Michael McLaughlin wrote: Let's take the building owner at 13th and Harmon where Hi-Fi Sound and other businesses are located as a for instance. The building is a smaller, one-story building with limited off-street parking. According to Hennepin County property records, the property is assessed at $420,000 in land value and $250,000 in building value. The land is more valuable than the building in large part because it has downtown zoning. With the historic district, demolishing his building - which one could reasonable argue does not really architectually contribute to the historic auto district - is, for all intents and purposes, impossible. The city has just effectively wiped out 60% of this guy's investment in his property. How many homeowners would like the city to do that to them? snip I believe we should all take a hard look at the process for historic designation because the process leading up to the district designation was so tremendously stacked against these property owners, it's frightening.
David Piehl writes: This is an interesting twist on zoning. On the one hand, you've admitted that the current zoning is the source of the "excess" value of the land, on the other hand, you bemoan the more recent zoning (which is basically what historic designation amounts to, a zoning restriction) which does not allow demolition of the building. Is zoning to be judged good or bad based only on the incremental value it adds? Or, are there other less tangible things to consider? As far as the city "doing" this to homeowners, every time the zoning changes something is "done" to homeowners. In the last major re-zoning effort, many areas were down-zoned from allowing multiple units to single family. This has an affect on the value for owners, because multiple units will have greater value. If you live in a single dwelling, you may feel cheated because you cannot convert to a triplex; alternatively you may be happy about the long term reduction of density. These things are done in accordance with what is assumed to be prudent planning and public good at the time it is done. Preserving historic buildings is not very different. David Piehl Central Owner of a home lucky enough to receive historic designation during my ownership of it. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
