Mike Hutchinson: Protect existing neighborhoods!

Mike Hutchinson opposed incumbent Mike Moran in the Republican Primary in August. Hutchinson is strongly in favor of protecting Rural Heritage lands like Old Miakka, a 170-year-old community whose way of life and zoning could be severely compromised by proposals for new, more intense rezonings. This is his statement on the Old Miakka Comprehensive Plan Amendment. It contains a video.

------

Dear Commissioners,

A number of you have expressed concern about property rights being taken away from developers by CPA-2019-C. If you look at the law, I think that concern is misplaced. The developers bought the property zoned as 5, 10, 160 acres. They got to treat it as agriculture land for years to save on taxes. They planned to make a profit and they will if they develop the property as 5, 10, 160 acres. There are a number of developments on Fruitville that have been done that way. Bern Creek and Oak Ford are two examples. At the end of the Commission meeting, where Lakepark Estates was approved as a hamlet, I said to the owner I guess you needed the increased density to make a profit. He said no, he could have made a profit with the lower density!

In the Observer on Sept. 3, 2020 "I'm not anti-property owner,” Detert said. "But to me, you've got what you bought." Property owners of large parcels cannot expect to get the County to change the rules, after the fact, to allow them to make a bigger profit.

The real taking of property rights is the impact on existing homeowners of rezoning to put urban sprawl into a rural area. A good example is the homeowners on the eastern side of Bern Creek. They bought their property with the zoning of the neighboring property being 5 and 10 acres. They could expect that someday that property would be developed and they would have a neighborhood similar to theirs (5 and 10 acres) behind them. They were more than surprised years later when the County reneged on the promise that the land next door would be rural and instead it was approved as a hamlet called Lakepark Estates.

The link below is a video that starts with scenes of Bern Creek, a 5 and 10 acre development. In the second section you see scenes showing what a hamlet will look like with homes on small lots all lined up next to each other.

https://berncreek.net/CountryVideo.html

When the Lakepark Estates hamlet is built the view behind the eastern homes in Bern Creek properties will be drastically changed. With the view damaged do you think these home will sell for what they should sell for? This is a real taking of property.

This is exactly what zoning was designed to prevent. Keep the current zoning by passing CPA-2019-C and protect existing neighborhoods!

Sincerely,

Mike Hutchinson

See also: Irreplaceable impact of Old Miakka lifestyle by Carrie Seidman in the Herald Tribune.