930’s cars in Decatur too while we’re at it and just freeze time. The most comical thing about the historic preservationists is that they don’t want to allow us to create our own history. In 50 years, the thrive homes will be considered historic. That may be hard to believe but it is true. I am not seeing houses being torn down that shouldn’t be. The fact of the matter is families live differently now than they used to – for better or for worse. We have these machines that wash our laundry, we like walk in closets, are no longer ok with an entire family sharing one bath room, and like to park our expensive cars in garages. This proposed moratorium is the city of Decatur’s version of a misguided government shutdown except that instead of the govt shutting down, it is shutting down the housing industry and residents individual choice. It implies some sort of crisis which does not exist. These are the same issues that have existed for years. I am open to the idea of further studying tree loss and housing loss but not under a moratorium.

By: TeeRuss

TeeRuss — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 12:59:28 +0000

“… in order to preserve the status quo during this period of study…”

The status quo will be preserved without a moratorium. The status quo consists of the existing laws and codes that property owners have been living with for years.

By: TeeRuss

TeeRuss — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 12:51:33 +0000

I really hope the commissioners are reading the comments on DM about this. Not to go all Chris Billingsley here, but if a tiny cabal of tree huggers and aesthetists can influence our local government to harm the property rights of our resident taxpayers, then we’ve got big problems. It would be a breakdown of our system, frankly.

Meanwhile the democratically elected school board sanctioned an 18 month study of enrollment projections, enlisted residents and experts to develop recommendations, held public input sessions, and ultimately finalized a proposal to deal with school capacity issues. Our city commissioners punted on the very simple step of _allowing_it_to_be_voted_on_by_we_the_people_. Not to go all J_T here, but if they green light this moratorium, after red lighting a far more seriously developed community request, then we’ll be looking at a new slate of commissioners in a couple years.