Help! My historic neighborhood is in trouble!

[SarahFair]

There's two competing projects because they're both going to be built with state grants. But only one grant per county every three years can be chosen, and if one is chosen it's likely that during the next three year cycle the other one will still not get chosen.

We had the neighborhood meeting and that's when the landowner and the developer said that we need to pick a spokesperson to write down and present what we want as a neighborhood. But I feel like everyone was still in shock and that the land owner and developer were preying upon that shock.
They made us feel like this is happening no matter what you better put down what you want and that's the end of that. They made it seem like there was no fighting it.

In last night's meeting I really felt like she used that meeting against us. She would say things like, "well the people of Boulevard agreed to speed bumps", " the people of Boulevard were fine that there was going to be no fire gate"

The "neighborhood rep" got up and spoke last night and I couldn't understand what he was saying because of the Acoustics in the room but I can't tell if it helped or hurt us.

So...
First project got approved with flying colors, no problems no glitches no nothing everyone seemed pretty enthusiastic about it.

The project that is going in behind us kept getting snagged.
Many of the residents got up and spoke mostly about the traffic the connecting road would create.
The lady who owns the house that will sit opposite of where the road would join our road got up to speak and was very (understandably) upset. She started yelling at the landowner, "you don't know what this is going to do to our street!" The commissioner had to redirect her comments towards the panel.

A few noire neighbors got up and spoke...

I got up, ugh I was so nervous, my voice was shaky, I was blacking out...
ugh, I am not a, public speaker..

But I got up and stood up for my neighborhood.

I introduced myself, walked over to her board that had her plans on it and I showed them where my house was and began by explaining it just felt very invasive haunt a parking lot in your back yard.
I told them that we've lived in Monroe for ten years and my dream was to live in downtown Monroe and a few months ago I got that dream so at that meeting the other night amongst neighbors I just felt like my breath was taken away.
I told him that my children stay home sometimes and having that parking lot back there behind buildings and having such close access to my home, the police on bikes won't be back there patrolling all the time, I could never be at ease knowing that someone could park right at my back door, break in my home, and be gone and no one would ever see anything..
Then I addressed the street and how my children love to play outside, how I was tossing a baseball with my son right before this meeting and how that will all get taken away if they introduce this road into our street.
I thanked them for their time and allowing me to speak and went back to my seat with every once of dignity I could scrape up.

I was so panicky up there.


So the discussion continued..
It went back and forth about the road..
They went to take a vote and one was very vocally against the rezone with his loud, "NO", so the head Honcho went back and said all right let's figure it out.. The land owner was up there begging what she could do to make this work.. it went back and forth again, took another vote, still came back no, so they went back and forth again and again and again...
2 voted no, 2 voted yes
The head honcho said he will be the tie-breaker and that he votes yes and that the repropsal with all the stipulations for the will be sent to be decided by the city on April 11.

Ugh.
I was just glad we had no votes because when I understand these things usually go very quickly and everything gets passed with ease in zoning.
It makes me feel like we have a good fighting chance..

[Kashka-Kat]

Sarah, you did good. Im not a political animal either. Im not AT ALL comfortable with getting up in front f a group and the sound of my voice coming out of a microphone - eek! But sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do.

I would suggest that those of you opposing meet by yourself, without any other interests there, to map out a strategy and decide for yourselves what YOU want. As much as possible tie in the proposal(s) to the city historic distric plans and point out how it would violate those. Here in my quite vocal & neighborhood activist c ity (madison wi) the n'hood plans are considered the bible - yeah they're set aside and overlooked too many tiimes, but they really do give n'hoods some leverage in fighting things that are clearly inappropriate.

It helps if you can go point by point through the plan and really connect the dots for people so they understand that what you want is better for ALL city residents in terms of creating a beautiful historic district that is economically viable. Without that big picture, some may accuse you of being self interested (aka "NIMBY" - not in my backyard).

Do you have a city rep - called alders or council members or whatever, someone who represents your district? Do they have a position and either way it would be worth meeting with that person as a group to lobby him/her.

It doesnt matter if the developer thinks there should only be one neighbor spokesman - you have the right to organize and speak for your interests. Doesnt matter what the developer wants. Actually I kinda think that guy ruined it for them by inserting his own agenda and essentially excluding a significant no. of people (you and others) from the process.

Well I hope all my blathering is somewhat useful.... guess its touched a nerve as Ive had to deal with my share of invasive neighbors over the years (including the commercial kitchen across the street w their idling semis and food odors).

[Powermuffin]

Seems like the damage to be done to your homes' property values would be enough to make the homeowners fight it. It sure would do it for me!

[Lily left the valley]

At what point can your neighborhood state that their preference is for the Mill's plan?

That seems to be the glaring omission here.

[SarahFair]

We could have stood up at zoning but no one did, I think that's more of a city council debate. Im going to come up with a better speech for the city council meeting now that I see how they go. The Holder project (the one we want) Is far superior in every aspect.

Leaving the street this morning I noticed we'd have traffic readers now, but only at one entry point.

[Olson185]

We had the neighborhood meeting and that's when the landowner and the developer said that we need to pick a spokesperson to write down and present what we want as a neighborhood.

This is a red flag.

As a political person, who's been on both sides of such situations, picking one person makes it easier for the landowner/developer to manipulate/"buy" the neighbourhood spokesperson. If I were the developer, I'd want this person interviewed by the local paper (and the copy refer to this person as the "neighbourhood representative") and attend at least one executive/hearing meeting with the zoning board of appeals committee (a non-public mtg.).

Once it's established this person is the bonafide neighbourhood rep. then I would portray any non-compliant neighbours as unreasonable, NIMBY mavericks. If the neighbours didn't like what the "neighbourhood rep." was saying/doing then they have to take actions to de-legitimize the "neighbourhood rep". This will take time and effort that isn't being applied against the project.

A better way to respond is for the neighbours to hire a lawyer who's familiar with such issues. This lawyer would also help the residents file articles of organization to form a neighbourhood-based Community Development Corporation (CDC). This is not the same as a Home Owners Assoc. (HOA). A CDC is a community-based economic entity that can yield significant political power. The goal of the CDC, in your situation, would be to buy a significant buffer around your neighbourhood and/or make those properties (ultimately) subject to the goals of the CDC (which have been endorsed by the local IDA and political leaders).

[Powermuffin]

It would be very handy to have a neighbor who is an attorney then!

[SarahFair]

This subject is literally all I can think about.
Theres so many ways to approach it, its just choosing the right one


I did some serious stalking of the land owners behind my home today.
They have a personal home and property up for sale (possibly all sold) a few miles down the road in a high end neighborhood.
The husband and wife practice law (which includes real estate law) but in Georgia and Colorado. I have a feeling they are trying to sell everything and head for Colorado permanently.

She used to practice at a local law firm before opening up her own practice
One of the people who works as a lawyer at the firm has a wife that is on the historic committee. He was at one point on this committee as well and owns a lot of historical property in downtown. He in fact owns part of the old mill system (different part of the mill system that the competing project is) where my antique booth is.

I dont know if I should turn to them for help or if they may be "old friends".
My only other acquaintance on the historic committee thinks he does not have any pull within the city because hes "an outsider".

There may be a few people I can contact for advice or help, the land owners are just so embedded into the community I am a little hesitant about who I ask

[SkipW]

When they were trying to put a 65,000 s/f facility on my back property line I called and talked to anyone I could think of. Some were useless, some wanted the facility (supposedly going to be an assisted living facility) and a few were willing to help.

While I know small towns have the 'in crowd' who know and see all, I didn't care if I tipped my hand or pissed anyone off. I just wanted the project to die.

I would suggest approaching one of the best possibles in a non-committed way just to ask a question (like 'hey have you heard about...'). Maybe that way you could judge their interest or feelings abut the project/owners etc. If they are sympathetic, maybe they can help or point you to someone who can, if not, move on.

Every developer that is ever involved in the development across the street (been through three) wants to develop or use somehow the property behind (actually all around) us for something. The last attempt was to put a road in along our property line and have a 300 person wedding/reception tent on top of the hill behind us...I do NOT want to try and relax on a Saturday night listening to a wedding DJ blast out bad music and have people puking in the woods behind us....but enough about me...I just think it can't hurt to try and find an ally in some of the folks you mentioned.

[NancyDID]

I have participated in these types of matters as an attorney for both developers and property owners. Do you have a local land use attorney who may want to get involved?

Also, since you are in Georgia, you may be able to get help from someone at Savannah College of Art & Design. They have an excellent Historic Preservation department there as well as a branch of the school in Atlanta.