Our Neighborhood, My Deed!

OK. I spent 5 hours with the City of Columbia Planning Commission tonight. Good grief….

Yes, we were there from 5:15 to 10:00pm tonight. After some specific parcels were voted on, they finally took up the measure of the “Interim Measures for Community Character Protection.” After all was said and done (many times), they finally decided (I think) to give individual neighborhoods 90 days to get 50% + 1 of the residents, to decide if they want to participate in the measures. Wales Garden is immune from this, as they have already qualified themselves to move to the next step of “character protection.” When all is said and done, they may regret it.

One major contention from moving this motion forward, is that it seems that only a handful of residents shouldn’t speak for an entire neighborhood. The glaring example is Shandon. It seems that maybe 20-30ish folks attend the meetings four times a annually, to discuss the issues of a neighborhood of 1,600. Obviously, there is a concern here.

The bigger issue in my mind, is property rights. I can tell you, that if a person has purchased a home in Shandon (or any other downtown neighborhood, for that matter), they may very much regret such a purchase, if some of the talked about measures become city ordinance.

Someone is bound to ask the question, “Do I own my property, or does the neighborhood?”

We all strive for a more perfect Columbia. Having said this, there must be a better way than painting incredibly broad stripes on such a pinstripe situation. Some would argue the contrary, but the nuts and bolts of it is, that the property owner…owns the property.

Our Neighborhood, My Deed!”

Comments

  1. Thanks, Franklin.

  2. Where do you find these pictures? They are fantastic!

  3. Im with you brother!!!!

  4. t3,

    No problem. If you know me, I have two passions; Being a good Realtor for my people, and Government/Politics. This issue involves both, so I try to keep abreast of the issue as much as I can.

  5. “The bigger issue in my mind, is property rights. I can tell you, that if a person has purchased a home in Shandon (or any other downtown neighborhood, for that matter), they may very much regret such a purchase, if some of the talked about measures become city ordinance.”

    The difficult thing about posing this as a property rights issue is that as city residents, we already must abide by a variety of ordinances – you can’t have more than 3 un-related people living in a house; host loud parties at 3 am; or park your car in your front yard. Unfortunately when a developer purchases a small bungalow, tears it down, and builds a “McMansion” in its place, he’s violated the property rights of his neighbors who now have an out-of-scale home right up against their property lines. Preservation ordinances increase property values – not decrease them. Our neighbors on the coast, Charleston, live with one of the most restrictive (if not the most restrictive) preservation ordinances in the country. A friend who bought a similarly priced house in Charleston the same year I bought mine in Shandon (nine years ago) has seen his property values quadruple to quintuple – mine have increased nicely, but not by that much.

Speak Your Mind