Tag: developers

City Only Gives Out $37,254 To Latest Developer

I’m back from summer vacation and I have a HUGE pile of subjects in the hopper. I took 7 weekdays off and it felt like an eternity. I don’t know HOW these City Hall Nerf Job workers manage to take the 15 or 18 days off a year they get. I guess I just have that private sector drive to work hard.

Anyhow…..on to business.

First it was Deorald Finney and his $72,000 in “free” stuff for his Stone Valley subdivision. Then City council handed former fellow council member “Greasy” Chris Harrison and his new employer S2M2 $185,000 for their Brodie Estates project.

This time, the City dialed it back a teeny, tiny bit with the new Hillside Acres subdivision and its developer MD Homes. According to the agreement:

“as an economic incentive to MD’s project, the City will install, at the appropriate time in the Project’s development, at the City’s cost, but not to exceed a total expense to the City of $37,254.36 (“City’s Financial Participation”) certain electrical infrastructure to each platted lot in the Subdivision“

Hillside-Acres-SubdivisionDownload

Well, I guess it’s a start. Especially since they are going to be adding 27 homes out there on 580 West right near the Sports Complex. You know, the place where they have already been having water pressure problems and where Deorald is already adding 67 more houses.

Maybe someday, instead of handing OUT money to entice people who want to move here already, the City will get smart and CHARGE their pound of flesh to developers so they can pay for the impact down the road for things like greater demand on the water, road and police infrastructure.

I know – crazy, right?

Some Goldfish Want To Have Their Trees And Eat Them Too

The latest news out of City council is the desire to “protect trees” from those evil developers. You know, the very same developers they keep handing hundreds of thousands of dollars to in order to entice them to develop more. As I understand it, ‘developing’ land usually requires clearing it out of a bunch of trees and replacing them with houses and roads and drainage ponds. At least that’s what I saw over at Stone Valley and the S2M2 development – nothing but smooth ground for close to 100 new houses.

Perhaps the Goldfish already forgot (as they are wont to do) about the free electrical hookups they handed to Deorald Finney at Stone Valley (69 houses = approx $72,000 in lost revenue to City)? Or maybe they forgot about the $150,000 they are handing to S2M2 for a giant water detaining pond. Last I checked, water retention ponds don’t have giant oak trees in the middle of them – they are cleared out in the name of “development”.

The Goldfish proposing this hypocritical idea was Delana Toups. She mentioned TWICE in the article that she “was sad to see last week that an oak was knocked down for a new development”. Neither time did she actually mention WHICH development it was – which I suspect was not an accident. She would look pretty stupid complaining about the S2M2 or Stone Valley development after just handing them $150,000 of taxpayer money. I actually drove over to the S2M2 development a month ago, and saw a TON of trees had been destroyed.

So, they want growth and development so badly, they hand out huge checks and waive tons of fees for these private developers – GIVING these rich developers tax dollars so they can clear cut trees, build homes and make a huge profit on their houses.

THEN, the same person complains that a tree was cut down by a developer! I mean, I have to thank this group for giving me unending, low-hanging fruit to ridicule them with. It’s just too easy now.

Instead of infringing on peoples’ property rights to do what they want with their trees, how about STOPPING COMPLETELY all the handouts to your rich developer buddies and the scumbag former Council members who lobby for them (*cough* Chris Harrison *cough*)?

Nah – that would be too easy. Let’s instead make a whole new pile of regulations and restrictions on the rest of the population. Awesome idea!

In fairness, Mayor Talbert immediately came out against the idea of telling people what they can do with the land they own. Good for her. She is on the correct side of this issue.