Please stop selling out our once beautiful downtown — giving up old architecture, charm and character to dollars. The horrendously ugly and mundane hotel now being built across from the Fine Arts Theater on Builtmore Avenue is a perfect example. It looks like a prison to some of us — how could you allow this? Where is respect and appreciation for history, style and integrity?
One BB&T building in town is enough, isn't it? Let's not even mention the industrial-style monstrosity recently placed near City/County Plaza for administration of the park there. Who is approving these designs? Leave St. Lawrence alone! You are clearly not equipped to make wise decisions in these matters.
— Susan Paul
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“You are clearly not equipped to make wise decisions in these matters.”
City council have been very wise to avoid arbitrary and capricious interference in the rights of property owners. The city cannot deny a property owner the right to develop just because they don’t like it. That would be illegal and the state would have to step in to correct the abuse. The city sets rules for development and if the developer meets these requirements, he does not need their permission to use his property as he sees fit. They CAN, however, extort and bully them (as in the recent case of Super Walmart, which simply moved to Buncombe). That was improper and unwise; now that the city is hard up for revenues to pay law enforcement (oops).
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Kinda missing the point here Tim(1) – the letter writer is hoping to stop the Basilica development project. In this case, the City is the property owner, and so they would not simply step out of the way and let it be developed, they have to choose to sell it to a developer. Same thing pretty much with the park building, and the 51 Biltmore project – the City (or rather, us) is actually a partner in financing it.
The ‘private property rights are sacred’ argument gets a little murky when the ‘property’ in question belongs to the public.
What do you mean “only one BB&T building”? Don’t you know about the 305-foot tall Ellington that was approved for Biltmore Avenue in 2007 and still has an active permit? Don’t be too surprised if work starts on that ill-conceived monster. It would make 51 Biltmore look tiny.