How to Resist a Overlay in your Neighborhood
Of all the feedback I get from Infill Arguments, the most common question I get is, "How do I stop the establishment of a Residential Infill Overlay District (RIOD) in my neighborhood?"
If I've been wrong about anything, it's been about how many more RIODs would be established, and how quickly it would happen. Having failed in their efforts to enact a county-wide ordinance in 2005, it's become clear that the advocates of stopping Infill re-development and their acolytes in county government are taking a "divide and conquer" approach, attacking one neighborhood at a time. Their main tactic appears to be to define a "neighborhood" and then quietly obtaining the signatures of 20% of owners required for the planning department to proceed in formally preparing to establish a RIOD. Then as quickly as possible, they obtain the last 35% of signatures needed to go to the BOC before any effective opposition can be organized. From most of the people I've heard from, the applications have passed through the planning department and are on the way to the BOC for approval before they even knew an Overlay was proposed.
Although there are supposed to be signs posted and notices mailed to all property owners for any neighborhood being considered for a RIOD , it has been alleged that this does not necessarily happen.
The newest tactic is the use of gerrymandering to safely get the 55% required. Since the county treats the definition of what constitutes a "neighborhood' with such fluidity, advocates have been able to eliminate individual streets where opposition to an Overlay is extreme, thus diluting the "no" vote for the larger neighborhood. (For example, if a neighborhood consists of 100 homes and they have only 40 signatures, but there are a few streets with 30 homes where nobody will sign, they will "remove" the resisting streets from the "neighborhood" and perhaps add some other streets, turning a 40% loss to a 57% victory) The BOC has been very accommodating of this approach, allowing petitions to be withdrawn without prejudice, and then resubmitted with the reconstituted "neighborhoods".
Based upon the experiences of those who have been or currently are resisting RIODs, these are my suggestions for how to deal with the process should you find it happening in your neighborhood:
When you find out that a petition has been making the rounds of your neighborhood, or find flyers in your mailbox advocating one, do not hesitate to act. You do not have very much time. In many neighborhoods, the petitions have found their way to the BOC long before many owners were even aware of them.
Educate your Neighbors
Make sure that your neighbors get both sides of the argument. In all likelihood, what most of your neighbors have heard up to this point are horror stories and emotional arguments about evil developers, "McMansions" and destroyed property values. Make sure that they realize that what they are signing is basically restricting what can be developed on their property in the future, and that it will have long-term effects on their property values. If pro-RIOD flyers have been distributed in your neighborhood, write your own flyer and counter their arguments point-by-point, and correct any mistruths. Make sure that every neighbor gets a copy.
Call a Neighborhood Meeting
If you have a neighborhood association, have it organize a formal meeting where both sides can be expressed. If you do not have an association, consider organizing a meeting yourself. Be prepared for the following:
At any meeting, absolutely require that anyone wishing to address the forum state their address and if they are a homeowner. At many meetings, people from outside the neighborhood actively advocating RIODs have attended meetings acting as though they were owners in the neighborhood when they were not. Often renters will speak in favor of RIODs, but remember that in the end, they cannot vote and their interests in your neighborhood are not the same as yours. (Renters generally dislike Infill because rental properties are the most likely to be redeveloped as Infill. Also, they don't have the vested economic interest in your neighborhood that you do; should a neighborhood go downhill, they can just leave)
Question the credentials of any "expert" that comes to speak on behalf of the RIOD. There have been examples of people claiming to be builders supposedly there to offer "unbiased" opinions, who have made very questionable statements regarding the effects of Infill. (Why any "builder" would come to say that Infill wrecks home values is totally beyond me. It's not like they've got such a great reputation to begin with)
At many meetings, RIOD advocates have been quite aggressive, hysterical, dishonest, and often just plain rude. Let them be. This works to your advantage. Remember that you are attempting to influence the uncertain and undecided. Anybody on the fence will likely see through and be repulsed by this type of behavior, and will be far more impressed by those presenting calm, well reasoned and logical arguments.
Be prepared with answers to the points that the RIOD advocates are certain to make. The main arguments will have to do with property values. (All the arguments against RIODs that I can think of you've probably already read at Infill Arguments) Make sure that owners know that at this point in time, entering into a RIOD is a one-way trip. RIOD advocates associated with the county have been telling people that a neighborhood can easily exit an overlay after 2 years. Do feel free to politely embarrass them by asking them to site the section of the ordinance that states this. Have a copy of the ordinance on-hand. They will not be able to as there is no language in the RIOD ordinance defining a process for revoking an overlay, and doing so would probably involve an expensive lawsuit against the county. Publicly catching the RIOD advocates in lies like this will go a long way to convince both the undecided and even some pro-RIOD people that the advocates are not being honest, and perhaps entering into a RIOD might not be a good idea.
It is still my belief that once the majority of homeowners understand the facts about a RIOD, they will not likely support it. Your mission will be to make sure that they know these facts before the advocates achieve that critical 35% in your neighborhood.
Don't Limit Yourself to just your Street
If you are effective in convincing just the neighbors on your street, but not the streets around you, what you may end up with is having your street "removed" from the "neighborhood". You may end up saving your street from the Overlay, but not your neighborhood, which in the long run will likely affect you.
Document Everything
Even if you do everything right, you still might not be out of the woods. The reality is that the BOC is being very supportive of those wishing to establish RIODs, sometimes even when the minimum requirements for establishing one have not been met. The BOC has demonstrated its willingness to "use their own discretion" to establish RIODs even when the majority of owners in a neighborhood are either against them or are ambivalent.
There have been instances of owners changing their mind regarding RIODs after they've already signed the petition. Not surprisingly, the process does not allow for people to remove their signatures after they've discovered what the real implications of a RIOD are. What some neighborhoods have done is to have people who've changed their minds sign affidavits to that effect before the final presentation to the BOC. It's still unclear as to if this is actually effective, but would be helpful should legal action later occur.
In any exchange with anyone from the county, document everything. Keep copies of flyers, e-mail, and letters. Keep a log of phone calls. It will be useful should there be legal action down the road. Remember that any short-cut taken in the establishment of a RIOD can be used as the basis of invalidating it later, should things get that far.
Good luck!
Updated: 02/13/2009
If I've missed anything, comments are welcome at Feedback@JohnMcGrew.net.