City Council Minutes 1984 03 07 - Laserfiche WebLink

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3/7/84 Page -3- in the community are selling houses for th~~ singular purpose of purchasing one from his firm. One family, now under contract to purchase one of their homes, has sold their house. In three weeks that house closes and they have a rental agreement for 90 days which would allow them to build a new house. If they were unable to do that, he wasn't certain what the buyer's situation would be - a :family of four, with two kids in diapers. He couldn't believe that the hardship im- po~sed upon them will be outweighed by some benefit to the community, of having one less house. Also the house that they are going to be purchasing, or that they will build, is on a previously platted lot; and felt this made little social economic sense to the City. The City still must maintain the water and sewer line in front of that lot; plow the snow; repair the streets; and police wh<st is an unattractive nuisance. All the while the City collects no water fees, no sewer fe~as, and just a pittance in property taxes. An enclave lot is definitely a bad economic situation for the City. His company has avE=_rage3a little less than 1 housing start pear month for over 4 years. In the past 12 months, they have started 17 units. Every unit was sold before starting; every unit wars customized to the buyer's taste. Every unit is priced between $100,000 and $150,000. Thais is step-up housing. He felt that them wars a shortage of this type housing in this community. Stated his company has made an asserted effort to employ local people. A1:1 carpenters live in the City. Their con- crete people are long time residents of Louisville. Lumber purchases and other pro- duct purchases support local businesses to an extimated 2 million dollars over the last 12 months. In time these businesses can find new customers and people can find new jobs. He also had an opportunity to retire the debt that he had on the property. In this sense time will buy the groceries and pay the mort- gages; whereas some sort of an abrupt, spon- taneous move on Council's. part would not give them the flexibility to adjust. He would suggest, in Council's deliberations, that the following items be addressed prior to any hasty action.