HomeMy WebLinkAboutA025 - Letter dated October 6, 1989 from Nancy Stix ArOGWACt Table. 10 -/0 -89
228 South Kellogg Avenue
Ames , Iowa 50010
October 6, 1989
City Council Member
City Hall
Ames , Iowa 50010
Dear Council Member:
Iam writing to urge you to vote against creating an ordinance
for a historic preservation district in the Old Town Area.
A historic preservation district is an overlay, which does not
change the designated zoning, but puts additional requirements
on the structures in the zone. There is no time period in
which the overlay will be reviewed, not even when land use
policy plans are updated; except to acknowledge that the over-
lay exist, and thus the zoning must remain as is or downzoned,
if anything, inorder to conform with the end result of the
overlay. In essence an overlay takes precedence over any
changes that might be desired in land use by the Ames City
Planning and Housing Department, the Planning and Zoning
Commission, the Ames City Council or the Story County Board
of Supervisors , and I believe the city or the county would
have a good chance of loosing any rezoning court case , which
involved zoning inconsistent with the requirements of the
overlay. This overlay has a permanency that the city has not
dealt with before.
How land is zoned is a concern of the whole community, and not
just those who live or own property in a particular area.
r'or instance if apartments , medical facilities , and businesses
are not allowed in one area they may well go to another area.
It would seem prudient to place them in the area closest to
those they serve or where land values are highest for that
particular use. In this way another area will not be appro-
priated as a second best choice for such land usages , which
would make it incompatible with its own best land usage . And
it creates a coordinated usage of land and thus makes life
less of a hassle.
The proposed overlay; namely,the Old Town Historic District
is located by the Central Business District and the Hospital-
Medical District. Eventually, if the appropriate locations
were designated commercial -or hospital-medical on the Land
Use Policy Plan those areas would have a high land value for
such usages.
I
The proposed overlay precludes the ability of future City
Councils from changing the area's zoning. For this reason,
and because new duplexes and apartments would be excluded
from this downtown area, and because the overlay would
result in potential development being severely curtailed
in contiguous areas , I urge you to vote against, or by
other means deny approval of the Ordinance creating a historic
preservation district.
Yours truly,
Nancy Stix
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