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Why the city fails to develop

Printed From: MiddletownUSA.com
Category: Middletown City Government
Forum Name: City Council
Forum Description: Discuss individual members and council as a legislative body.
URL: http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7005
Printed Date: Oct 15 2024 at 9:17pm


Topic: Why the city fails to develop
Posted By: whistlersmom
Subject: Why the city fails to develop
Date Posted: Sep 21 2022 at 1:18pm

Re: Redevelopment of the defunct Towne Mall

In my opinion all of our businesses past and present, whether established or new are hobbled by over regulation. What regulations? Minimalized signage is a big one! Businesses lining our interstate are virtually invisible to the traffic we want to attract. Can anyone justify the 274 pages of sign, landscape and building regulation down to the inch in the Middletown Development Code?

Council needs to be realistic if they want to attract business. And in the past zoning has often been gerrymandered in order to require zoning change fees for new business to locate even in a business district. What a turn off!!

Our codes need to be streamlined and reasonable.

If Middletown will encourage instead of discourage development then the city will not need to subsidize said developments and will instead reap the tax benefits of having a viable prosperous community. The past failures have involved the city in buying and selling at a loss and eventual demolition of abandoned pie in the sky projects. 

 The city was duped and raped, and learned nothing in the process. How did that happen? The contracts between the city and those who presented themselves as developers had no protection for the city against developer default!! 

 Ah hmm!

Wake up!! Please, please can we stop doing the wrong things?

Maybe, maybe the East End can be a saving grace instead of another failure. Prosperity of all businesses in Middletown will ease the burden of taxes on our resident population, but that is only if our money is properly spent in the designated places instead of frittered away on shysters looking for an easy mark.



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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing" Edmond Burke



Replies:
Posted By: buddhalite
Date Posted: Oct 01 2022 at 12:29pm
Can't say that I disagree. I was downtown last Saturday at 3pm - ghost town. Putting all our hopes and dreams into downtown has gotten us nowhere. The East end has the POTENTIAL- but the city has to risk $16M on a TIF (and those are only nationwide about a 35% success rate) to purchase the property and wasted 500K on an 'emergency' legislative vote to make that happen.

Transparency and common sense are the real issues. There's neither of the two on City Council. At least it doesn't appear that both traits are prevalent in any of the 5 currently seated at the semi-circle.


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"Every government intervention [in the marketplace] creates unintended consequences, which lead to calls for further government interventions." -Ludwig van Mises



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