VOCAL Neighbors

The short version of why landmarking is not good for West Town.

This is the "short" version of a longer post from Saturday (see below for details).

In essence, landmarking will not be a good thing for West Town on a district-wide basis because:

1) The bureaucrats inevitably lead to additional delay, hassle, and expense, driving the good developers elsewhere, and screwing over the Average Joe who is not politically connected;

2) Landmarking will slow, if not stop, any naturally occurring gentrification and growth in an area. This disincentivizes businesses from moving into the area; developers from getting rid of the housing stock that should be gotten rid of; and encourages cheap rentals/abandonment of homes, leading to added blight in the neighborhood. If a rising tide lifts all boats, landmarking suppresses the tide from ever coming in.

3) Landmarking fixes the property tax base at an artificially low level. At the same time, the people who are hardest hit by this -- and who will bear their disproportionate share of property tax burdens -- are those who own new construction. (Math is done exemplifying this in the Saturday post below).

4) City of Chicago district-based landmarking takes away one of the major economic incentives for preserving an older home at the federal level (charitable donation of a facade). (See archived posts on this blog for details), and is not required for you to participate in the one state program available to homeowners for historic preservation of their homes.

5) Homeowners insurance. Good luck getting the lowest rates on homeowners insurance if you are in a landmarked district. We've talked to insurance brokers. It won't happen. (Again, see archived post on this blog for details as to why).

Again, let me reiterate: there is NOTHING that prevents someone who is the owner of a vintage home from putting a deed restriction on the title to their property requiring the building to be preserved, or independently pursuing landmarking of their own home. In fact, you could even offer to buy an easement to someone's home restricting teardowns, or some such.

But for those who walk around West Town, keep in mind that the ostensible goal of landmarking is to freeze the facades as-is. Ask yourself -- is this the best we can do???

posted by The Grants @ 12:51 PM