In this episode, we talk about the recent public hearings held by the City of Aurora, Aurora, and Aurora, PA regarding the proposed zoning change that would blanket rezone an entire area of the city. We talk about what citizens want and what citizens don't want, and how government needs to get the ball rolling.
00:00:00.000You know, they have a process in place already that, you know, the LAP process where they can at least take a look at it area by area and designate zoning around higher traffic or, you know, public transit corridors where I think people would be perfectly fine with having that kind of density around them.
00:00:21.860But, you know, for some reason, we need to blanket rezone an entire city. And I think that just creates nothing but a mess, as we're seeing by the number of days it's taking for people to get through their panels.
00:00:35.480Well, yeah, we've never quite seen anything like this. I mean, there's always been means and accommodation for people to come into public hearings. Our own sin, I guess, as citizens, we rarely go out to anything at City Hall. We don't pay much attention to them.
00:00:47.260But something happened this time. I mean, 800 and some people signed up to speak out. I don't think it's all just selfish homeowners, is it?
00:00:57.080No, it isn't selfish homeowners. Yeah, I think, again, most people will purchase their home and they look at it as their nest egg at the end of their career, at the end of their life.
00:01:09.320And if they can't maintain that, I think that's where a lot of the largest concern comes in. But you also have concerns with, you know, with parking availability, traffic in the community, and of course, you know, short-term rentals is another bit of the topic as well.
00:01:27.580You know, so I think people just want to protect the privacy that they have, but they want to protect the fabric of their neighborhood as much as they can as well.
00:01:34.080So, you're in business and, of course, the housing business. We need more homes. That's something almost everybody agrees on. We need more.
00:01:44.020How best, I mean, just even in your own business interest, do you want to build them as fast and as plentifully, you know, and in a decent quality as possible?
00:01:52.360But what do you need to be able to do that then as quickly and reasonably as possible? Like, what's a real solution? Even, I know there's no overnight one, but how can we move towards that?
00:02:02.520Well, and that's the unfortunate part, Corey. This is not a short-term fix. This has been building up for a number of years, but, you know, if I had to start at the top level with the federal government, get the hell out of the business.
00:02:15.500You know, I mean, they've created a tremendous amount of red tape over the years, but, you know, between all levels of government, you know, and it depends on what municipality you live in.
00:02:26.460I mean, roughly 30% of the cost of a new home is related to the red tape, to the government fees.
00:02:35.680So, I mean, they've got to start abating that and bringing it back in line rather than constantly going to the well.