oooh, new rules, fun!


http://qvna.org/QV-NCD.pdf
From: "Queen Village Neighbors Association" <webmaster@qvna.org>
Subject: Neighborhood Conservation District Comm. needs volunteers

Neighbors,
As you might recall, QVNA has been working with Councilman DiCicco over the last four years on
the "Neighborhood Conservation District" (NCD)--a set of design regulations that will help QVNA
fulfill its mission of preserving and protecting the historic nature of the community. The concept
of the NCD has been presented at several QVNA meetings (most recently in 2007) and the draft
regulations are available on the QVNA web site.
etc...

__________________
"Your monkey's dead" - Marilyn Burns as Faye

This is retarded. I'm glad I'm half a block out of these idiots field of fire. What are they conserving? What they think is appropriate and good taste? It's not like it's a historical district.

Some of this can't possibly be legal, can it? Burglar bars may not be sightly, but how can any government entity tell property owners they can't have them? A quasi-governmental body is going to tell a property owner they can't use stucco or vinyl? How can they require that all residential construction have a habitable room on the front of the first floor? Look, I don't like those big garage doors either. This goes beyond that, however. There are lovely homes, even in official historic districts, without habitable rooms on the first floor front. Sheesh.

Thank Frank. And the 20%+ of your neighbors who supported it.

http://www.phila.gov/CityCouncil/bil...ase.asp?id=316

Oh, and welcome to the Queen Village Condo Association...

Depends on how you view private property ownership.

Do you own the property and thus can do as you please or are you its steward temporarily holding it for the relatively short lifespan of a human.

I think the true "historical" view is that you own it and the gov't can't interfere other than for legitimate public welfare reasons (gov't "police powers"). Aesthetics wouldn't seem to be a valid exercise of those powers. Ironic.

Over the course of time, gov't intrusions into private property rights have evolved to the latter view stated above. In some sense, you are merely a steward of the property which will be here a lot longer than you will. Gov't regulation of those rights for the common good has become almost beyond question.

Think of the recent Kelo decision which allows the gov't to take your property, pay you for it, and give it to a private developer if the area in which it exists is deemed "blighted" by the gov't. Other than taking the property for a true public purpose, that would have been considered unthinkable not too long ago. Now it's the law of the land.

There isn't really such a thing as "owning" property in the historical sense anymore. So there you have it. To keep the historical character of the area, the gov't will trample your historical property rights.

__________________
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Neighborhood Groups.


Making Decisions or you.


And if you don't like them well it's your fault you didn't attend 7 meetings consecutively. or have a job or kids.

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It's too tall..! it ruins the feel of the city..! It casts massive shadows..! It's an architectural nightmare..! We should stand together and fight this monstrosity that threatens our homes..! ...but amazingly no one tore down the Eiffel Tower.

or.. why we shouldn't always listen to "neighborhood groups" and critics.

God!!! I hope so. While I may disagree with a lot of the provisions of the Conservation District rules, this is one that I would support 100%. Nothing looks worse than a cheap crappy stucco job slapped up over the front of a brick building (see the monstrosity condo at Passyunk and Christian). Nothing says cheap better than stucco or vinyl.

Now, that said, I really don't support some of the more restrictive requirements such as the way they are essentially banning garages. Although Doug Heffernan managed to make his garage habitable.

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If you can't serve as a good example, you'll just have to be a horrible warning.

There is nothing wrong with stucco and vinyl as a building material. New stucco products are actually very efficient and can be a great exterior product for a home. Your example is a really bad looking stucco building, but I have seen others done that look very nice. It's really in the design. I'm not a big fan of how vinyl looks either, but I could care less if someone else wants to us it on their house.

The big garage doors on the sidewalkscape are a much worse offense than any of those building materials. I wouldn't be snobby about stucco and vinyl, either, although I used to be an anti-vinyl snob. The problem all us aesthetes have is we're OK with someone banning something we find unappealing while appalled that they'd trample on an owner's right do make a design decision that meets our approval.

Regarding vinyl, I once assumed it was just tacky siding stuff. Little old clapboard houses on country farms -- real wood houses -- those were charming, but vinyl! Ugh! Well, once we were staying at a charming B&B in Maryland with a pre-Civil War era house. I was talking to the owner and in the course of the conversation, made a snotty remark about vinyl siding. Well, although he didn't say much to this paying guest, I really stuck my foot in it, since that very house had a vinyl covering.

It was charming and beautiful, and I wouldn't have known the difference if not for that conversation.

Well, no. To put a finer point on it, the gov't will tell you that you can't do that. The neighborhood association is getting the gov't to change the law so you can't do that.

I'm not saying I disagree with the idea, but it's an awful lot of gov't involvement which always makes me pause. Will this improve the neighborhood or stifle and stagnate it? No way to know in advance.

__________________
Support and respect our troops. Support and respect our police. In different ways they each do critical, difficult and dangerous jobs for relatively crappy pay. Think about that.

Freedom isn't free. Join the NRA. http://membership.nrahq.org/default....aignid=nranews