Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Pickytown

Building in certain suburbs? Plan on conforming to extensive landscaping rules to a T


Monday, August 15, 2005



Probably, people who build houses in fashionable suburbs want to measure up to their neighbors?’ standards and don?’t mind a bit of guidance on how to do so.

But it?’s hard to imagine most people happily submitting to the sort of nitpicking enshrined in a proposed set of new-home requirements for the city of Pickerington.

The landscaping requirements border on parody:


?• Four trees, no fewer than three in front ?— two shade, one ornamental and one evergreen.


?• No fewer than eight shrubs, including but not limited to four deciduous (two large, two smaller) and four evergreen.


?• Front-yard mulch area mandatory, over a minimum of 200 square feet, with accent plants and flowers.

Presumably, people who don?’t know what accent plants are had better seek help from a professional.

The Dispatch doesn?’t mean to pick on Pickerington; it isn?’t the first central Ohio town to get so specific about its new-housing standards. Its proposed code is similar to ones already adopted in Dublin and Delaware.

Some might complain that rules of such specificity infringe unreasonably on people?’s property rights, and city officials should consider how much the required niceties will add to the price of a house.

Cynics also might ask if Pickerington officials are eager to deliver a windfall in business to greenhouses and tree nurseries.

Fortunately, the rules apply only to newly built homes. Anyone considering building in Pickerington, Dublin or Delaware can decide whether that much landscaping is too expensive or those design standards too stifling.

Fortunately, central Ohio offers many communities and neighborhoods, with a wide variety of looks, nearby attractions and price ranges. Most people should be able to find a place where they would feel at home.

It?’s up to each community to strike its own balance between maintaining development standards and welcoming as broad a range of people as possible.

If you?’re not the four-tree, eightshrub, 200-square-foot-mulch-bed type, Pickerington might not be the place for you.






By Running from the Ghetto

Fair and Balanced????

I see the editorial staff members were all at the company picnic this weekend. They desperately needed a five inches of double column space to fill at 9 PM last night.

Maybe to make up for their haste this morning they should actually ask why the City of Pickerington feels they need to impose these standards?

This is a ordinance fresh off the bus from Delaware Ohio. It has not had time to meet any of the council members and the city residents. I know the media want controversy in a story and sometimes they try to make that controversy themselves.

I think many of us in Pickerington feel these standards are long over due. At the same time there are a number of higher quality builders way ahead of these proposed design standards. These standards will only confirm what some builders are already doing.

The strange thing I seem to see is the better quality builders are selling homes at higher prices while many of the lower quality homes are still sitting there. Most of what is proposed by PICKYTOWN is generally accepted at the BIA.

Maybe editorial staff needs to send some cub reporters out and ask the insurance companies how many claims they have paid in the last four years for homes with roofs and siding blowing off and the homes were less than ten years old. Maybe they could also tie that with the sewer backup last December and why many living in Pickerington are afraid to file a claim based on CHEAP buildings. Builders using the lowest grade materials to save money while the insurance companies come in and replace roofs and siding with less than half the ''guaranteed'' economic life used of the products being replaced.




By Pay me now or pay me later!!

Add it all up...

...and what do you get?

Residential Design Guidelines - Adds what? 2-3 grand to the price of a house? Maybe?

Impact Fees - Adds What? $3500 to the price of a house?

For arguments's sake, let's say these two measures add $6 grand to a house. Now your $150K deal in George's Creek costs $156K. That's a whopping 4%. Will there be less people looking at those homes? I HOPE SO!!

Fox Glen - Add $6K to a $300K home. That's a whopping 2%. Will there be less people looking at those homes? Probably not, BUT I HOPE SO!!

We elected this council to manage and slow growth. That is what they are doing. By one means or another, they have, by God, slowed growth and are starting to manage it for the future. This is EXACTLY what the schools have been clammoring about all these years. That is what the residents have been screaming for.

The Dispatch has reported numerous times on explosive growth in Pickerington and the damage caused. Now someone is trying to slow it down and they have the nerve to ''Picky'' at it.

I am cancelling my subscription. Losers!! Editors, I am glad you all read this website. Try and focus a little on the progress made and not sensationalize your poor little BIA buddies.

By Mad as Hell