Dallas Neighborhoods: University Terrace Now a Neighborhood Stabilization Overlay
Passed today, and from what I hear, the battle has not been pretty. Gotta confess here — I hate Neighborhood Nazi Nimwits. We had our own issues in Hillcrest Estates a few years back, when a handful of neighbors who had been here in their ranch homes since the dawn of eternity decided they wanted to control what new people coming in were building. One of them filed an encumbrance on our properties limiting window views — this in a ‘hood with minimum one acre lots. Never mind that most of them had deed restriction violations on their own properties — that was OK because they had been here so long. But none of us coming in could deviate and in fact, they wanted us to abide by stricter controls. That experience and the ego rush I felt coming from folks who were not paying my mortgage or taxes just fried me. So I do apologize, I’m a little jaded.
The problem I have with bulldog HOA’s and NSO’s is how they pit neighbor against neighbor — to wit, this from University Terrace’s NSO Yes! blog:
“you know what tubby. I actually have a life. I have a family. I have better things to do than to bully people into decisions and impose on other peoples rights. But if you feel so good about it that you have to celebrate, then have a great time. It really shows to all the people that did not vote or voted no just how low class, and trashy you are.”
Please read the blog entirely and tell me if you are not instantly transported back to eighth grade. But that’s why city councils shouldn’t let these overlays happen — let the city make the rules, enforce them, anyone else can battle it out in court where the prohibitive costs might make people act like adults for about five whole minutes.
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The problem that we had in opposition was that despite their claims of transparency and working with the neighborhood, most of the people pushing it didn’t honestly and openly communicate the true nature of what the overlay would entail.
Most residents we spoke with thought it was about preventing 3 story homes or “McMansions,” not realizing that existing zoning would prevent these over-sized homes.
Then at a final neighborhood meeting, it became clear that not only didn’t they understand the “Height-plane” rule, even the city couldn’t explain it with clarity. That is why these things are so problematic.
Additionally, they were so h*ll-bent on passing “their” language that they would not even agree to a compromise. Instead of working with the neighborhood to come together, they turned their back to the residents who they supposedly were trying to protect.
Just goes to show that this is not about helping preserve a neighborhood’s character, as it is about getting their way.
I will agree that there are serious flaws in the NSO/CD process.
The process as is presently designed almost seems to require conflict
How can we promote helpful conversations about creating and maintaining strong and healthy neighborhoods that are tightknit and like extended families?
After all we only sleep in our houses. We live in our neighborhoods.
Neighborhood Nazi Nimwits. I love that term and that’s exactly the what I would call these people. Unfortunately politics is a nasty business. I purchased my home in University Terrace because I loved the feel of the neighborhood. The people that I call my neighbors now sit in groups – US & THEM. Hurling insults and acting like 13 year olds. This neighborhood I wanted to live in so much is now just a group of old bitties who meddle in everyone else’s business and apparently think they know what’s best for everything.
This neighborhood will never heal and it will never be worth more than it was the day before this NSO legislation was passed. Too bad the shortsightedness of some will cost others their livelihood and their biggest investment.
Disgusted,
I’m obviously not a resident of UT.
As I said earlier I think the current NSO/CD process is flawed. But so is the way that most of our neighborhoods are currently zoned.
You picked UT becuase you “loved the feel of the neighborhood.”
We need a process that will allow the “feel” of our neghborhoods to be preserved over the next 10-100 years and beyond.
Any suggestions for such a process?
After all we only sleep in our houses. We live in our neighborhoods.
Jack’s comments are as misleading in defeat as they were when he thought he had a chance of swaying the neighborhood with his minority opinion.
1. The overlay specifies a 20 ft height plane and a cumulative 14 ft side yard setback, with a minimum of 5 ft on one side. That’s it. If you watch the City’s NSO power point presentation on height plane and take a few minutes to read the ordinance governing NSO’s, it’s really a no-brainer.
2. There’s no misunderstanding here; most of the folks who voted for the NSO were trying to prevent McMansions from springing up next door. Plain and simple. The issue that Jack and the rest of the No-NSOer’s won’t admit to is that most of the McMansions they’re building these days are 3 storey in fact, but only 2 storey by Dallas Central Appraisal District records. They all have monstrous “finished attics” that are billed as media rooms, but don’t count as an additional storey. So the deed restrictions for University Terrace wouldn’t have kept any of those 4,000+ sq ft homes out of our neighborhood.
3. At the final meeting those who wanted to came to understand the height slope, because it was presented and explained again, just like it was at every other neighborhood meeting. But the old saying was never truer; you can lead a horse to water… The height compromise proposed by the No-NSOer’s was a 26 ft height plane. That would have made University Terrace’s NSO the most liberal NSO in Dallas. The average height slope in NSO’s that call for height restriction is 22.83 ft. 26 ft is pretty much like not having an NSO at all.
4. Nobody turned their back on anybody. Some 75% of the residents of University Terrace ended up voting for the NSO. There was a whopping 76% turnout in our neighborhood for this vote, making this possibly an historic vote in the city of Dallas as far as participation.
You know, except for me doing a little after-victory crowing in the blog over at utnsoyes.blogspot.com, which was probably ill advised but clearly too late for me to take back now, this NSO was run by the numbers. Look at every blog piece and every piece of literature mailed and hand delivered by the NSO committee and judge the whole body of work.
Then, for a sharp contrast, go read the opposition’s blog: http://noutnso.blogspot.com/
Foul language, bullying, threatening are the order of the day over there. We have put up with a lot from them, but we focused on getting out the vote. Even the excerpt you posted in your blog here today was from a No-NSOer, and my response to it, “I know you are but what am I?” was meant to conjure up that very feeling you mentioned; of being in Jr. High again. Because responding to most of their arguments this last 4 or 5 months has felt much like that.
The NSO is a fact now. And like Angela Hunt said at City Council yesterday; every neighborhood across the city that has an NSO has experienced increased property values. That’s a fact that I’m ready to start enjoying, along with the stability of knowing what can and, most importantly, can’t be built next door.
First of all, I am a long time resident of UT but did not want to take part in this because I did not believe it was a fair process for either the pro side OR the no side. And now after seeing how this has torn our neighborhood apart I am certainly glad it didn’t. I want to be able to walk down by street and mow my yard. I did however attend yesterdays council meeting. If I had to vote today though…it would be a yes vote. But I did find some things rather disturbing.
Angela Hunt was using numbers she collected from 2007-2009. That is 1.5 years. I don’t think that is quite enough time to fully realize how this will affect a neighborhood. 2007 home prices were at their highest. Then this bad economy hit. We’re gonna have to see what happens when it rebounds. We’re gonna need a good 5-10 years of data to see the affect.
The actual numbers as stated by Sheffie were 67%. That 75% came from the condos near the tracks that should not have been included.
Our own mayor mentioned that this is a flawed process and needs to be put on hold until a better one is found, and yet they proceeded to pass this one.
Mr. Riley, I read your blog and find the whole thing rather disturbing. A neighborhood should not be torn apart like this, and you are leading the way by continuing to egg people on to respond to you. I find all the comments in their vile but if you truely care about your neighborhood and neighbors, then you should do away with it. The NSO is approved and done with.
Loves Living in LFH:
I don’t know that there is a right way to approach this dilemma. No matter what happens someone is happy and someone is not. Most of the time, a home purchase is the biggest investment that people make. To take the rights away from people after you have purchased your home seems underhanded and unfair.
My mother always said that life is not fair. I am truly aware of that fact after this situation. Unfortunately there were a good percentage of people who didn’t take part because they felt they would be “blacklisted” for choosing a side.
I hope that I am able to maintain the value of my property, I hope that the people who made this happen did not make a huge mistake and ultimately destroy the property values and the marketability of our houses.
NSOs should be saved for preservation neighborhoods like Swiss Avenue and not 50’s track homes. I am deeply saddened by the rift it has caused my dearly loved neighborhood. I guess we’ll all have to wait and see what happens.
Mr. Riley,
I voted yes and am absolutely thrilled this passed. With that said, I just read your blog and feel you are making the majority side look like a bunch of sore winners. This may be your blog but it is representing the pro NSO group and making us look very bad. I would suggest you take the previous advice and do away with it. I don’t see how that blog could help anyone down the road. All it will show them is how this process can pit neighbor against neighbor. I love my neighbors and want to continue to do so. You are going to make that very difficult if you continue down this path. I am certainly glad that not many of our voting neighbors saw your blog site. I don’t think that would have helped our cause at all and in fact I think it would have hurt it.
I am also deeply saddened by the rift it caused to my dearly loved neighborhood too. Please, no more high school drama and don’t ‘blacklist’ your neighbors for choosing or not choosing a side for UT’s NSO. The NSO has been passed, so let us move on – remember, all we need is 51% vote to make any changes … it’s written on our deed.
I live on the same street as that god aweful unkept house on bucknell. The one with the wooden garage doors on it. That house is here to stay now. Soon it will be a crack house. Nobody is gonna want to come in and remodel that, now that we have all these restrictions in place. Mr. Coplins statement on the NSO blog is pretty accurate. We have been robbed, they are criminals.
Sad Resident,
Please be aware that to change a deed that it is “majority of tract owners”. Not majority of voters. We did not change the deed, we simply put an overlay on top of it.
My Goodness !!! I’ve read some of blogs through the links that were provided. I have to say that some of the ‘choice’ words that were used by one of the NSO-ers were really distasteful. You know who you are and you really need to wash your mouth with soap and rinse it with holy water. And to think that you live amoung us … I will pray for you.
Disturbed & Sad Resident of UT
I’m impressed with such a great number of responses to this issue now that it has passed.
As far as Mr. Riley is concerned, I stand by my views. Sure, I admit I was childish in my responses towards him, that is my fault. I fell into his little verbal traps. I’m gullible in that respect. But I have a feeling that is what gets him off. So he succeeded in that. Congrats Steve.
Just like the pro side was looking out for their interest, I too was looking out for mine. My wife and I have been wanting to continue the remolding we have done to our house by adding on a second storey to it. That is not possible now. We would have to add on to the back of ours first and that would take away our kids large backyard where we have cookouts, jump on the trampoline, play on the playground, and play basketball on the driveway. Like I said before, I feel I have been robbed of my property rights I bought into when my wife and I bought our house back in 1999. To me that is criminal. That is my opinion.
I really do hope, I truely do that this will not hurt our neighborhood. I just really did not want to risk that. It will be several years before we know the true impact of this. I believe, and I may be wrong, that we are the first non historical or conservation disctrict type housing to enable a NSO. We are 1950s tract homes. So this should turn out to be a good test for the city. I just don’t like being the ginney pig for it.
I too hope that neighbors can stay friendly with eachother. But it may take awile. For goodness sakes, my nextdoor neighbor, one of the original petitioners who my family and I have been close friends with for almost 11 years now, stopped talking to us after our NO NSO sign went up in our yard. And that was after she verbally attacked my wife and called her father a “thief” for being an architiect (who by the way designed HEB grocery stores) and her grandfather a “thief” for being a builder (who built churches). So now my kids do not visit with her in the front yard, my kids don’t go on dog walks with her anymore. But I guess to some that is a sacrafice they are willing to make to get what they want.
That is sad. This whole process has been sad.
Sad Resident,
What’s next? You gonna impose a religous overlay on us.
MCOPLIN,
As I said earlier I am obviously not a resident of UT. And I see flaws in in the NSO/CD process. I am a survivor on the losing end of the CD process in LFH.
How can we promote helpful conversations about creating and maintaining strong and healthy neighborhoods that are tightknit and like extended families?
After all we only sleep in our houses. We live in our neighborhoods.
Loves living in LFH,
I hate to say this, but I don’t think that is possible in these days. It is sad to think that there are people who will force their ways on others and damn anyone who gets in their way. I know there will be people who will say nobody was dammed and I really don’t want to get into it on here, but I would gladly talk to you privately about what flaws the opposition saw as well as what the city hall has seen, expecially councilman Kadaane.
I wonder what’s going to happen to future sales in the neighborhood when the seller discloses the NSO to the buyer? Will a new buyer read the language and walk because they know they will not be able to build an attractive 2 story home? More than likely it would even be less than a 1 1/2 story home. (and yes, the word is spelled “story”) These ordinances aren’t filed in the public deed records and aren’t a part of your real estate closing, however a buyer has a right to know what restrictions are placed on a property that they are purchasing.
Or even more important, what happens when a seller fails to properly to disclose the city ordinance to the buyer of a property? What if the buyer intends to build or remodel down the road and shows up at city hall for their building permit only to find out that the seller didn’t disclose the new ordinance that is so restrictive? I think that non-disclosure is called fraud and there will be more hard feelings between neighbors, but possibly at that time, even a lawsuit.
As someone who has to vote on these NSOs at City Hall, although I didn’t vote on the UT NSO (it was my one meeting per year I had to miss), I can tell you that I HATE what this does to neighborhoods. I have heard story after story and witnessed the hostility between the pro & con sides when they come to City Hall.
I have been called every name in the book by one pro-NSO group for voting against their wishes. Such is life.
Mr Kadane is right, and I hope this process is revisited in the very near future.
UT is a great neighborhood. You have Stonewall ES and great retail options going for you. I hope you all can mend fences with each other at some point.
I voted the NSO and have one really big question. Since the city was well aware of how flawed the NSO process is, why wasn’t a moratorium imposed until the process could be reformed?
Why did my neighborhood go through this destructive, devisive process while movement is in the works to reform it? University Terrace is stuck with this NSO. Maybe the next neighborhood will benefit from a more equitable process, but we are stuck.
Mr. Davis – If you truly HATE what the NSO does to neighborhoods, then spearhead the effort to rid the city of this terribly divisive piece of city legislation. Stand up for the neighborhoods of Dallas before this happens again. Stand up to Neil Emmons on the Plan Commission and stand up to Angela Hunt before this ruins another neighborhood. It’s too late for University Terrace. Our neighborhood is irreparably damaged. But it’s within your power to start the process and gather the support to get rid of this ordinance before it happens again
Congratulations on your NSO. I grew up on Clemson and think this a neighborhood worth saving. I am working on the NSO for Old Lake Highlands now and know just how difficult it is to pass these. Your houses will grow in value because there will always be people who will seek out these neighborhoods because they want to live there, not with the McMansion people.
Everyone who lives in a home of a larger scale should be offended at the statement by Patty McGrath – “McMansion People” She might as well be saying “We don’t want your kind here” and that is offensive.
Patty McGrath,
Good job on already showing people what kind of a person you are and what you represent. You are already showing you want to descriminate against people because of their financial status. I will make sure and foward this to Sara Dement, president of Old Lake Highland neighborhood assoc. and will make sure that others in your neighborhood see it as well.
I know I shouldn’t be, but I’m always surprised at how boldly people talk and sling accusations from comfortable anonymity.
When you people have harsh things to say, why don’t you reach down and find the courage to sign your name to it?
Especially when you threaten to contact others to trash talk about someone. I mean, really, are you all afraid of your neighbors knowing who you are, of knowing what you think?
Or is simply that you don’t have the courage to own what you say?
Perhaps it’s because it’s hurtful enough to be cyber-bullied, but no one wants to be bullied by you in person.
there he is. Mr. Riley who has to get his two cents into everything. It’s not trash talking, she clearly has a problem with a certain tpye of person.
To clarify the percentages, “UT Resident who did not vote” got it backwards.
It was 75% yes/25% no from OWNERS in the NSO area.
Adding in the surrounding area (NSO + 200 foot area) it went to 67%. That’s with the 50 condo owners voting no.
If “UT Resident who did not vote” doesn’t think the condo owners should get a vote, then 75% approval is the number to quote.
UniversalMaster: Luke 23:34 echoed thru my head, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
mcoplin: Galatians 5:14: “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
At the City Council the pro NSO attempted to use the 75%/25% figure. They were corrected. It is officially 67%/33%. That’s what counts. Sheffie Kadane would have voted against the NSO had it been 64%/36%, which he made clear in a neighborhood meeting.
Thanks, “Neighborhood Nazi Ninwits.” Is a dress code next?
I quote “UT Resident who did not vote” –
“Mr. Riley, I read your blog and find the whole thing rather disturbing. A neighborhood should not be torn apart like this, and you are leading the way by continuing to egg people on to respond to you. I find all the comments in their vile but if you truely care about your neighborhood and neighbors, then you should do away with it. The NSO is approved and done with.”
I think rabble rousing is what gets Riley out of bed in the morning. I’ve watched the blogs and he consistently insults and “eggs on.” He has made many enemies and seems to feel it a fair price to pay to play the gadfly. Oh, the joys of self righteousness!
I am sad that there is still strife, but please people let it go. Its over and nothing you can do or say can change it.
Mr. Riley -Do us all a favor and please just keep your nasty opinions and snide comments to yourself. You are not showing up in a positive light no matter how hard you try.
I have been following the stream of comments on this page the past two days and have the following comment to make: If you are upset with the process and execution of neighborhood stabilization overlays, please invest your time in the process of amending how they are done in the application phase, the publicity phase and the implementation phase. Place consistent and appropriate pressure on your city council representative, the mayor, the city manager’s office, and the office of the Department of Development Services. Be a polite, but consistent force to be reckoned with until they become so tired of hearing from you that they will give this issue more than lip service. If the only time they hear from you is when it is your neighborhood facing the process, they may well be tempted to relegate your complaints to a corner of their mind that keeps repeating the mantra: “We really need to fix this process before the next one of these comes along”. Do this for yourself and for the interests of this city.
Kudos to Chuck DeShazo !!! I wish he wrote earlier and what he wrote makes sense. If you are unhappy with the NSO, spend some time and go through that process instead of sitting behind your computers ranting & complaining on blogs. All these stream of comments are beginning to look like some soon to be forgotten comedy movie and nothing will be changed.
KT,
That’s actually a good idea. This WOULD make a great reality show. If people will watch a show for 5 years about a chic with a bad haircut who verbally abuses her husband while their 8 kids run around, for sure people would eat this up. LOL I’m in the wrong buisiness…..DARN!!!! LOL
Re statistics (and I’ll stop after this). The original quote on 75/25 vs 67/33 implied that a bunch of non-NSO votes in the surrounding area puffed up the “pro” stats. That’s not the case. The stats were dragged down by a bunch of “anti” votes from non-NSO folks.
I agree that what I heard was that the NSO + surrounding stats are the “official” ones. Just that the numbers were being spun counter to the facts.
mcoplin well, what’s stopping you then? That chick with a bad haircut who verbally abuses her husband & 8 kids run around are making lots of $$$$$$$$ and laughing all the way to the bank. Plus they probably now live can afford a big house in a non-NSO area – go for it then !!!
mcoplin – I am a long time resident on YOUR street and I do know your neighbor. I am truly disappointed with what you’ve said about your neighbor – she’s the REAL victim here. You are the BULLY here and the one who truly loves EGGING everyone who lives in UT. Your neighbor DID NOT stopped talking to you & your family after your NO NSO sign went up in your yard. She DID NOT verbally attacked your wife and called her father & her grandfather names. Your kids CAN still visit her in the front yard and CAN go on dog walks with her. Because of YOU, she now have to mow her yard when you are NOT around, she NEVER comes out and enjoy her yard in the evenings any more, and she can NEVER have anyone drop by. WHY? You love to give away
‘how-dare-you-talk-to-her’ stare to anyone who stopped by HER house, in front of HER yard, and minding HER own business. HOW DO I KNOW? Because I have seen and received it myself – you have give me quite a few of those stares. On yes, we all figured out why you have been signing off the word RICE on some of the NSO blogs – yes, Steve Riley’s wife is Asian and I know her too. Just because she supports the NSO does not give you the right to be a racist and call her RICE. Remember, when you have RICE for a meal next time, just pray you will not be chocked by RICE.
Do you want to know why most us avoid you? Well, to refresh your memory, here is the link to some of your short vides that you have created and posted on YouTube. Here is the link (copy & paste) http://www.youtube.com/user/masoncop. Do a search for these 2 self titled videos – just type in the word “Lego” or “Female”. The whole title is too degrading to be published here. And you even dare to use God’s name in vain … shame on YOU !!!
You call me old or loony or cranky or whatever other names you can come up with for me, at least I can sleep at night with a clear conscious.
you were not in my yard when she yelled at my wife and called her father and grandfather thieves, and told my wife she knows nothing about real estate (even though she’s been in it for 20 years now) . you people pass a nso and you are suddenly gods, who think you can just bully people. Well I was bullied into losing my property rights and your damn right I take that personally. Amazing, the city agrees this was a bad process and went with it anyway. I hope your happy with what this has done.
sorry.. lost internet connection before I could finish. And your precious little riley has felt it ok to insult my wife plenty of times. And you say I egg him on? did you not see his little hee.ho ho page link? And one of the leaders of the NSO at the last meeting felt it ok to get in a young ladies face while shes holding her baby and scream and yell at her and make her cry?. I tell you what, the author of this blog is right. You ARE all a bunch of neighborhood nazis.
Well, first I’m tubby, then I’m “precious little”. Mason, make up your mind, willya?
I’ve known about your tea***ing video for a long time, and found it disturbing that someone would spend hours making a stop action video on such a subject using children’s toys. But I figured it had no place in the NSO discussion, so never talked about it in the back and forth of the blogs.
But now that it’s out there, and in light of the Body of Work you’ve put out there for all to see, does it ever occur to you that it just might be YOU, with what by reasonable standards could be considered odd behaviors, and not The Rest Of The World that’s seeing things a bit askew?
Think about it.
Do me a favor and post links to the places where I’ve insulted your wife. Please. Because these supposed insults only exist in your mind, not in fact.
I’ve been arguing with you for months here online and I always end up feeling the same way, that as soon as one point is settled, you just recycle your argument and come at it from a different perspective. To illustrate; on April 19th, your wife posted, “Just for your information – my home can’t support the cost effective vertical growth. The foundation is not strong enough even with reinforcement to hold a second story. And I can’t go back without taking up my lawn because the developer put my garage in back”, and later in the same thread, “I had a structural engineer look at it [your homes' foundation] and they said it could be reinforced but that I would have foundation problems until it fell down. Poor concrete around the base..”
http://utnsoyes.blogspot.com/2009/04/fact-2.html#comments
But your main complaint about how the NSO affects you here in this thread is, and I quote from your comment above; “My wife and I have been wanting to continue the remolding we have done to our house by adding on a second storey to it. That is not possible now”,
Too, your wife stood up at the final neighborhood meeting and told all of our neighbors how the NSO was going to limit your ability to add a second storey, when in fact, by her own earlier admission, the NSO has nothing to do with that. It’s due to issues with your foundation.
Isn’t it?
And that’s my point, Mason. This is just one example of the many misrepresentations you’ve made these last several months. All in an effort to defeat proposed rezoning supported by a vast majority of your neighbors.
Finally, try knocking on your neighbor’s door and making peace with her, instead of driving the wedge deeper and deeper with your online diatribes.
Going back to what I said earlier, if you are feeling ostracized and cast out in the neighborhood, perhaps it’s due to your behavior.
Riley, you misspelled “storey.”
mcoplin, if we are talking about SAME last NSO meeting at the rec center with Shefie Kadane, the only everypone heard crying is a small baby unless you were at the wrong meeing. And NO, I do not suffer from auditory hallucination or am schizophrenic or manic depressive or psychosis.
UT Resident, storey or story, the NSO has been passes.
All NO NSO folks, where and when is the next meeting for us? What is OUR next move ???
So now the neighborhood nazis are going to direct people as to what is funny and what is not. here is a link to another funny video about “teabagging”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMwrPT7pCi8&feature=fvsr
And as a matter of fact, I did talk with my neighbor this morning.
Your whole campaign was about misrepresentations to people who did not originally sign the petition. Now your gonna say “show me proof of that”…..right. Well being that still a large number of people didn’t vote one way or another is proof enough. That’s why in the deeds it takes majority of tract owners to change anything.
So now you can go get all excited about getting another reaction out of me but I can promise you its the last. Like I said before I have a life, with kids, and friends, better things to do than to pit neighbor against neighbor. Have a good life.
Your friend,
mason
Dear UT Resident Too.
I guess I can count you as one more person who is not being kind to my family. I’ve noticed you’ve stopped waving when I see you. I also know what my next door neighbor called my father and grandfather and it was vile and completely uncalled for.
I have chosen to stay out of the comments until now as it makes me physically ill to read such nasty things. I wish that everyone above would just please refrain from any more comments on this site. From any more nasty name calling. Don’t come back to this site and read more comments. It doesn’t do anyone in our neighborhood any good. We must heal this rift as we are stuck with each other. I would much rather live in peace than war.
Hey Voted for NO NSO,
What does this mean? –
“UT Resident, storey or story, the NSO has been passes.”
I too was at that neighborhood meeting and it was that mr. C who got up in the face of that mother holding her baby and he brought that lady to tears. You’re all trying to make that mcoplin to be the bad guy so you can turn the attention away from the fact that you screwed many people out of the rights we all had before you got your worthless hands into them. Let’s preserve 50’s tract homes……….you people are brilliant…..just brilliant. Time will show how ignorant you are.
I talked to the husband of the women who Mr. C. brought to tears. He was there, saw it and is pretty infuriated. I think this speaks to the heart of the pro NSOers attitudes – victory at all costs and forget civility and fairness. Their attitude is if you don’t like it, move out! Good neighbors to have! Hah! So much for the wonderful neighborly qualities that attracted most of us to University Terrace!
I’ve worked on a conservation district, a historic district and an NSO as a resident of each. The NSO has worked out very well and yes, they are difficult to explain and comprehend. But all of the above have been good for the neighborhoods involved.
I think it’s a bit of an unfair stereotype to say “McMansion people” but I found it generally be true that they are less involved and tend to be more transient. Also many times they do not participate in the neighborhood and send their children to private schools with little or no investigation of the local public schools.
I believe UT is fortunate to be in the Blue Ribbon Lakewood Elementary / WW cluster, soon to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Hold on, that is going to really boost your property values!
Syd,
Do you think building a second story on an existing structure makes it a MacMansion and building two stories in the backyard doesn’t? That’s all the NSO accomplished – forcing one to build back. A compromised was offered that would have decisively killed any glimmer of a three story and the pro group wouldn’t budge. So much for wanting to get along.
Of all the people that I know who opposed the NSO, most have kids, including me, are very involved and only one is planning on moving (with never any plans of adding a second story) so I think you point about anti NSO people not being involved is simply wrong. Don’t speculate about us please.
We simply wanted the option to add a second story to UT homes – a cheaper solution than building back and exactly the sort of option growing, involved families would want.
My kid went to Lakewood and so did many of my friend’s kids. It’s a great school, which has no bearing on the NSO.
We’ve HEARD that macoplin made ‘peace’ with his neighbor but meanwhile, someone from the macoplin side are still posted some rather negative comments about the same neighbor. I truly believe that there are 2 sides to every coin …
We KNOW that one of the NO NSOers yelled at a PRO NSOer (she is also the Head of UT Crime Watch Person for 12 years) a few days ago to “GET OFF MY PROPERTY” – poor lady, she was just passing a flyer for UT’s annual July 4th Neighborhood Parade this weekend.
Is this what we call ‘rather live in peace war’? The sign’s gone, NSO passed, but most of the NO-NSOer still refuses to wave or look or talk to us – BTW I still waved every day when I see people passing through including unless I am inside my house which I am most of the afternoon – at least ALL the neighborhood kids smiled & waved back.
I feel like I’m being crucified by a neighbor. Not one person in this neighborhood has come to talk to me about any of this. NOT ONE.
I haven’t cursed anyone out, or called their family names. I haven’t dropped my head when I’ve been waved to and I certainly don’t hold any grudges to people for their support or lack of support to an issue. I certainly don’t hate anyone for voting republican or democrat. Why would I hold a grudge for this. I am disappointed and feel that this was passed due to fear instead of fact, but my side lost and that’s it.
What I do not like is being called names, or saying I’ve been talking bad about people when I haven’t. I don’t like negative rumors being spread about me without having the respect to even tell me who you are.
I will not like that EVER and I expect an apology for these comments. You are breeding hate and that is not a very nice thing to do. I will pray for you and hope you find peace and forgiveness.
I hope you will smile & waved back – you’ve got a very pretty smile !!!
UT Resident Too,
If you are accusing this macoplin family of yelling at someone to get off their property and they are not the ones that did it than you really need to specify. What you wrote looks like they are the ones that did that, and it looks like you are just trying to crucify them as dijea stated. If that last entry of yours is an attempt at an apology for accusations that are not true, you failed.
And before, you accused mcoplin of egging people on, when in fact it was the pro NSO blog site that after city council approved it, felt it necessary to go on there and laugh at all NO NSOers with the words of Hee, hee, ho ho, hah hah. These words continued on for half a page. And that’s not egging people on and trying to get a response out of people?
Oh…and the teabag and female part head videos are hilarious………vagina head….classic!!! Just because someone has a certain sense of humor does not make them a bad person. Or are you gonna impose a “what’s funny” overlay on us along with your religious overlay?