Sharon Boyd is objecting to a move to create a conservation district in the Midway Hollow neighborhood of northwest Dallas. She acts as if it's self-evident that it is not OK to zone out two-story homes, but it is OK to zone out multi-family homes.
In both cases government is telling the property owner what she can and cannot build on her own property. Ms Boyd, like the backers of a conservation district, is willing to draw a line in the sand, but it's not in the same place. In other words, this is a dispute over implementation, not principle.
Moreover, Ms Boyd tries to downplay the need for a conservation district, arguing that the market for McMansions is slow right now anyway. She argues that the movement "is all much ado about nothing." She's probably right, But in the end, her own defense of property rights, full of sound and fury, doesn't amount to much more.
2 comments:
I think that what gets lost in these arguements is the fact that current retrictions, those that were set when the neighborhood was established, preclude multifamily housing already. Ms. Boyd would, at that point, be fighting to preserve the contract that everyone signed when they bought into that neighborhood. There is consistancy, in that she is doing the same by preserving the current owners right to do what they chose based on the originals rules.
Zoning laws and deed restrictions should be honored, at least until they no longer serve the needs of the neighborhood and then there should be a fair and equitable way to change them. In any case, you make a good point.
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