| WELCOME! An Online Newsletter of Proud Property Owners, dedicated to preserving our property rights and our neighborhood from the arbitrary dictates of others. | Newsletter Contact: TallyMark@Rocketmail.com July, 2009 Independence Month Celebration...July 4, 1776 to Present...fought for continually since. |
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Independence Day--A Reminder of Freedom!
Editor's Opinion corner...Mark S.
DanielWe
in Lafayette Park are especially fortunate when it comes to
Independence Day. We've gone through a huge battle this past year
and know just how tenuous our freedom can be. We very nearly lost
our property rights forever. A reminder like this can be
life-changing. I
know it is for me.
When I consider the horror of having some random employee of the Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation, (through their contract with the City of Tallahassee) or else the Architectural Review Board having absolute power of veto over any change to my property visible from the street, I shudder. I've
experienced the actions of the Architectural Review Board. Arbitrary.
Capricious.
Intolerant. Vindictive. Punitive. Despotic.
Prejudiced. Hostile. And more. Individually, they're
probably pretty nice folks. They were appointed by competent
governing commissioners. However, as a governing body they have a mob-power mentality. These
are people with power over your property and your neighbor's
property, and exercise the flagrant display of their ability to
wreak ruin and harm on persons who have no recourse. By law, half
the board has no credentials related to historic preservation
or architecture. By virtue of owning a property within an HPO
neighborhood, they are given the authority and power to pass along
whatever troublesome things have been done to them and do it to someone
else...or else create their own problems just for you. They can be
meddling busybodies with a propensity for telling other people what to
do and what not to do, and they cannot handle having unchecked power or responsibility as part of a
"position" in the community.
Residents of Lafayette Park can breathe a sigh of relief that this has not happened to them, yet. These agencys' power is more than just veto power over a homeowner's proposed change. The terms of the code upon which they rely are so vague, no two persons can reasonably come to the same conclusion as to what is allowed or disallowed. They might come up with anything and try to make it stick. In
Myers Park, the Historic Preservation Overlay was forced upon the
neighborhood in order to rob a land owner of his legal rights to use
his property. There, you have to follow the rules they make up as
they go along. If you want to put up a fence you can have a
"staff
review" or a "board review"...depends on your property. Is it
a "contributing" (board review) or "non-contributing" (staff review) property? You don't get a
choice in the matter--someone decided that issue without your input
during the time of juggling with the facts back when they also juggled
the definition of the Myers Park Neighborhood. Salvaged houses that
were
never a part of Myers Park until they were recently dragged in by a
house moving company were declared "historic" to Myers Park
and an essential part of the history of Myers Park. The BS
artists in the City of Tallahassee will do whatever they want with your
property, and present you with so much mumbo-jumbo you barely have a
chance to understand it. So, what's the answer--Contributing or
Non-Contributing? Well...what year is it? That's not a
facetious non-sequitur--They can decide a non-contributing property is
contributing whenever they want, for any number of vague, amorphous,
indeterminate reasons.
However, whether it's a "staff review" or a "board review", those $30 fence panels from Lowes are going to cost you several thousand dollars by the time you get the survey documents drawn up to show where the fence is going, and get a landscape architect to provide elevation drawings (depicting the height, style, construction, color and nailing pattern and relationship to surrounding objects of historical value), and have a land-use attorney present your case for justifying your fence where "historically" no fence had been before, and where it "might" block the view of something historic that "they" might want to see in the future. And this is going to take a lot of time. And, in addition, you are going to have to pay for a legal court recorder to provide verbatim documentation of every conversation and meeting, because (per Senior Assistant City Attorney Linda Hudson of the City of Tallahassee) the Architectural Review Board is not obligated to provide such verbatim records. Without them you are stuck, irretrievably (and by plan), with whatever answer the staff or the board gives you, with no recourse. Add in a lot more time, too. A month for the surveyor, two months for the landscape architect, two months for the hearing with legal notification to all "affected" residents of the city, perhaps three months for scheduling a planning commission review and appeal. Forget about it...to heck with the fence--plant a hedge. It's cheaper. What if your proposed home improvement is something more significant? You'd be at their mercy. What if you listened to Nike's swoosh motto and "just did it!"? Well...now you've really done it... An
Example: During our own battle to save Lafayette Park, someone in the Architectural Review Board
responded to an assertion that liens and fines could be assessed
against a property which had an improvement without getting a
"Certificate of Appropriateness". They
stated categorically that the Architectural Review Board never assessed
liens or fines, ever. Their reply didn't disclose that the City of
Tallahassee has an entirely separate department called the Board of
Adjustment that did just that--assess liens, fines and claims against
your property. No. They used their dishonest forked-tongue
and swore that they never did such things. And they were silent
about the Board of Adjustment. You'll sure find out about it when
you try to put up a fence....maybe years too late. It's a classic
example of the city's Mumbo-Jumbo: they give each separate group a name
of its own, so each named group can wash its hands of the consequences
of their actions in passing along something to the next group.
The City of Tallahassee has taken and demolished homes due to
outstanding liens imposed by the city. It's not a joke or a
fiction.
We in Lafayette Park learned during our own battle that the decision to make a property "contributing" or "non-contributing" was an entirely secret process handled within the office of the Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation. The exact list was changed so many times, that as of this date, there is no "final" list available. Yet they were going to hold us all to whatever rules applied, as only they would be applying them. Fortunately, this is in "abeyance". Whatever THAT means. It has no legal basis. It has no permanence. Hang
on to your hats, Ladies and Gentlemen...it's going to be one wild ride
in the next decades to preserve our freedom in this society. At
every single meeting of the City and County Commission during the past
several years and into the foreseeable future, the laws of this city
are being changed with little or no notification or review...one by
one, with unknown consequences. Your rights are disappearing for the expedience of "saving
money" and a lot of other BS. Right now, before the City
Commission, they are getting ready to adopt an exceptional situation in
which a city commissioner can be appointed rather than be elected, as
the law now requires. This is a situation in which a non-elected
commission can become a non-elected total government with extraordinary
powers over every citizen's rights and financial well-being with no
check on their power. But the justification right now is to "save
money". On top of this, a runaway City Attorney's office is "vetting" everything
they do...talk about a fox in the hen house!
Serfs and slaves on a Lord's plantation saved a lot of money, too, for those Lords in the past. It took hundreds of years and many thousands of lives to throw it off. Do you think you're going to be one of the Lords? You better check such optimism at the door, and come with a real critical eye. Celebrate
your freedom this July by taking a look at what is happening to
it. We're close to losing important, treasured parts of it. Our property rights
are being given over to un-elected, unqualified people in the name of
something as noble as "Historic Preservation". But, it has
nothing to do with real historic preservation--it's a theft of your
rights and granting of unlimited power over you and your property to
people who didn't pay for it. Consider this a wake
up call. |