Who Has The Right to Decide What One Can Do With Their Private Property?

CENTERVILLE’S DEBT

2004 $5,710,000
2009 $ 11,272,000
A 97% INCREASE IN FIVE YEARS!
What do we have to show for it?

As the current Mayor & Council continue to push forward a downtown redevelopment vision, they have delegated the Planning & Zoning Board to have a Public Hearing in regards to recently rezoned “nonconforming” downtown resident’s property. Even though the City can no longer legally eminent domain private property (exception being roads, bridges, parking lots and trails ) they are currently holding hostage many residents in the downtown area. The nonconforming designation stops the citizens from making improvements to their property which might increase its value as these homes wait to be purchased by a developer. Although The Beard Group has backed out of the Downtown Redevelopment citing the poor economy and there are STILL NO OFFERS on the table to purchase these properties our four members of Council and the Mayor continue to hold these fellow Citizens at their mercy.
In their glorious wisdom, they have voted to punt the nonconforming issue to the Planning and Zoning Board for a decision. Could it be that the Mayor and Council believe this board is more qualified to make that decision or is it a duck and cover move?
This push is exploding our debt, property taxes and we ALL are paying the price!

The Planning & Zoning meetings are no longer televised. Ironically, in the interest of "saving money" the Council voted to discontinue this important public service last year.
UPDATE 03/03/2010
The entire Council (excluding Jeff Paar) sat in on the Public Hearing/Input Meeting last night. City Attorney Kurt Glaser and City Administrator Dallas Larson were also in attendance. More information to follow soon.

Here We Go Again!

Downtown bike trail to feature two new parks
Two new city parks are planned for summer construction that will coincide with completion of a downtown bike trail along Main Street. The parks were officially named “Cornerstone” and “Trailside” at a Feb. 10 City Council meeting. The names were recommended by the city’s parks and recreation committee.

Centerville collects a park dedication fee from every new development within the city. Although the funding has run dry, City Administrator Dallas Larson said the parks are moving forward thanks to federal funding dollars totaling around $800,000. That money will help pay for both the bike trail and the parks, which Larson described as trail “rest stops.” The city is committing around $400,000 for the project, money that had to be borrowed against future development dedication fees, Larson said.
“Those fees will be reimbursed when development moves forward again,” he noted.

Cornerstone Park will sit just west of St. Genevieve Church in downtown Centerville. It will be anchored by a water feature containing a monument that will likely read “May peace prevail on earth” in various languages, according to city engineers. Plans aren’t cemented, but the words could appear in English, French, German and Lakota.
Nicholas Backus
Quad Editor
LINK FULL STORY HERE