At the Evansville Common Council on Tuesday, although the Council approved the final land dividers agreement as well as the final plat for Grand Orchard Estates subdivision, questions arose when it was disclosed that all of the 52 lots of the subdivision would be built on at once.
Mr. Connors explained that the developer was restricted to 35 per year, but if the developer built the additional 17, the developer would just be allowed 18 the following year.
Mr. Sorenson questioned how this could be. The whole purpose of the restriction was to provide some control by the council of the pace of development, especially as it impacts the school district.
Mr. Connors replied that if the subdivision was 150 homes, the developer might well choose to build them all at once for economic reasons, but then would be restricted for the next 4 years.
No members of the school board were present at the Common Council meeting.
The whole discussion brought back memories of discussion during the Smart Growth about how the city was going to implement a concerted plan of growth so as not to create a school space crisis. This is a developing story.
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I am glad to see someone questioning some of this " growth" . So by allowing them to build all at once should we just throw out the smart growth plan?
ReplyDeleteIt is unclear to me how this evolved. I have understood it two different ways.
ReplyDelete1. It is a suggested total and it is completely voluntary for the developers to comply.
2. It is a formal contract and the developers must comply.(but I am not sure about average per year vs. absolute maximum # per year).
I am not sure if this has evolved from #1 to #2 as it progressed or if I initially misunderstood it.
The second time I heard about it, It was my understanding that it was a formal agreement or contract. I believe there was still some confusion at that point about enforceability. For example do we simply cut it off at 35 per development per year by no longer issuing building permits? Or is there a better way to manage this than denying permits.
Another question was, what about a private individual who bought a lot and decided not to build for several years for whatever reason. Would they have to wait another year due to a developers agreement,etc.
It sounds as if the average would be a difficult thing to enforce, because it relies on the developers future intentions. Would the enforcement be that they would be turned down for another development when they are already ahead of schedule on their past developments?
ReplyDeleteI know it sounds unlikely that this would occur due to supply and demand, but I think everyone can say that no one expected the growth rate that we have seen the past 10 years (particularly the old state of Wisconsin projections for Evansville).