Keith R writes: > Keith says; Or perhaps has an outlook such as David Brauer's. He believes, > "Another way to think of it is the two lots would have been filled for > $100,000 " (David, I wish I had your dough) > > Keith adds; Back up the truck, hit the lever and dump $100K of -not > David's-$$$$ into a hole the size of two city lots. Nice plan, but is it > sustainable? Keith Reitman, NearNorth
I'm not quite sure what sustainable means....you build two houses, someone buys them. (By the way, it's a Lyndale lot.) As for Keith's "hole" analogy, it's piquant but heedless of the end product. Remember, what we were doing was saving 2 houses being moved to make way for a neighborhood-commercial expansion, and filling two lots that the private market had - and has - left unfilled. Both 3-bedroom houses would be brought up to code (a far bigger expense than moving them) and sold at below-market rates (60 percent MMI or less, which is low for this area) under a land trust that would keep their affordability below-market for future owners. Is that worth $100K? Perhaps not to you, but not a landfill of green stuff either. I'd love to taunt the private sector (since in this matter some appear to be inclined to taunt) to fill these vacant lots. They are still sitting there. Remember, guys, two 3-bedroom houses, up to code, selling for $118K and $137K. Go! Unfortunately, the city and county bollixed up my challenge by hiring a private company some years back that did a bad demolition. The lots now have tens of thousands of dollars in remediation needed to remove "bad fill" and possible heavy-metal contamination. Then someone has to figure out how to compact the new soil so both lots are buildable (I'm told when you fill, you have to buttress from the outside in, so there may only be a middle strip where one house can go). Therefore, it isn't fair to do a market test now. Still, I challenge Keith and Steve and other experienced landlords/developers to submit a real proposal to Hennepin County, which owns the land. Do it conditionally on the enviro problems being cleaned up. I dare you. By the way, our neighborhood board got creamed pretty good in a letter to the SW Journal this week about only paying "lip service" to affordable housing. But it must have been more than that if I at least have the honor of drawing Keith's fire. Ah, the life of civic involvement: getting it from all sides. David Brauer King Field _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
