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Our neighborhood association is in the early stages of what will doubtless become a battle royale over a development proposal by a bunch of shady, out-of-town real estate creeps. Here's the skinny: we live in a nice/historic residential neighborhood (the Third Ward) in a college town (about 12,000 students). Our property taxes are shockingly high, and building/development codes are strict: it's illegal, for instance, to build an apartment over a detached garage, because the zoning board wants to limit population density for a variety of reasons. The Third Ward is a twenty-or-so-block enclave which is walking-distance to the main university campus. It's mixed residential—some student housing closer to the U, but mostly single family and a few older duplexes. We're an economic mix, too—lots of university types (professors and staff), but lots of working-class people, too. Our next-door neighbor runs a janitorial service, for instance. Enter shady developers: they've bought up three contiguous properties on a busy street bordering the Third Ward, very near the U. Two of these properties are large, historic (late 19th century) homes in good condition; the third is in poor condition but of the same era. These properties are in a mixed residential area, surrounded by mostly single family homes, but with a big, old houses converted to apartments nearby. What the shady developers are proposing: replacing two of the three homes with a 3-story supervised apartment building with some retail included. It would be 53 units, with a potential 153 residents, and 67 underground parking stalls. The third home would be converted to an entry/office structure, apparently. Obviously, it's a disaster for the neighborhood on its face: the 86-stall parking shortfall alone is a nightmare in the making, not to mention the additional traffic, noise, strain on the infrastructure, disastrous effect on the property values of neighboring homes, months of construction noise/chaos and general disruption of the neighborhood dynamic. At a neighborhood meeting last night, residents voted unanimously against the new development. The developers (present at the time) plan to seek the necessary zoning variances anyway. So my question is, what do we do next? Contact the zoning board? Go to city council or the town manager? Circulate petitions? All of the above?
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