Design standards protect homeowner investments

Design standards protect homeowner investments

By Michael Coulter Ralph, I’ve always said during the decades of being in this business of reporting the news that anytime the politicians we elect get together, as in the case of this current legislative session in Little Rock, we’ll find out about all sorts of sneaky surprises from imposing taxes on purchases we make from out-of-state vendors to outlandish more government control over our daily lives.

For instance, here we have this senator, who by trade just happens to be a land developer, wants to prohibit cities such as West Memphis or Marion from imposing certain rules and regulations pertaining to design standards.

This senator/developer by the name of Bart Hester, a Republican from Cave Springs, claims local governments setting home design standards is unfairly driving up home prices, particularly in the burgeoning Northwest Arkansas area.

From what I understand Ralph, Hester wants fellow lawmakers to agree to curtail the ability of cities and counties to regulate elements of so-called building design — defined as everything from the color of a home and the pitch of the roof to the style of windows — which Hester says is driving up the costs for potential homeowners.

As I said Ralph, when these politicians get together you can bet that they will come up with ways to shove their sometimes personal agenda down our throats.

This real estate developer cited an example of proposed rules that began to appear last fall in Springdale and Fayetteville. He says in October, a draft of new standards that would have banned vinyl siding on single-family homes in a particular development drew a packed house to a meeting of the Springdale Planning commission, which ultimately ditched the rule. That same month, Hester said, planners in Fayetteville tabled discussion on a proposed rule to limit the size of garages in certain areas.

He’s trying to convince his fellow lawmakers that such thing like siding, roof design and the size of a garage should e let up to a homeowner based on what they can afford.

Well Ralph, I wholeheartedly disagree with such rationalization and here is why. Home values in upper scale subdivisions would drastically drop if there weren't specific building standards.

If a particular home buyer can’t afford to live in such a upper scale housing development then he or she should consider neighborhood developments that don’t have specific standards.

Ralph a homeowner who can afford a 4,000-square-foot brick home with a three car garage located on a required half-acre lot doesn’t want to invest in a neighborhood that permits the building of 1,500 square-foot, two bedroom homes with carports and vinyl siding.

You know as well as I Ralph that every progressive city has scaled neighborhoods specifically designed for different income levels. Let’s take Germantown as a prime example. Can you imagine if there were no specific building codes in place what the upper scale neighborhoods in Germantown would look like?

I would be appalled to think our elected politicians we send to Little Rock would consider such a bill that would prohibit cities and counties from regulating “ residential building design elements” defined as exterior building color; type or style of exterior cladding material; style or materials of roof structures and roof pitches; exterior nonstructural architectural ornamentation; location, design, placement, or architectural styling of windows and doors, including garage doors and garage structures; the number and types of rooms; the interior layout of rooms; and the minimum square footage of a structure.

I have to commend our very own Sen. Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, who spoke up on the issue and said, “Fundamentally, what this is about is taking home rule away from city government,” and he is absolutely right.

Oh, I could go on and on with this one Ralph, but I am turning it over to you for comment.