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Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Boomer with Attitude / News Make developers obey the law
Posted By John Grooms on Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 1:51 PM
This should be Rule No. 1 for running a city: People, neighborhoods, and quality of life trump corporate profits. And in the case of Charlotte, where the city’s lush tree canopy has been a major draw and bragging point for decades, add trees to the list, too.
I bring this up because Mayor Foxx, not even in office a full three months, is already falling back on old Charlotte traditions, namely flinching in the face of developers’ complaints. Hopefully, he’ll reconsider. Yesterday, Foxx told city staff he wanted them to “be flexible” with developers, particularly when it comes to meeting the city’s guidelines for building streets and saving trees.
Business honchos spoke Monday, too, saying the guidelines could “hurt the economy,” because it’s such a huge, terrible burden for them to have to be careful not to cut too many trees, and keep from polluting the city’s water with mud and chemical runoff. Boo-hoo-hoo. Guys, it’s called being a responsible citizen, pure and simple. Sure, it’s easier and cheaper to hire someone with a bulldozer to level everything in sight; and it’s less trouble to just look the other way when half of somebody’s yard washes away, but, again, it is irresponsible.
Charlotte’s city's street guidelines — which regulate things like bike lanes, setbacks for sidewalks, etc. — have been nationally recognized as right on target by the EPA, and have become a model for other cities who don’t want to wind up looking like Atlanta or Houston. Let’s keep it that way.
Moreover, and here’s the kicker: The restrictions developers are moaning about don’t really add that much to the cost of building a new house. According to the daily paper, city staffers calculate that the rules and ordinances add somewhere between $2,000 to $3,000 to the price of a new house — not exactly a back-breaking proposition, especially when considering the alternative, e.g., the ugly, crap developments dotting areas just outside the city limits.
Mayor Foxx says he’s heard “a horror story or two,” from developers, but City Manager Curt Walton, in a rare rebuke of a mayor, noted that, “We aren't hearing horror stories, we're hearing horror rhetoric." Kudos also go to Council Warren Turner who, responding to the usual scare stories from developers that regulations could scare off new development, asked, "Is there a list of people who have said 'We aren't doing business in Charlotte?'" Turner said one of the things he likes about the regulations is that “it may have removed people who didn't want to do a quality project in Charlotte."
Here’s what I’d like to know: Has there ever been a group that’s made more money while constantly griping about regulations than Charlotte area developers? As long as anyone here can remember, those guys have ruled the roost, garnering an endless string of exceptions and “easements” and so forth, in order to be able to plunk down buildings wherever they want. Often, it’s seemed as if developers think this city only exists so they can make money off of it. Well, no. Those days are gone, and City Council should make sure they stay gone.
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