A Compelling Reason to Redo this Process from the Beginning

Shockingly, Spanish Revival is Overlooked as a Contributing Style because the City staff and Neighborhood Committee are unable to recognize its difference from Spanish Eclectic. The words “Spanish Revival” never came up in Neighborhood Meetings. After the meetings, someone realized their mistake and snuck it into the Ordinance by jamming it between Spanish and Eclectic, creating the Spanish Revival/Eclectic mashup category. For self-proclaimed preservationists, this is sloppy and one of the many reasons we need to restart the process from the beginning with an expert, impartial Inventory of our house styles.

If the Ordinance Passes You will Lose

You will lose time:

Routine home maintenance will require another level of approval on top of a building permit, delaying completion and adding to your costs. The Department of Planning and Urban Development’s average time for review?

Work Not Requiring a Building Permit Must Still Go Through Review with The Director of the Dept. of Planning and Urban Development.

You will lose $Money:

Appealing a Denial: Just filing paperwork will cost $600-1000 plus a tree-killing amount of paperwork. See what is required on the City’s Website. It’s mind-boggling.

  • Plus attorney’s fees
  • Plus the cost of construction delays

Fines. $2,000 per day per occurrence for unauthorized work.

Fines. $2,000 per mature tree removed or seriously damaged in front yard.

You Will Lose Use of the Equivalent of a Living Room

In the Development Standards, something never discussed was snuck into the Ordinance (see (4) Development Standards, (2) Driveways, curbing and parking). We never discussed or agreed to this in neighborhood meetings.

Any new front entry driveway must extend at least 20 feet beyond the front yard setback.

Couple this with A driveway from the front street must be between eight and 12 feet
wide and you could lost about living room (AI says a typical living room is 216 feet).

  • 20 x (8 feet of driveway) = loss of 160 square feet of building area
  • 20 x 12-foot-wide driveway = loss of 240 square feet of building area

You Will Lose Control of Your Property

The City will have complete discretion through the inclusion of regulations like this:

  • Window must be typical of the architectural style.
  • Doors must be typical of the architectural style.