Letters policy: Send by e-mail to letters@gainesvilletimes.com (no attached files, please, which can contain viruses); fax to 770-532-0457; mail to The Times, P.O. Box 838, Gainesville, GA 30503; or click HERE for a form. Include full name, hometown and phone number for confirmation. They should be limited to one topic on issues of public interest and may be edited for content and length (limit of 500 words). Letters originating from other sources, those involving personal, business or legal disputes, poetry, expressions of faith or memorial tributes may be rejected. You may be limited to one letter per month, two on a single topic. Submitted items may be published in print, electronic or other forms. Letters, columns and cartoons express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times editorial board.
I appeared before the city council Tuesday night in protest of the proposal to, once again, lower the building standards for the Mundy Mill Development. Since that meeting, I've received calls from people in other areas of the city that have gone through the same situations, and are now suffering with the deterioration of their homes.
I found out at that meeting that once a local real estate person speaks, the council jumps. Changing the original standard of 1,250-square-foot condo units to 600-square-foot apartment units will affect our property values in Maple Forge in a continuing downward spiral over the coming years.
The council seems to think the infusion of more tax dollars in the short period is better than the long term affects of their decision. Our own councilman voted against us and spoke about the jobs this would add.
Do you realize how shortsighted that is when you affect the lives and property values of 140 families that have been paying a lot of tax dollars over the past 23 years of our existence?
I thought the debacle the Hall County commission is going through with Nopone Road Park was just another promise made and forgotten. But we have the same situation with the promises the city council made originally with us regarding the grandiose building standards, and now they conveniently ignore them.
The final vote next week to lower the building standards for this development will certainly be a travesty and another decision I know the city of Gainesville, as well as us homeowners, will pay the price for in the not to distant future.
Dean Warnock
Gainesville