Back To News | Back To Standard News
Standard News
Home site limits opposed
January 17, 2008
Developers in Columbia are waging a campaign to water down proposed city rules that would make it harder for them to subdivide lots in six in-town neighborhoods and build large houses on the smaller lots.City Council is to vote Wednesday on the new rules, called the "community character protection ordinance."
Under the proposal, a majority of property owners attending special neighborhood association meetings could vote to have the rules apply to their area.
But home builders and Realtors are pushing an amendment that would require at least 50 percent of all property owners - many of whom might not be association members or even city residents - to sign a petition to adopt the rules. Last week, Realtors sent out a glossy flier to property owners touting the amendment.
"We think it's a fair approach," said Earl McLeod, executive director of the Home Builders Association of Greater Columbia. "The majority rules."
But neighborhood leaders say asking their associations to collect signatures from a majority of an estimated 4,000 property owners, many of them absentee landlords, is unreasonable.
Jackie Bartley, president of the Shandon Neighborhood Council, the association's executive committee, said: "We're trying to protect our neighborhood and they are trying to protect their profits. Their motivation is greed."
SUBHEAD
The community character protection issue arose last year when developer Ben Arnold razed an historic farmhousefarm house in Heathwood and subdivided the lot after promising neighbors and the Columbia Planning Commission he wouldn't.Since then, neighborhood protection has become a hot button issue in Columbia, where building permits were up 14 percent last year as home starts in the area and the nation declined.
After the Arnold affair, City Council asked its planning department for ways to limit developers' ability to raze houses, subdivide lots, or build "McMansions."
A "McMansion" is a nickname for a home that is larger in scale than the lot it sits on and the other homes around it.
The measures would be temporary until council has time to study and adopt new zoning laws.
They would cover the neighborhoods of Cottontown, Hollywood/Rose Hill, Shandon, Wales Garden, Sherwood Forest and Heathwood.
But the Columbia Planning Commission last month, in a contentious and confused 4-3-2 vote, included the developers' amendment requiring the approval of 50 percent of property owners.
The city planning department opposed the developers' recommendation, saying it didn't have the staff to verify the signatures if they were collected.
Mayor Bob Coble said council would make up its mind about the requirements because of the lack of consensus from the planning commission.
"We are going to protect our historic neighborhoods from the inappropriate subdivision of lots," he said. McLeod countered that the 50 percent amendment would protect developers and others who have made investments in the neighborhoods. He said the interim measures "change the rules in midstream."
Also, he said the measures threaten the nest egg of seniors who are depending on the sale of property for retirement.
CAMPAIGN ISSUE
Neighborhood protection has become the key issue in April's City Council race between former history professor Belinda Gergel and developer Brian Boyer.Gergel, a past chairwoman of the Historic Columbia Foundation, called for the interim measures in a press conference with Coble, one of her strongest supporters.
She called the developers' 50 percent amendment "an 11th hour attempt to make the process for interim protection burdensome and almost impossible. If the developers are successful, it's the equivalent of no protection for our neighborhoods."
Boyer, a West Point graduate, Gulf War vet and brother-in-law and business partner of Columbia financier Don Tomlin, said he "strongly favors" the developers' proposals.
"It could be burdensome for some neighborhoods, but it's workable," he said, noting the Wales Garden neighborhood assocation has met the higher standard. "The real victory is we are preventing a knee-jerk reaction... that would stifle infill development."
FLIER FLAP
The mailer sent out last week was funded by the Homebuilders Association and the Greater Columbia Association of Realtors.Critics say it misrepresents the intent and implementation of the measures.
"It's misleading," said Chris Barczak, a member of the Realtors Association.
He said the flier doesn't mention the measures are temporary and it states the new rules would prevent "most" subdivision of lots, which might not be the case. It also charges the process doesn't give landowners a choice to vote against the measures, which they could do through the neighborhood associations.
"By no means do all Realtors agree with this," he said.
Realtors Association executive director Chip Kreps said the flier was a way to inform the public. He would not divulge how much it cost to produce and distribute.
"But there is no amount we would not spend to protect the property rights of the people of the Midlands," he said.
The State
By JEFF WILKINSON
jwilkinson@thestate.com
Reach Wilkinson at (803) 771-8495.