In a past post........
....I have mentioned the lovely abandoned mental hospital that my balcony sits, literally, directly above.
Doing some digging on active and recent Land Use Reviews in my neighbourhood, I was rather surprised to find out that there were plans afoot to un-abandon said facility.
I'm not really overly concerned that they are going to re-open the psychatric facility. What pissed me off to absolutely no end was the fact that they didn't tell me (or any of my neighbours)!!
And, after having a go-around with Washington County over failure to notify EVERYBODY residing nearby the site, I'd had enough and fired off a letter to my state rep and state senator (and, for good measure, cc'd the Washington County Board of Commissioners and two reporters from The Oregonian) as follows below:
Dear Representative Bonamici and Senator Avakian,
I VERY SELDOM write elected officials, however, I cannot tolerate third-class citizen treatment any longer.
I am too poor to actually afford to purchase a house or residence to actually own. Thus, apparently, to elected representatives, I am invisible.
What I am referring to is a new, strictly for-profit psychiatric hospital being opened, literally, DIRECTLY BELOW THE BALCONY OF MY APARTMENT!
This is the former Cedar Hills Hospital on Southwest Eastridge Street in Cedar Hills. Please reference the following article in The Oregonian: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1202187303128990.xml&coll=7
Now, please understand that my official view on this hospital is NEUTRAL. True, I am very much afraid of a psychiatric hospital that contains a locked facility in a high-density neighbourhood with several small children, seniors and other vulnerable members of our population residing within 500 feet of this facility.
However, working in the Public Sector in Urban Planning, I cannot tell you how much it rankles me when I get screaming real estate agents going off in my face because of one of their neighbours wanting to partition their large parcel of land.
What bothers me is the NIMBY hypocrisy of these people in that, if this partition were in A DIFFERENT NEIGHBOURHOOD, they would be the first on the scene, asking the prospective partitioner if they need assistance in selling off the new smaller parcels of land!
I vowed I would never be that hypocritical NIMBY....and, despite my concerns, I'm not going to be.
Simply, the following is what should cause serious concern and what I am proposing that you, as legislators representing my district, do about it.
I had found out about this after the fact, and this is simply because, being in Public Sector Urban Planning, I KNEW WHERE to look.
My neighbours who are affluent enough to actually OWN their residences were notified about this by a mailing from the Washington County Land Use and Transportation Department, regarding a Type II Land Use Review for a Conditional Use Permit for this facility, as required by statute.
My fellow renters, who aren't in the field of Urban Planning, and, thus, do not know where to locate such notices?
They were NEVER NOTIFIED OF THIS LAND USE REVIEW by Washington County, thus, they were effectively silenced. Obviously, the persons owning the rental complexes surrounding the facility were NOT going to notify the tenants (bad for business if you have all of these tenants taking off out of their leases over concerns about their children's safety).
But they did eventually find out about the facility.
How?
The Scientologists told them.
That's correct. A mass mailing to ALL ADDRESSES, addressed to "Resident" (NOT tax-roll land-owners of record) from the Scientologists told my renting neighbours about this situation.
Cute, eh?
So what do I propose?
I propose, Representative Bonamici and Senator Avakian, that a House and/or Senate Bill be drafted by your staffs, and presented to committee by yourselves.
I request that this Bill require that, statewide, municipalities notify residents and shopkeepers of ALL KNOWN ADDRESSES (NOT just land-owners of tax lots) of Land Use Reviews occurring on a tax lot within 300 feet for a Type II Land Use Review and 500 feet of a Type III Land Use Review.
When the Developer Lobby and the Municipalities complain about the expense, how come private marketers (e.g. - ValuPak coupons) can do it EASILY at such a low cost? And you can't tell me that the local branch of the Church of Scientology has anything even resembling the coffers of local municipalities.
Simple answer?
Attach the mailing costs to the fee for the Land Use Review permit application. Thus, no additional expense to the taxpayers.
"BUT TAXPAYERS???" the developers will say. "These are RENTERS! They don't pay property taxes!"
Rubbish!! We pay them through our monthly rents for our housing. Yet we have no vested stake in the land or property!
I'm counting on you two, as being elected to represent the residents of this district, to stand up to the Developer Lobby and make this become a reality........
........it's so much easier than a citizen-initiated ballot measure!
Many thanks for your time,
-E-
So.....we'll see where THAT goes.......
More later.....
-E-
(Sure that I've now just fucked up any hope of a career of urban planning in the Private Sector.....but sometimes you hafta stomp on a few grapes to make wine..........or something like that........)
....I have mentioned the lovely abandoned mental hospital that my balcony sits, literally, directly above.
Doing some digging on active and recent Land Use Reviews in my neighbourhood, I was rather surprised to find out that there were plans afoot to un-abandon said facility.
I'm not really overly concerned that they are going to re-open the psychatric facility. What pissed me off to absolutely no end was the fact that they didn't tell me (or any of my neighbours)!!
And, after having a go-around with Washington County over failure to notify EVERYBODY residing nearby the site, I'd had enough and fired off a letter to my state rep and state senator (and, for good measure, cc'd the Washington County Board of Commissioners and two reporters from The Oregonian) as follows below:
Dear Representative Bonamici and Senator Avakian,
I VERY SELDOM write elected officials, however, I cannot tolerate third-class citizen treatment any longer.
I am too poor to actually afford to purchase a house or residence to actually own. Thus, apparently, to elected representatives, I am invisible.
What I am referring to is a new, strictly for-profit psychiatric hospital being opened, literally, DIRECTLY BELOW THE BALCONY OF MY APARTMENT!
This is the former Cedar Hills Hospital on Southwest Eastridge Street in Cedar Hills. Please reference the following article in The Oregonian: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1202187303128990.xml&coll=7
Now, please understand that my official view on this hospital is NEUTRAL. True, I am very much afraid of a psychiatric hospital that contains a locked facility in a high-density neighbourhood with several small children, seniors and other vulnerable members of our population residing within 500 feet of this facility.
However, working in the Public Sector in Urban Planning, I cannot tell you how much it rankles me when I get screaming real estate agents going off in my face because of one of their neighbours wanting to partition their large parcel of land.
What bothers me is the NIMBY hypocrisy of these people in that, if this partition were in A DIFFERENT NEIGHBOURHOOD, they would be the first on the scene, asking the prospective partitioner if they need assistance in selling off the new smaller parcels of land!
I vowed I would never be that hypocritical NIMBY....and, despite my concerns, I'm not going to be.
Simply, the following is what should cause serious concern and what I am proposing that you, as legislators representing my district, do about it.
I had found out about this after the fact, and this is simply because, being in Public Sector Urban Planning, I KNEW WHERE to look.
My neighbours who are affluent enough to actually OWN their residences were notified about this by a mailing from the Washington County Land Use and Transportation Department, regarding a Type II Land Use Review for a Conditional Use Permit for this facility, as required by statute.
My fellow renters, who aren't in the field of Urban Planning, and, thus, do not know where to locate such notices?
They were NEVER NOTIFIED OF THIS LAND USE REVIEW by Washington County, thus, they were effectively silenced. Obviously, the persons owning the rental complexes surrounding the facility were NOT going to notify the tenants (bad for business if you have all of these tenants taking off out of their leases over concerns about their children's safety).
But they did eventually find out about the facility.
How?
The Scientologists told them.
That's correct. A mass mailing to ALL ADDRESSES, addressed to "Resident" (NOT tax-roll land-owners of record) from the Scientologists told my renting neighbours about this situation.
Cute, eh?
So what do I propose?
I propose, Representative Bonamici and Senator Avakian, that a House and/or Senate Bill be drafted by your staffs, and presented to committee by yourselves.
I request that this Bill require that, statewide, municipalities notify residents and shopkeepers of ALL KNOWN ADDRESSES (NOT just land-owners of tax lots) of Land Use Reviews occurring on a tax lot within 300 feet for a Type II Land Use Review and 500 feet of a Type III Land Use Review.
When the Developer Lobby and the Municipalities complain about the expense, how come private marketers (e.g. - ValuPak coupons) can do it EASILY at such a low cost? And you can't tell me that the local branch of the Church of Scientology has anything even resembling the coffers of local municipalities.
Simple answer?
Attach the mailing costs to the fee for the Land Use Review permit application. Thus, no additional expense to the taxpayers.
"BUT TAXPAYERS???" the developers will say. "These are RENTERS! They don't pay property taxes!"
Rubbish!! We pay them through our monthly rents for our housing. Yet we have no vested stake in the land or property!
I'm counting on you two, as being elected to represent the residents of this district, to stand up to the Developer Lobby and make this become a reality........
........it's so much easier than a citizen-initiated ballot measure!
Many thanks for your time,
-E-
So.....we'll see where THAT goes.......
More later.....
-E-
(Sure that I've now just fucked up any hope of a career of urban planning in the Private Sector.....but sometimes you hafta stomp on a few grapes to make wine..........or something like that........)
posted by CN250 at 11:23 PM
2 Comments:
If it walks like a NIMBY and talks like a NIMBY ... it's a NIMBY. :-)
howzzat again??? Say what??
-E-
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