Joe Doakes from Como Park writes:<\/p>\n
The City intends to change the zoning of properties along Front Avenue between Dale Street and Rice Street. That means you can\u2019t sell your land for as much money. Naturally, landowners are upset.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why: if your land is zoned for Industrial Uses and the building on it is a warehouse, you have a Conforming Use and any future owner can continue to use the land for a warehouse. But if the city changes the zoning of your land to Residential, then your warehouse becomes an Existing Non-Conforming Use. You \u2013 and future owners \u2013 are severely limited in what you can do with it. You can\u2019t expand. If it burns down, you can\u2019t rebuild. You can\u2019t even guarantee the future owner will be allowed to keep using it as you did. So naturally, the future owner won\u2019t pay as much for it as he would have before the zoning change.<\/p>\n
Yes, the City has the power by law to do it. But destroying people\u2019s land values through regulation is not a trifle. It shouldn\u2019t be done lightly.<\/p>\n
Key line in the article:<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause no one who lives or does business in that area was involved in the current planning effort, community members and city officials agreed that the plan needs a second phase of study.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody who knows anything about the neighborhood was involved in the plan. It was dreamed up by urban planners in government and academia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The crux of the piece – and it ties into so <\/em>much about living in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and any one-party autocracy:<\/p>\n
This is how liberals think. We\u2019re so smart we don\u2019t even need to VISIT the neighborhood to know what to do in it. We have a plan for an ideal neighborhood so tough luck to you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is classic Saint Paul government in action; make a grand sweeping change “for the good of the peasants” – and then sit back and look amazed as the unintended consequences mount.<\/p>\n