Editorials
Contemporary development seems to follow the same pattern.
PHASE ONE
Developers buy huge tracts of pristine land. They name the area after a species of plant or animal whose habitat will be obliterated, like Swamp Birch Estates or Pheasant’s Nest. No one seems to notice when the swamp birch, pheasant or other natural wonders disappear.
If the property is engulfed by protected wetlands; that’s not a problem. The developer sweetens the ward heeler’s war chest. Then they placate the State by converting a different, totally dry, piece of property into wetlands. The local baby kissers and State apparatchiks are pleased and allow the developers to drain the water into unnatural ponds. The developers proceed to give this type of development a pleasant but antithetical name, like Natural Lakes Estates.
After a development is given an incongruous, but appealing name, the developer puts together a prospectus. These fatuous, non-fact sheets typically laud the peace, convenience, and affordability of purchasing an overpriced home, in a remote area, that will soon become a disturbing urban nightmare.
People buy the houses and the developers make a lot of money.
~
PHASE TWO
The developers next step is to say, “all these people who moved in are creating a demand for neighborhood businesses.”
At the same time, they’ve got their fingers crossed behind their backs, hoping no one will notice that none of the new homeowners are taking to the streets demanding “neighborhood businesses”.
Their next step depends on whether the “neighborhood business” property is zoned properly. If the property is zoned for “neighborhood businesses”, they go straight to the planning board. If it’s not zoned for “neighborhood businesses”, they go to the zoning board.
Zoning boards are supposed to notify nearby neighbors if their property is in the vicinity of the “neighborhood businesses”. Notification depends on how thick the woodenheaded plutocrats who sit on the zoning board are.
If you are one of the unlucky ones whose idyllic lifestyle is about to be shattered by a twenty-four hour greasy smelling, drive-thru, voice-box blaring, lights in the window, delivery truck gate slamming, drunks shouting at four in the morning, out-of-town owned, chain store, donut shop, restaurant/bar, non-neighborhood friendly, “neighborhood business”, it’s your lucky day. You get invited to a zoning board meeting where your voice will be heard, but probably not listened to.
In the first place, you don’t know the rules that govern zoning board procedure. In the second place, it’s easier to find a pheasant in your development than it is to find a zoning board nabob to explain the rules to you.
Though your concerns make sense to you, and every other reasonable person on this planet, if they don’t fit within the parameters of zoning board dictates, you may as well be talking to a swamp birch. The zoning board won’t consider your argument, because they can’t. It doesn’t fit within their guidelines.
If the “neighborhood business” scheme passes muster with the zoning board, you may as well kiss your dreams of tranquility goodbye. It is extremely difficult for a municipal board to legally challenge a zoning board’s decision. Besides, the developer’s contribution to the party bosses coffers guaranties that the seat warmers on the municipality’s board won’t even try to challenge a zoning board’s decision.
If by some chance, your argument meets zoning board criteria and convinces municipal board members to challenge a developer’s scheme, you still face a ninety-nine and forty-four one hundredths percent chance of defeat. All the developer has to do is threaten to sue and your friendly, local politician will crouch in a corner, whining like a little puppy that’s been slapped on the snout.
The people who bought the houses now have to live with intrusive “neighborhood businesses” and the developers make even more money.
~
PHASE THREE
The development grows, “neighborhood businesses” move in, and the developers look for more ways to make money.
“Aha,” they say to themselves, “All these people who moved in are creating the demand for ‘supermarkets’ and ‘big-box stores’.”
As usual, the people who moved in haven’t demanded anything. But, the developers need to hide their lust for lucre behind some plausible, though apocryphal reason.
The developers repeat the processes described in PHASE TWO.
The homeowners bring their justifiable complaints about traffic, noise, and the negative impacts of the “supermarkets” and “big-box stores” on their formerly idyllic neighborhoods to the municipal boards.
By now, the municipal boards are getting tired of hearing the same people complaining over and over again about the same things. They begin to label the homeowner’s crybabies, complainers, NIMBYS, and any other demeaning, impertinent term they can think of.
And who can blame them. If it weren’t for the developers, they wouldn’t have the money to run for office. Without the increases in tax revenues coming in from new development, they wouldn’t be able to give their cronies jobs that pay more than the homeowners earn, with benefits that private sector employees will never earn. Without new sources of property tax income, they wouldn’t be able to vote themselves big, fat pay raises.
The adverse impact of increased development on the homeowners no longer matters to the jacklegs. They need ever increasing sources of booty to maintain power.
The people who bought the houses now have to live with intrusive “neighborhood businesses”, “supermarkets” and “big-box stores” and the developers make even more money.
~
The phases go on and on. In a few decades, the once pristine lands become a mish-mashed, residential, commercial, and industrial nightmare.
There’s no more room for development. The infrastructure becomes inadequate. Taxes keep going up. The fat-cat politicians are so deeply entrenched in power that it’s virtually impossible to remove them.
The homeowners get fed up and start looking for greener pastures.
Once quiet neighborhoods become vacant, crime-ridden urban hells.
~
By now, you’re asking, “What does all this have to do with the Pleasant Meadows rezone and the future of Walden Avenue?”
Everything.
The future land use map at the beginning of Lancaster’s Comprehensive Plan says it all.
The northern side of Walden Avenue, east of Central to Traceway is slated to remain residential. East of Traceway is set aside for regional commercial development. The area around Stone Hedge is designated as a high-density residential zone. To the east of that is another regional commercial development zone that extends past Stony Road. Past that, the entire length of Walden to Townline Road is set aside for industrial development.
The southern side of Walden Avenue, from Central To Townline is slated for industrial development.
The writing is on the wall. In the future, Walden Avenue, from Central Avenue to Townline Road will resemble Walden Avenue in Cheektowaga, from Union to Dick Road.
Yes, when you bought your homes in the developments off Walden, it looked like you were buying a home in a quiet, residential area. But it’s not going to stay that way for long. In the near future, you will be living amidst an urban nightmare. A landscape teaming stores, restaurants, bars, warehouses and factories. The roads will be congested with noisy, non-stop traffic. Gasoline, diesel fumes, and industrial pollution will poison the air.
While your arguments against the rezone make supreme sense, they don’t meet the legal criteria necessary to stop it.
My sympathies are with you. For over fifty years, residents like myself have watched in stunned disbelief as developers and politicians raped what was once a quiet and livable community.
To them, it’s progress.
To me, it’s a disgrace.
~
© Copyright 2008 by Speakupwny.com
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