Dyna Sluyter's post - "Subject: [Mpls] Garage+Basement= Affordable Housing!" has finally caused me to post something on garages. (After viewing the discussion that has gone on with a great deal of humor.) People are calling some others "Garage Nazis" for advocating for garages. The other side is asking that such a thing be done to improve "Their" property values. What has not been realized is that the City Council is just putting people on. I had to laugh at the idea of the Council "Forcing" people to build garages when at the same time it has kept bottled up an ordinance that would change zoning for a small area to "Allow" people, who want, to build elaborate garages.
I was at the Z&P committee yesterday, and once again the carriage house overlay for Ventura Village was postponed. For over three years this overlay has been fought for such an overlay would not force anyone to build anything. It would simply Allow people to build elaborate garages on their own property. Of course it is for only Ventura Village and that may be the problem. The City certainly does not want individuals in poor neighborhoods building garages themselves. The City Council apparently has several problems to have to deal with. How do you keep an area "Bad" if you allow residents the opportunity to improve it? More importantly, since it provides the opportunity for an inexpensive, quality housing to be built by INDIVIDUAL property owners, how do you justify huge subsidies for developing "affordable housing"? Why before long you would have those individual property owners providing quality apartments for people at lower rents than the "affordable" rents charged by large "Non"-profits. And if you are in City or County government, how are you going to get the right amount of "contributions" if you don't have the opportunities to "help" your Developer and "Non"-profit friends? Yeah folks, we could have problems right here in River-City. 'Y' before you know it we are likely to have people deciding when, AND IF, they build a garage on their own property. Someone might decide to build some handicapped housing that doesn't need an elevator. Now you know you can't justify large developments and subsidies if you don't need an elevator. And how are you going to maintain the monopoly over providing services if you have more people living independently? And what about the "Senior Housing" bonanza coming right around the corner? How are the non-profits going to cash in on this if more seniors are living in their "own" home or in their "own" specially designed "Carriage House" out back? There just ain't enough money to be made in that. How are you going to get "contributions" if you can't help your "friends"? Yeah folks, we got trouble. Right here in River-City. 'Y' before you know it parents are liable to build one of these to move that bird that won't leave the nest, (otherwise known as a child) out to. God forbid! It would be against nature to have a child living independently close to home. Why before you know it there might be more kids living like that and God only knows what that would do to the dorm room business? And what about those 21/2 story walk ups that provide shoddy housing for huge profits? They might be less lucrative. How are you going to "ask" for "contributions" from these, if young people are living in their parents backyard? Yeah folks, we got trouble right here in River-City. Hey< i got an idea! Let's float a suggestion that we are thinking of "Requiring" garages, then people will scream bloody murder and we won't have to "allow" them to build Carriage Houses? Naw that bunch of rubes aren't dumb enough to fall for such a ridiculous idea. Or then again, could they be? On a serious note what Dyna describes is essentially the idea behind the Ventura Village "Carriage House" overlay district that has been bottled up by Minneapolis "Planning" for over three years. Dyna, if you combine your ideas you essentially have one of our engineered carriage houses. Thermal mass heating and cooling from the earth does it. You take a super insulated wall with a concrete center down below the frost line to a footing and build a house over the garage, or in the case of handicapped housing along side the garage. Our plans call for hanging lofts and open cathedral ceilings in a "designer" apartment, with exactly the plumbing situation you describe. These units would cost approximately $30 or $40.00 dollars a month to heat with electric and would almost be totally energy self-sufficient with a couple of solar panels. These house designs are almost indestructible and will withstand tornadoes and hurricanes as well as the Excel and Reliant-Minnegasco attack each year. The Credit Union and Fannie Mae have said they could provide financing so a owner could pay for the Carriage House with rents, (and make a profit), even if they were charging LESS than $600.00 per month for a designer two bedroom, two bath apartment over a two car garage. AARP has made such "Accessory Housing" its highest priority. (Call Senator Linda Berglin and ask her about this). Such housing was recently suggested as the number one way to improve the quality of life for senior women. (Call Senator Berglin again and ask about it). People WANT to build such housing and garages. It is allowed in rich mansion neighborhoods. So why has the City Council not acted on it for three years and now start a smokescreen to force people to build garages when they won't even ALLOW people to build them, except in rich neighborhoods? People in Minneapolis should be "ALLOWED" to address the affordable housing and "Garage" shortage if they CHOOSE to do so. We have individual property owners and Private Banking ready and eager to address the problem. We have a Mayor and a City Council who ran and won on these issues. What we need is a little action and less talk, and we need the City Council to start giving some home and property owners the right to build if they want. We need less rhetoric about what the City will FORCE people to do, or NOT do, and more about what the City of Minneapolis will ALLOW and ENCOURAGE people to do. The Corcoran, Powderhorn, Phillips, Whittier, and Ventura Village neighborhoods as well as the Hiawatha Corridor among many would like to be ALLOWED to plan such developments to meet their individual needs. Then we might not have those problems "Right here in River-City" Jim Graham, Ventura Village _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
